Year In Review: Here Are The Best (And Some Of The Worst) Things That Happened In Gay Porn In 2019
What happened in the world of gay porn in 2019? Here’s Str8UpGayPorn’s annual round-up of all the fucking and all the fighting, the comebacks, the retirements (and, as always, the un-retirements), the imprisonments, the stunts, the headlines, the controversies, and everything in between that shaped 2019.
THE HEADLINE-GRABBERS: Here were the stars who made major news in 2019
—Surprise: Gay porn stars Ty Mitchell, Wesley Woods, Trent King, and more made their bisexual porn debuts following the launch of WhyNotBi.
—After over 13 years as a performer, gay porn star Tim Kruger made his bareback debut.
—Performer Jacen Zhu called for a boycott of gay porn studio Noir Male.
—Photographer Ryan Gordon filed a bogus lawsuit against Helix Studios for fraud and defamation, and it was a lawsuit so bogus, his lawyer ended up withdrawing from the case (which, as of today, is still pending).
—Collin Simpson was banned from Chaturbate after fans accused him of overdosing during a live show.
—FamilyDick released their first tri-generational three-way in which the son and dad fucked the grandpa.
—Blake Mitchell explained why he wanted you to know that his real name is Lane Rogers.
—Both Sean Cody and ChaosMen decided to put men with Confederate Flag tattoos in their gay porn scenes in 2019, and while Sean Cody eventually deleted the scenes featuring their model with the racist tattoo (only after being caught attempting to blur out the tattoo in post-production), ChaosMen brought back their model with the racist tattoo over and over again. You know, it’s one thing to hire an ugly model, but hiring an ugly model with a racist tattoo really is taking things to a new low.
—Disgraced porn star and studio owner Michael Lucas once again made news for not paying performers, as Tyler Roberts and Jesse Santana accused Lucas of non-payment for a scene.
—Webcam model Jake Orion defrauded fans who paid for his gay sex tapes with Vadim Black.
—RIP: Sadly, performers Jay Dymel and Casey Jacks tragically passed away in 2019.
—Helix Studios released a scene featuring gay porn’s first triple DP debut, starring Ashton Summers, Travis Stevens, and Josh Brady.
—Ty Mitchell co-starred with Emma Stone in a Saturday Night Live skit.
—From January through March, at least six Helix employees either quit the studio or were fired, including Blake Mitchell and Angel Rivera (both on the same day!), Cameron Parks, Julian Bell, Joey Mills, and screenwriter Taylor Saracen. While the various reasons for the departures were either unconfirmed or told to Str8Up off the record, the mass exodus ultimately didn’t hurt the studio (in fact, production only got better throughout the year), as they went on to release some of the best gay porn scenes of 2019. Meanwhile, the stars who departed—including Angel, Blake, and Joey—went on to perform at other studios in some of the greatest, most successful scenes and movies of their careers. So, perhaps the whole thing was a blessing in disguise, and a win-win for everyone?
THE RETIREES: Here were the stars who retired and/or unretired in 2019
—In May, Markie More retired and began promoting an anti-porn “non-profit” scam run by psychopathic Mormons. Six months later, you’ll never guess what happened next.
—Trump dingbat and racist Fox News parrot Jake Porter finally retired, thank God. Side note: The only Trump supporter (openly a Trump supporter, at least) who’s still working in gay porn is Sergeant Miles, but luckily he only manages to get hired by a handful of desperate and/or dying studios.
—Twitter troll and pathological liar Dolf Dietrich retired and/or unretired for like the gazillionth time, all within the span of 90 days.
—The best unretirement of the year? Without question, that honor goes to Gabriel Clark.
—Wesley Woods announced his retirement in an interview with GayVN in October, but he still has new content being released, and I’m told he’ll still be working in the industry (a tipster tells me Wesley will be working at a major studio next year).
—Helix’s big-dicked hunk Corey Marshall abruptly retired back in June, unfortunately, and 8teenBoy Taylor Coleman did the same thing in October. While neither of them explained why they were retiring, some stars often decide that it’s simply time to move on.
THE FIGHTS: Here were the stars who fought in 2019
—GayHoopla called porn stars who work for multiple studios “hoes.”
—Ryan Rose Vs. Josh Moore: “No One Leads Me, Ever!“
—Josh Moore, Ricky Larkin, Leo Forte, and Sister Roma clashed over a tweet promoting a “Scared Stiff 2” premiere party.
—Gay-for-pay porn star Donte Thick faced backlash after saying he wouldn’t work with HIV-positive undetectable models.
—Taylor Reign posted a video requesting alleged past due payments from CockyBoys, and then posted more videos after “working things out.”
BEFORE AND AFTER: Here were the stars who transformed themselves in 2019
—Ariel Vanean
—Adrian Hart
—Tyler Sweet
—Sean Cody’s Sean
—Calhoun Sawyer
—Sean Cody’s Manny
—Sean Cody’s Robbie
—Blake Mitchell
—Wess Russel
—Ryan Rose
—John Magnum
—Vadim Farrell
—Boomer Banks
—Diego Sans
—Calvin Banks and Ashton Summers
—Sean Cody’s Dean
—Johnny Rapid
—Jeremy Spreadums
—Colton Grey and Alex Mecum
—Calvin Banks
—Kirk Cummings
—Quin Quire & Dante Colle
—Matt Wellington
—Troy Daniels
—Kyle Ross
—Austin Wolf
—Max Carter
—Michael Del Ray
THE INTERVIEWS: Here were the stars who I’m so grateful to have interviewed in 2019
DOING TIME: Here were the stars who wound up in or were released from jail in 2019
—Jarec Wentworth was released from prison early and is serving out the final few months of his sentence in a halfway house.
—Tom Faulk was sentenced to seven years in prison for evading arrest.
—Blu Kennedy was sentenced to five years probation for a child porn charge.
—White supremacist gay porn star Cameron Diggs was sentenced to 15 years in prison for meth trafficking.
—Gay-for-pay porn star Kurt Wild was arrested for threatening to murder his wife in front of their children.
—Sebastian Young pleaded no contest to child porn charges, was released from jail after serving nearly three years, and was declared a registered sex offender for life by the state of Florida. And in perhaps the most disturbing, insane news of the year, Young is now filming and selling porn videos of himself on OnlyFans. As you’ll recall, Young was originally charged with raping his 5-year-old daughter, and with possession of child porn that he allegedly made with his daughter.
THE MOST GIFABLE: Last but not least, here were 12 of the most gifable moments of 2019
—Andy Taylor getting the cum fisted out of him by Max Carter
—Joey Mills bouncing up and down on JJ Knight
—Brock Banks made an explosive gay porn debut fucking Ty Mitchell
—The alligator cameo in that Kaleb Stryker/Diego Sans scene
—Rhyheim Shabazz and Joaquin Santana
—Quin Quire and Spencer Laval’s snowball party
—Ashton Summers riding Travis Stevens
—Angel Rivera riding Aiden Ward
—Colby Chambers cumming while fucking Logan Cross’s feet
—Greg McKeon’s hands-free load while fucking Marcus Young
And finally, this isn’t a gif, but it’s the best screenshot of the year (the decade?), featuring a breathtaking Angel Rivera shooting what can only be considered the Sistine Chapel of cum shots:
Happy New Year!
