Str8UpGayPorn Hacked As Nica Noelle, Jake Cruise, Michael Lucas, Howard Andrew, And Treasure Island Media Call For Boycott Of Blog
Earlier today for a period of roughly two hours, Str8UpGayPorn was hacked. During that time, I was locked out of the WordPress admin, several posts were deleted, and the site’s URL was temporarily redirected to another gay porn blog: QueerMeNow. It was crazy! While new security features have been installed and this shouldn’t happen again, two questions remain: Why was Str8Up hacked in the first place, and why did the hacker point the site to QueerMeNow?
Last night, I published an article shining a spotlight on the blogger behind QueerMeNow, who made his first public appearance on camera at last weekend’s Grabbys. This was his “coming out” moment—I and dozens of others in the audience recorded his speech—and in light of the occasion, I posted photos and his name (viewable on either of QueerMeNow’s two public Facebook pages, which are linked to from his blog), a guide to how and why he makes his money as one of the gay adult industry’s longest-running and most successful affiliate blogs, and why his role in the gay adult industry is so significant. The person who hacked Str8UpGayPorn, deleted posts, and redirected the site to QueerMeNow did so in obvious “retribution” for this post. This person has been identified and is being pursued legally.
Reaction to the post here in the comments was evenly divided—some thought it was “shady” of me to post a blogger’s name (even though he has already publicly published it himself); others felt that his going on stage in front of an audience (and by extension the entire world, via social media) meant he and his extremely successful business model were worthy topics of discussion. Regardless, the post was deleted and the site has now been restored to its last saved version from over 24 hours ago, so I won’t try to recreate the post or re-publish his name, which was the main complaint some readers had. This is not because I believe it was “wrong” to publish his name—this is a grown adult with two public Facebook profiles and a decade of work in the adult industry who just made a public appearance in front of dozens of cameras—or because of any specific request to remove the name, but because of the false allegation being made that the sole intent of the post was to get the QueerMeNow blogger “thrown in jail” in Thailand. That was not my intent, and I do not want the QueerMeNow blogger to go to jail. Despite QueerMeNow’s choice to become a blogger in a country with complex internet censorship laws, I didn’t and still don’t believe there is any possibility that posting QueerMeNow’s name (which, again, he has already made public) would have resulted in his arrest.
That being said, I will name a few of the highly irrelevant yet extremely loud voices calling for a “boycott” of Str8UpGayPorn in the wake of the QueerMeNow post, as the hypocrisy on display here is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Some took to an adult industry message board to express their faux outrage, one posted an open letter on his website, and some even signed a Change.org petition to effectively “shut down” Str8UpGayPorn, which is so absolutely and pathetically fantastic, I almost can’t even be mad at it?
First to that message board, where Treasure Island Media marketing employee ScarletFaux (surely you remember Scarlet?) was “pissed off”:
Ugh, this pisses me off. When he outed my legal name and ruined the Google search for my mainstream work and personal life I was pissed, but at least my life wasn’t in danger because I live in the US. DavydDixon, how can you live with yourself for owning a site that lists people’s real legal names like that when we have lives outside of porn? It is disgusting. Take down Tai’s post and stop allowing our legal names to be listed on your smear blog.
Funny how Scarlet has elected to be so angry now, while her work promoting STD transmission via the use of “200 loads of HIV-positive semen” and movies with men injecting themselves with methamphetamine doesn’t cause her any concern at all. Also funny is Scarlet’s misuse of the word “outed,” when in fact—identical to the QueerMeNow blogger—all of her public information was easily located through a simple Google search.
Next up, “innovator” Dominic Ford (in a response to Str8Up’s Davyd Dixon, who was on the message board explaining his role as co-owner of Str8UpGayPorn):
David, thanks for joining us here…
No one cares how successful your blog is. Hitler was really successful and must have been a great leader. And cancer is a really successful virus. That has nothing to do with the morality of the content on it or the real-life danger Zach is putting people in. Protecting our anonymity is the one holy thing we have in this industry. Zach can hate on me or anyone all he wants as long as he maintains this code we all share. But he has broken it, it’s personal against Thai, far from your header that states “no agenda,” and affects people in the real world, not just the fantasy porn world.
You know you’ve really made it when someone compares your blog to both Hitler and cancer. I guess that makes the actual blog post about QueerMeNow the “9/11 of blog posts”?
First I’m Hitler, and then someone named “RawTop” doesn’t want me to win any awards. Can today get any worse?
Can someone get the Grabbies [sic] to sign and vow that Str8UpGayPorn is permanently barred from even being nominated? Ditto for the other awards sponsors?
And here’s Dominic Ford again, calling for Str8UpGayPorn to be removed from Google and all affiliate lists:
I am doing my best, via Porn Guardian, to get this removed from Google. I have also put Thai in touch with lawyers in the industry I trust. Everyone needs to REMOVE Str8UpGayPorn from their affiliate lists now. I don’t care how much money they make you. He has reduced himself to worse than Porn Wiki Leaks. If he gets away with this, who is next? By his logic, he can out anyone’s real name who appeared on that stage.
He has broken our sacred code of ethics: we do not out each other’s real names. And certainly not in this malicious “I want to ruin your life” way. Davyd Dixon, as you say, is the owner, and if he doesn’t clean this up the blood is on their both their hands.
Long before the 2015 Grabbys and long before the launch of Str8UpGayPorn, I’ve always believed in and called for full transparency when it comes to bloggers working in the adult industry. Gay porn stars work under pseudonyms because they’re performers putting on performances intended as fantasy, and not publishing their names (a practice I adhere to, unless they’re someone like Jarec Wentworth) is indeed part of the so-called “sacred code of ethics” to which Dominic Ford is referring. Bloggers, on the other hand, are definitely not part of that code, in my view. Bloggers are creating very real forums for discussions, critiques, and sometimes outright hate speech directed at performers, and for that reason, I believe should be 100% open about their own identities. If you choose to be a blogger—whether you’re from Thailand or the United States—and you refuse to hold yourself accountable for what you publish on your website, you’re a coward, and you have no place running a business that is fully dependent upon public discourse.
Speaking of “sacred codes of ethics,” does Dominic Ford or anyone else in the gay adult industry follow any sacred codes when it comes to protecting gay porn stars? Where are the calls for a “sacred code of ethics” when studios film movies and profit off of men injecting themselves with crystal meth? Where are the calls for a boycott when studio heads are repeatedly accused of sexual harassment, abuse, and dangerous working conditions? Where is the moral outrage and the message board thread when gay porn studios continually put lives at risk by hiring convicted murders, wife-beaters, drug addicts, and serodiscordant models to perform with each other in bareback scenes? Speaking of bareback, the Grabbys have a strict rule against awarding bareback studios, but apparently that rule doesn’t apply to bareback blogs like QueerMeNow, whose homepage right now features such headlines as “Eli Hunter Gets Fucked And Creampied In Deep Seeding,” “Tyler Sky Gets Gangbanged Raw,” and “Hunky Bottom Brendon Gets Fucked Raw By Pete.” Oh well.
Selective outrage and convenient hypocrisy can be fun, but the feigned disgust from Dominic Ford and others is also outrageously ironic, given that these same people are working in an industry that has allowed horrific companies like DallasReeves, TreasureIsland, and LucasEntertainment to thrive while they commit the most egregious, illegal, and immoral acts that threaten the health and very lives of every gay porn performer working today.
Speaking of Lucas (whose #1 affiliate and moneymaker is QueerMeNow), he’s posted an open letter on his site and a flurry of tweets calling for a boycott of Str8UpGayPorn:
Funny seeing someone like Michael Lucas use the word “danger” so flippantly, considering this is the same person who stands accused of harassment by multiple performers, has hired people who have murdered their family members, and has frequently tried to film models with serodiscordant statuses together in bareback scenes.
Finally, Dominic Ford took a time-out from filming more content that no one will ever pay for to post a petition to Change.org. He’s accusing me of trying to ruin QueerMeNow’s business, and yet also trying to ruin my business at the same time by asking all advertisers to stop working with me:
We need to stand together NOW and take action. Cut off all revenue streams to str8upgayporn.com. We don’t care how much money you make from his blog. None of it is worth sending a message that this is OK in any way, shape or form. We hope you decide to do what is right here and cut all ties with this man and his blog.
So far, there have only been 63 of the 100 signatures needed to…fulfill Dominic Ford’s meaningless fantasy? Here are a few people who’ve signed the petition and left comments. It’s a who’s who of you-know-who!
Nica Noelle:
Jake Cruise:
And even agent Howard Andrew:
Really, Howard? This time was too far? I guess the time I posted those exclusive photos you sent me of Ryan Rose’s ex-boyfriend Bobby Hart in the hospital with a battered and bloodied face wasn’t going “too far”? I guess I didn’t go “too far” when I declined to run the story after you called to tell me exclusively that one of your biggest models was arrested? And I guess I didn’t go “too far” when I ran story after story after story about all the drama on Nica Noelle’s sets—based in part on information you delightedly served up for me in emails and phone calls and texts? Oops, sorry Howard. Have I gone too far now?
As a blogger, my real name and identity is on everything I publish, and I’m always willing to be held accountable for everything I’ve said and done. Can those leading a so-called “boycott” to censor me say the same? Selective outrage and convenient hypocrisy over stories on Str8UpGayPorn only inspires me to work harder at what I do and call out even more examples as they occur. So thanks for all the fun today, keep sending me all your tips (even you, Howard!), and stay tuned for much more.
