The birth of the modern gay porn phenomena began in 1971 with the release of the film “Boys in the Sand;” arriving on the scene a year before “Deep Throat:” the latter which instigated the so-called golden age of porn in the 1970s and 80s. In that breakthrough film, gay icon Casey Donovan, in the movie’s opening scene, is pictured running along the beach where he quickly meets a stranger, takes him into the woods, and has every form of gay sex; it’s all anonymous, pleasurable, and carefree. At the time, the gay rights movement was just getting started, and it was all about being open and unashamed about sexuality. Yet, throughout the country, anti-sodomy laws were still in effect and “Boys in the Sand” became not only a tableau of sexual positions, but a recording of a then-perceived revolutionary act. Afterwards, for most of the 70s, until the advent of AIDS, gay porn mirrored this desire for unrestricted outward public expression and eventual main-stream approval. As the disco years surged ahead, with the success of The Village People, the popularity of gay characters in such television programs as “Maude,” “Soap,” and “Three’s Company,” and the crossover endeavors of porn star Jack Wrangler, the full recognition of gay sex seemed inevitable.
With the emergence of AIDS in the early-80s, everything would change. Suddenly, gay sex was no longer chic, radical, or counter-cultural; it was just scary. For a while, a certain gross-out factor took over the collective unconscious as the realities of homosexual anal sex and the predominance of AIDS among gay men took over the public discourse; this was anticipated by the overwhelming revulsion surrounding certain scenes in the landmark 1980 film “Cruising.” Gay porn expressed this ambivalence and suddenly needed to remake the male homosexual image: hence, the prevalence of socially conscious condom-only porn, the rise of blonde and perky surfers as porn stars, and the banishment of leather daddies, and the replacement of chains and chaps with preppy collars and healthy tanned bodies. However, during that whole time, there was a longing for the past, men endlessly reminisced about the old deviant days before AIDS. But, they wouldn’t dare to publicaly admit that they were not a strident condom queen in their private lives. Yet, there was a booming trade in what became labeled pre-condom classic porn films: anything made before the initial early 80s AIDS epidemic. These fragments of an unencumbered past were like the last remaining glimpses of the Holy Grail: a blurred vision of what once was. Therefore, this false display of domesticity and squeaky cleanness did not last. As the 80s drew to a close, and almost everyone had access to a home video camera, a new generation of porn star began to emerge: epitomized by San Francisco based Scott O’Hara; middle-class bred, but psychologically damaged and brazenly reckless.
In the late-80s and early-90s, there was a great tension beginning to fully materialize in gay culture: a boredom and lack of enthusiasm surrounding the once powerful adherence to safe sex and the need to maintain a persona of monogamy and hyper-hygienic sex. This struggle was primarily seen in the gay porn at the time which started getting back to its 70s kinkiness; mainly with the renewed popularity of gangbang films and a decrease in veneration of the cute and innocent “twink” types. Echoing their continued longing to fully embrace an evasive masculinity that they sense themselves lacking, gay porn in the 90s was obsessed with huge bodybuilders, oftentimes “gay-for-pay:” heterosexual actors who do gay porn, epitomized by tall and unbelievably built Ken Ryker, who symbolized the eternal and exaggerated image of masculinity that gay men worshiped. As their co-stars, gay superstar Joey Stefano ascended as the ultimate “power-bottom:” a voraciously aggressive and highly sexualized passive boy/man that finally achieves the gay dream of joining with the fantastical and manly demi-gods. At the same time, in their personal lives, gay men complained that “no plastic barrier” should be between them and their goal. Henceforth, condoms became optional, and a second wave of AIDS deaths hit the community: embodied by the film “Plunge,” a movie in which almost every star eventually either died of AIDS or committed suicide. Ahead, something dark was on the horizon.
In the late 90s, both porn and gay culture were going through a radical reformation: the viral cocktails invented by the pharmaceutical companies, and available solely in the developed world, extended indefinitely the lives of active HIV+ men. Again, this new reality initially manifested in porn with the megalithic popularity of “Treasure Island Media” and its reintroduction of the bareback film: a movie not requiring the use of condoms in anal sex. At first, these movies recruited a stable of unknown and marginal characters from the poz sex parties of San Francisco. But, what these videos did were to fulfill the aspirations of the late-80s nostalgically obsessed gay men who longed for the good-old-days – for, the Treasure Island movies self-consciously harkened back to the unashamed anonymous gay sex films of the 70s. Despite the constant threat from AIDS, and now a whole new cadre of drug resistant STDs, a subculture of gay men were forging ahead and disregarding the danger. Unphased, the majority of established gay porn studios stayed with the mandatory condom rule and invested their time and energy into the brave new world of the internet.
After the internet, everything in porn changed: anyone with a cheap digital camera or camcorder could be an instant porn star. And, the gay community was really the first to embrace this new reality. Suddenly, what gay men were actually doing in the sex-clubs, bars, alleyways, and bedrooms was beamed and cyber-connected throughout the globe. And, as Treasure Island predicted, gay men were having unprotected bareback sex. This fact became abundantly clear when the Centers for Disease Control issued warning after warning concerning the rising rates of HIV infections; especially among post-AIDS scare boys. But, the specter of death seemed to be a thing of the past, so, the party pushed on. Then, some of the fortunate “tops” of the past began to return to porn as older “daddies;” like a long forgotten father that was sorrowfully neglectful and abusive, now returned to make amends and heal the pains of childhood; the penultimate example being the once lanky Tom Chase coming back as a papa-bear. Times had changed, and for the most part, swerved back to its beginnings, only, the dream remained the same – to cure (perhaps, to only suppress) the disquieting sense of alienation and unfullfillment. Radical gay feminist commentator Camille Paglia said of pornography: “[it] shows the dark truth of nature…Pornography allows us to explore our deepest, most forbidden selves.” In the case of gay men: the wounded and scared little boy inside.