Amazing Article from Men of Porn...

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Of Testing and Bareback Porn (probably too long you won't read but you should)

written by Alias74

Recently the internet sparked with the gay porn bareback debut of previously "condom-only" performer Trenton Ducati for self described "international porn powerhouse" Lucas Entertainment. This past Friday marked part two of his flip flop bareback scene with porn god Blue Bailey. And then hirsute sex pot Charlie Harding not only recently posted a first time "bottoming" clip on Men.com but also shot a bareback clip with power bottom bareback extraordinaire-bear Mike Dozer over at Jake Cruise Media. Harding, in addition to tweeting his heart-on about the shoot, issued a statement in the form of a post on his personal blog.

Based on the direction that the gay porn industry is going, it really came as no surprise that Ducati and Harding have joined the ranks of previously mainstream gay porn studio performers who have jumped the velvet rope from condom-only to bareback. And frankly, an astonishing number of recent performers have done so: many to polarizing reception by fans and bloggers - Villification on one hand, praise and support on the other. Ostensibly neither event is HUGE news. The leap to bareback for both seems to be a career trajectory rather common amongst MOST if not ALL of the popular gay porn stars of the last decade or so: that of, doing a number of scenes at condom-only porn studios, even taking to the soapbox to strongly advocate condom use and vociferously objecting to bareback on both moral and health implications, and then BAM….bareback time!

It is precisely that direct "about face" - in the context of all those nagging rumors and stereotypes (with a hint of truth...maybe?) about our beloved gay porn stars in general - that is currently making Harding, Ducati and by extension Lucas Entertainment the target of shared criticism. In the wake of the press release and his first bareback scene with performer Blue Bailey (an out HIV positive porn performer), fans, bloggers and commenters have speculated about Ducati's status, labelled him an "immoral hypocrite", and announced that he has a death wish. Harding's announcement is too recent to tell reaction but judging from his Twitter page it's a supported choice, but if you check out some of the Facebook and blog comments, it's more of the same vitriol-slinging.

One day testing at SC according to Ajay (@ Queerlick)

Those opposed to bareback also claim that viewers who watch it and popular stars like Ducati and Harding engaging in such practices will emulate him in bareback sex, further boldly stating that the future infections of said viewers will be on their heads. There's also a bizarre contingent of folks claiming that Ducati is LYING to his fans by saying the testing and shooting of this scene was "safe", primarily because of the incongruity of Ducati and Lucas Entertainment's assertion of a "safe shooting environment" and the fact that Ducati’s scene partner Blue Bailey is openly HIV+.  

Lucas Entertainment, founded and run by porn superstar Michael Lucas, has taken the brunt of the "hypocrisy" criticism of late. Once a vocal proponent of condom use in porn, Lucas and his company did a similar "about face" recently adding bareback sex scenes allegedly between "real life" lovers. Lucas also took to the internet in a now famous op-ed opinion where he came out as HIV negative and in support of the use of the HIV treatment medication Truvada in the controversial Pre-exposure Prophylaxis regimen (essentially the regular use of retroviral HIV medication by those with a current negative status to prevent future infection of HIV). All of which just made the pitch forkers and torchbearers go nuts - they all but roasted Lucas as opportunistic and advocating the slack millenial attitude of pill popping one’s way to ignorant bliss and dangerous indifference. I'm just WAITING for the article by Zach Sire that calls him  and Lucas Entertainment "murderers, slinging toxic body fluids".

In his statement, Ducati says "until now I had not found an environment that I felt was dedicated enough to safety and testing." Curious because this hot cat has worked for the BIGGEST studios in the past - Titan, Dominic Ford, MenAtPlay, High Performance Men, Falcon, Raging Stallion, Suite 703, Men.com. And again with the rumors - I personally spoke with a performer some time ago who wished to remain anonymous and indicated that mandatory testing in the gay porn industry would effectively end the careers of many porn stars who are HIV positive. Other performers I spoke to as well wished to remain anonymous and claimed that the studios they worked for NEVER tested them and merely just gave out condoms and turned the camera on.

Harding's well written blog post essentially boils down to the following: Ducati’s decision to do bareback is a personal, calculated risk analysis assessment. The assumptions critics make about the HIV status of performers who engage in bareback production is frankly a private matter between scene partners and whom the performers have sex with off camera. To borrow a phrase from "Facebook": "Not for public consumption." Harding follows these points by saying a) if you hate bareback, don't watch it because b) I'm going to do it and will continue to do it based on my choice which has nothing to do with the critic’s assumptions. He also makes the point of being HIV negative having been tested seven days prior to his writing of the blog post (AND after the filming of his bareback scene with Mike Dozer) claiming it is for a shoot coming up one week after publishing of his statement.

As Beetlejuice would say: "So what do we have here, kids????"

Here are the facts:

1) Lucas Entertainment is continuing to produce bareback content, moving away from the “real life lovers” theme it previously presented.

2) Ducati is suitably impressed with Lucas’s testing procedure enough to sign a three month bareback contract.

3) Ducati’s first bareback scene partner is Blue Bailey who in a previous interview with Treasure Island Media dated October 1 of this year came out as HIV positive.

4) The production date of his first bareback scene is unknown.

5) Harding advocates choice to perform in bareback porn based on personal risk assessment through testing.

6) Harding has shot a bareback scene.

7) As of his blog post, Harding is HIV Negative

8) Harding as per an article is in a relationship with an HIV+ partner.

Here's what we DO NOT know:

1) While Ducati makes reference to status sharing (one of the first performers to even MENTION that phrase EVER in an official press release, a procedure long rumored to be in practice in the industry), it is not clear whether or not the performers and Lucas Entertainment ACTUALLY engaged in any HIPPA compliant status sharing between Ducati and Bailey .

2) Because we have no idea what Lucas Entertainment's' testing procedure is, Ducati's press statement about Lucas Entertainment being "dedicated to enough to safety and testing" really is just press fluff at this point, and shouldn't imply that shooting for Lucas Entertainment is the safest bareback gig in town for performers.

3) What the term "informed bareback" really means, which seems to be a melding of "informed consent" and "pre-tested bareback". Without knowing just how the studio is educating performers in risk assessment and management associated with barebacking in porn, the phrase is effectively meaningless "pap".

We have NO IDEA what Lucas' testing procedure is nor has any studio out there ever deigned to disclose what EXACTLY they do to ensure the safety of the performers and educate them about the risks and making an informed decision about performing in bareback scenes. Yes...there are disclaimers on studio websites that talk about the tests utilized, how accurate they are, and how these studios claim to not endorse bareback sex but want you to subscribe to watch it. And while these tests, pricey and sometimes DNA/RNA based, can detect exposure/infection within a shorter window of time, they are essentially POINTLESS without a quarantine on performers' sexual activity between testing date and the actual shoot. (incidentally I know of only ONE studio that copped to instituting quarantine procedures. Hint: It sounds like a name and doesn’t feature the letter "Y" and does not have the name of a fish embedded in its name). Harding's blog post is demonstrative of why "pre-scene quarantine" is essential. In Harding’s statement, he claims an HIV Negative result from a seven day old test for a shoot coming up in a week. I hate math but I think my feeble mind has calculated that the shoot will be FOURTEEN days AFTER Harding's test which is effectively fourteen days within which Harding could engage in sexual practices which could expose him to STI’s including HIV before even a single camera starts recording his scheduled scene. And that goes for his scene partner as well.

Ducati's statement in the Lucas press release at least gives me hope of a nascent dialogue within the gay porn industry to finally bring to the forefront things that seems to be missing (if all those rumors and tweets are to be believed) -  responsibility, informed consent, and status disclosure. Fronting the term "informed bareback", Ducati states that Lucas Entertainment's testing procedure is about "explicit, open communication and status sharing among the models...creating a space for performers that ensures them full information and consent".

Admittedly the Lucas press release over this scene smacks a bit of the kind of staged theatricality and chest puffing that comes with anything Michael Lucas is involved in, and as polite and well stated as Harding's comment is, based on the fact that some studios still refuse to book performers who do bareback, it's ultimately a self-serving statement.

Which brings us back to RESPONSIBILITY. And this is why I think Ducati and Harding going bareback and their statements might be a good thing for the gay porn industry: If the performers themselves are not being publicly candid about their status and sexual behavior off camera (and let’s face it, they don't HAVE to be nor are they obligated to publicly declare any personal information no matter how much us fans bitch and moan), and if the studios are not being forthcoming with exactly what testing procedures they follow or how they pair scene partners or even if they test at all, the statements of Ducati (who has flat out refused to disclose his HIV status) and Harding are certainly beneficial for the dialogue/discussion at large about performer safety and testing versus condom use.

Especially in light of the recent HIV outbreak that occurred in the statistically safe mandatory testing and recorded database confines of the straight porn industry. HIV positive performers appear to have contracted the virus from off camera behavior and NOT on-set. And at least for the straight porn industry, a dialogue began - performers, directors, studios came out in force to discuss testing and to take a stand on proposed government mandated condom use. Performers advocated bareback on free speech concerns and criticized the mandatory condom use as a political move to shut down the porn industry in the state of California. But there was NO such discussion on the gay porn side. Sure...there were blog posts and tweets but to the untrained eye, it was business as usual on the gay porn side of the industry, even as more and more bareback content was being shot and streamed and even as one of its superstars, Rod Daily, came out as HIV+ as a result of the straight porn outbreak.

No matter how many people jump on a soapbox or scream "murder", gay bareback shows ZERO signs of stopping. If anything, it's just gotten bigger and more popular. Open dialogues about these issues can foster more responsibility and informed consent in the industry. Not saying that gay porn HAS to convert to a testing and recorded database like the straight porn industry or HAS to have mandatory testing or HAS to suddenly be condom-only. But in order to ensure the "minimization of risk" to performers with regards to bareback, it MUST be a two way street - Studios need to have at a minimum education about STI's and HIV and proper hygiene, safety and production quality in place to ensure the safety of the performers, in addition to testing procedures if the studio wishes this as part of its production shoot. And that testing likely needs a smaller time frame of testing performers regularly and pre-scene quarantining procedures. But the performers themselves also need to be responsible - minimizing unsafe sexual behavior off-set, testing regularly themselves, and taking active steps to educate themselves and be informed of the risks so that they can make an informed decision about shooting porn, condomed or bareback. Performers should NOT leave their safety to the word of their agent or manager or director or studio heads who sadly are just out for their profit. I doubt anyone - performers, bloggers, studio heads, directors - can say definitely what the answer is to ensure the safety of the performers who risk their lives in the creation of a hugely profit-generating fantasy for our consumption that no doubt fills the wallets of studios, big and small.

But at a minimum, and based on Ducati and Harding's statements, maybe a dialogue is starting. And that my friends is a good thing.