Regardless of their sexuality, male performers who enter the industry usually feel pressured to pick to work on either the straight side or LGBT (gay, bi, trans, etc.) side.
But what about guys who aren’t interested in just women or just men?
Because I’m able to express my sexuality by filming with both men and women, I truly believe there should be no reason why other guys can’t accomplish the same feat.
Naturally, they would like to perform in the straight and gay realms and find it kind of strange that they need to pick a side. What’s interesting is that women not only have the freedom to film/perform on both sides of the fence, but it’s also expected of them.
The ironic part is that when two girls are having sex, it’s technically still under the straight genre umbrella. But, the minute when one guy kisses another guy (no matter how many girls are around them), it becomes an entirely different category.
The question is, why are men held to a different standard?
Before I entered the adult industry, I considered myself to be straight. I had never even kissed another guy.
Then in 2013, I found myself locked into a four-year contract with a gay studio. Since then, my eyes have opened, and I see things much more clearly, so my perception of sexuality has changed quite a bit.
After my contract expired, I wanted to explore what the rest of the industry had to offer. It wasn’t until a year later that I performed in my first bisexual and trans scenes. I also tried to get booked for straight work and quickly realized the stigmas and homophobia geared at male performers.
Basically, guys who work in straight and have done gay in the past need to hide it. If they don’t, they could potentially face discrimination. Or if you’re someone in my position, you’re told not even to try, it won’t happen and “that’s how things are.” I was seriously dumbfounded by all this because it made zero sense to me. Since then, I’ve made it a goal to bridge the gap between the two sides and try to eliminate the stigma and discrimination sexually open males face.
When I use the term stigmas, I’m referring to outdated, exaggerated excuses for homophobia. From what I experienced, this came mainly from agents and directors, and less so from other performers.
There’s a lot of fear centered around contracting HIV, even though the gay and straight sides both have the same STD testing regulations. And from my experience, I saw the gay side was actually much safer — many of the gay studios either require a fresh test the day or a week before your scene. The straight side only requires a standard 14-day test.
A girl's agent will often contact the director asking for me to have a fresh test a few days before our scene. I always agree to it, but when I ask that the female performer does the same thing, I’m told it’s an unfair request. Also, while rare, sometimes a female talent cancels the day before our scene because she realizes I also perform with guys.
Because of all this, in the first two years after my contract ended, I would only get lucky occasionally with landing a straight scene here and there.
Ultimately, though, I’ve noticed that what helps me get further in the industry is being a reliable, professional and responsible performer. So after a year of hard work, I began to meet a lot of people; even if I’m not a fan of all the “politics” behind it, networking is a huge part of this industry.
Nonetheless, I did encounter a lot of rejection as expected, but I also received a lot of help from some progressive-minded directors like Ricky Greenwood and Kayden Kross. Despite the stress it might have caused them, they continued to hire me, and now am I getting booked regularly for straight scenes.
Without people like Lance Hart and Wolf Hudson laying the groundwork, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten this far. From what I’ve heard, between the heat and discrimination, this industry was very difficult for male performers who did gay, trans and/or bi scenes trying to expand and do more with their career.
Because I’m able to express my sexuality by filming with both men and women, I truly believe there should be no reason why other guys can’t accomplish the same feat. And if other guys joined me in this, I believe we could expedite eliminating stigmas and hate and make this industry a much safer place to express your sexual interests, which is what this is all really about.
The humorous part of this is the flipside. I’ll still catch some discrimination from the gay side of the industry — it’s not really the directors or performers, but the fans. Even though “Straight Guys Fucking Guys” might be the top-selling genre in gay porn, there are some viewers who truly despise the idea of guys who do gay porn doing anything with a girl on camera or in their personal lives.
I do understand porn is all about the fantasy, and this might ruin theirs; but some of these same viewers see guys like me as straight guys exploiting the gay community for money, which is not the case at all. It might be true that a lot of men claim to be straight and only do gay porn for the money — which I don’t think there’s anything wrong with as long as they’re being genuine and respectful. At the end of the day, this is a job, and your job is creating a fantasy. But aside from all that, what these fans don’t understand is that it’s more than gay versus straight, because there are people with varying degrees of bisexuality or pansexuality.
Personally, I don’t really identify with a label of sexuality, but if anything, I would consider myself as fluid. Being that it's a spectrum, I find it hard to find something that fits me. For example, I can say the word “bisexual” to two different people, and it’s likely each one will have their own definition or belief of what it means. To avoid any confusion, I just say I like what I like in the moment.
In my search to be able to flow between both worlds, I have come to realize one of the many reasons the two sides of the industry have remained separated is because both operate on their own in completely different ways. It’s funny to see how the two different worlds come up with the same product essentially. As for me, I will continue to bridge the gap and work in both.
