“Fuck Me!”: Gay Porn Industry Reacts To Rentboy Shutdown
The fallout from this morning’s Rentboy raid, government seizure of the escort site’s domain (along with $1.4 million from company bank accounts), and arrest of seven employees (including the CEO) hasn’t even been fully felt yet, but the implications are massive and wide-reaching within the gay porn industry.
Here’s what we know so far:
—All of the former and current Rentboy employees arrested this morning have been released on bond, including former employee Eli Lewis.
—Many gay porn and adult industry companies had affiliate and advertising relationships with Rentboy.com, with traffic trades and banner ads running on the highly ranked site (before the news today, it was ranked 10,000 on Alexa, which is higher than almost every gay porn studio) that referred thousands of clicks (and dollars) to multiple studios and adult retailers every day. With Rentboy.com now shut down and in control of the United States government, all of that revenue and all of that traffic is completely gone.
—Barring some kind of miracle, Hustlaball New York, the annual party put on by Rentboy every October, is dead and will not be happening.
—Hustlaball Las Vegas (January, 2016) is still set to go on as planned (the event is produced by Pacifico Entertainment, not Rentboy). However, Like the Rentboy.com domain, Hustlaball.com has also been seized and shut down.
—As of post time, Hustlaball Berlin (scheduled for October, 2015) is still happening in Germany.
—Rentboy’s annual awards show in New York, The Hookies (scheduled for March 2016), is undoubtedly canceled.
—A significant number of gay porn stars advertised their services on Rentboy, and many of them earned much more money as escorts than as performers in adult films. Here is a sampling of gay porn stars (some escorts, some not) responding to today’s Rentboy shutdown.
Icon Male director Nica Noelle, meanwhile, proved just how much of a sociopath she is with a predictably psychotic tweet of her own. While many of her so-called peers were being stripped of their freedom, Nica Noelle was gloating:
Apparently, shooting in a house that’s covered in rodent feces is “safe and legal,” according to Nica Noelle.
Many escorts are understandably concerned that today’s arrests could only be the beginning, and that anyone who advertised on Rentboy could be arrested. According to Ryan Rose’s attorneys, however, it’s only Rentboy employees who are the targets, not escorts.
