This happened last week, and as per usual I am slow as hell blogging about it. Truth be told, I was actually all fired up to tackle this and then got in a heated debate with a friend via Twitter (a horrible idea, but also kind of fun? 140 characters makes everything reductionist in an interesting way) and lost my fire. But it doesn’t change the relevancy of the topic!
Will Clark World was the first to report on the announcement from International Mr. Leather’s president Chuck Renslow. Renslow’s letter is re-posted below:
Dear Vendors:
On behalf of International Mr. Leather, Inc., I would like to thank you for
your past support and in particular for your participation as a vendor in
our annual Leather Market. We are writing you today to inform you of
a policy change affecting next year (2010) and all future markets.
Though we are now three decades into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, no cure has been
found. The CDC and local health officials inform us that new infections are on
the rise. And, while we have had some success developing medications that
might make infection more manageable, that accomplishment comes at a price.
Not having experienced the deaths – the loss of loved ones — which preceded
these medications, we have an entire generation who may not fully appreciate or comprehend the severity of the situation.
Too many in our community believe HIV/AIDS is curable or manageable. Too
few understand that HIV/AIDS infections dominate life. We believe that it
is our duty to inform and educate. Several years ago when “Meth” was the scourge of our community, IML drew a line in the sand and raised awareness and used all our influence to try and stop this addictive madness. As is the case with HIV/AIDS, we believe it is our further obligation to do everything in our power to prevent future infections.
To that end, after considerable discussion, the Executive Committee of International Mr. Leather has decided that it will no longer allow participation in the IML Leather Market by any entity which promotes barebacking or distributes/sells any merchandise tending to
promote or advocate barebacking. This restriction will also apply to distribution of gifts, post cards or any other information via our facilities.
This policy takes effect immediately.
Sincerely,
Chuck Renslow, President
International Mr. Leather
I personally think this is a great, bold move on their part. Some might liken it to censorship, and one commenter on Will Clark’s blog even compared it to Christians banning books. I have a hard time with this argument. I find bareback porn in direct conflict with health education, even if it does present what can and should be recognized as a fantasy scenario.
We live in a culture that lacks any sort of healthy sexual education, especially for LGBT people. I remember my first sex ed class. We were told “there are some people who sleep with members of the same sex” and that was it. This was in the early nineties,when AIDS activism and awareness was at its peak at a liberal school. I can only imagine the way our health issues and identities are ignored in more conservative classrooms.
As sad as it is, the majority of my education about gay sex came from looking at pornography. At the time, all that was easily available was studio porn where all the men used condoms. Pre-condom porn also was around, but it all looked dated and I didn’t relate it with the sort of media I saw around me at the time. Shag haircuts, mustaches, and natural looking bodies just didn’t match up with the emerging body types, hair cuts, and fashions I saw on TV. It was more difficulty to use as fantasy fodder since it felt like a different world than the one I lived in.
In college when I became sexually active, it just seemed natural to use condoms since that’s all I had ever really seen practiced. The guy I was first with was also a virgin at the time, but we still used condoms. I even remember him asking if I had ever been tested (note: I had no reason at the time to get an HIV because I had never been sexually active). Condom use had been beaten into our brains through AIDS activists like Pedro, whose safer sex lectures and condom demonstrations on MTV and along with his presence on the Real World somehow somehow gave a face to the epidemic through mass media. On a more personal level, in eighth grade health class, we had an HIV positive man come and teach us how to put condoms on bananas and talk about his illness and prevention. Fear of disease as a consequence of homosexual desire was so ingrained in my adolescent brain that the idea of foregoing condoms, even in what was a safe situation when I was with a fellow virgin, didn’t feel like an option.
Fast forward to today. Barebacking porn is produced at 3 times the rate of porn that uses condoms. Instead of Pedro we now have Jack in Project Runway as the only HIV positive gay personality on TV, and he’s telling us how healthy he despite being HIV positive for 20 something years. Sexual education is in dire straights, as the CDC reports that lax educational initiatives seem to be possibly reversing the slow of HIV and other STDs that was in motion as I was growing up. While the information is all still available, the visibility and importance of practicing safer sex no longer has a place in popular media and most likely is not reaching kids in the classroom. It is definitely not reaching LGBT kids in the classroom, as our sex lives and health issues are generally not discussed in public classrooms.
So where are kids today getting their ideas about how to ‘do it’? I have a lot of difficulty believing that the increased visibility of bareback porn is having an effect on kids’ behavior. When interpreted as reality, these fantasy scenarios that fetishize unsafe sex have the potential to teach a lot of naive young men that AIDS and HIV is a thing of past instead of a reality we still need to deal with.
I don’t believe in censorship. I definitely don’t think this material should be banned. I just think certain ethical guidelines need to be put in place. It could really be something as simple as an FCC required health PSA before each scene. Many men can recognize that these are meant to depict fantasy and should be allowed to enjoy it. But those who might come from underserved communities regarding sex ed, LGBT health issues, and other situations where they might not know better — they need a reminder.
The truth is the health status of many of the models in bareback porn is questionable. I have difficulty watching bareback porn because it just reminds me of so many conversations I had while doing health outreach between 2002 and 2006. It’s impossible for me to put aside the reality. During that time I was an outreach worker for CHEST, an AIDS/HIV health and study center located in Chelsea. Bareback porn was just starting to become popular and debates around the office centered just how dangerous this was for the models. Even when it was two HIV positive models in the scene and seroconversion wasn’t an issue, many of them were running risks of creating new strains and drug resistant variations of the virus through re-infection. There needs to be an effort to make sure that the reality of these risks is known if people are going to consume this stuff as fantasy.
Until our education system is better, until people have better access to health, until a vaccine is developed, until, until, until… In my debates surrounding these issues it seems bareback supporters are afraid to attribute any current problems with safer sex practice in young gay communities with bareback porn. To what extent should porn consider it’s role in our community? Should porn even have an ethical responsibility? I know my feelings on the matter, but does that make me some sort of fascist who should really place the blame elsewhere?
Eric Leven wrote a really great response. Even though he’s up on his high horse and some of his arguments rely on a certain amount of belligerence, I can’t help but agree with his analogies. I think that just like the ban on trans fat and the new requirements for fast food institutions to post caloric intakes, bareback porn companies should be held responsible for giving their viewers the information they need to make the decisions they feel are best, whether that means they’re going to say “Fuck it!” and eat that Big Mac, or say “Fuck it!” and copy the models they see having unprotected sex. Fortunately you can work off a Big Mac at the gym. Bad sexual decisions aren’t as forgiving.
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