(An amateur pornographer can rent a hotel room for a weekend and shoot crazy raw sex scenes, and not necessarily get in trouble for it.) NakedSword, which works in multiple states, has to adhere closely to state law for protecting their performers and providing safe working environments. Companies of its size, which generally already self-regulate in order to protect talent, are also under more scrutiny to follow the law when it comes to performer STI testing and safety.
Pam, who’s shot both condomed and bare, a large majority of new gay scenes being produced today are bareback (indeed, only two U.S.-based studios, GayHoopla and GayRoom, still use condoms 100 percent of the time), and the obviously condomed variety “can be hard to sell.” “I’ve given away porn DVDs at bars,” she says, “and the boys say ‘Oh, this has condoms? I’m not interested.’ ” But that doesn’t mean they weren’t unknowingly watching the occasional rubber anyway: Pam estimates that she could shoot upward of 50 Magic Condom scenes in a given year (though this is declining as true bareback becomes a more established practice).įor Pam’s productions with a large, established studio like NakedSword, condom use is a business decision, not a social statement. Today, we’re getting to a point where most gay porn studios are making some bareback movies, and many are tossing condoms entirely.Īccording to mr. This has meant a rise in condomless (or “bareback”) sex among gay men generally and a parallel shift toward bareback sex scenes in gay porn. But with advances in HIV treatment-notably PrEP, the drug regimen that prevents HIV infection, and the medical consensus that “ undetectable = untransmittable” for those living with the virus-the risk of passing HIV can be reduced to essentially zero. From the onset of the AIDS crisis until fairly recently, the gay side of the industry has tested less and used condoms more frequently, making rubbers a standard presence in scenes and performer HIV status a more private matter. That’s because straight studios have long relied on frequent STI testing in order to produce movies without them. When you think of straight porn, condoms are probably not the first image that comes to mind. The Forgotten Gay Cable Network That Changed LGBTQ History Madison Cawthorn Thrusting His Naked Body on Another Man’s Face Doesn’t Tell Us Much About His “Gayness” Top Gun’s Sweaty, Sexy Men Helped Me Survive My Adolescence.This post is part of Outward, Slate’s home for coverage of LGBTQ life, thought, and culture.