Bareback on Top

Right or wrong, bareback is one of the fastest growing porn genres.

In a lot of ways, I was fortunate enough (or not so fortunate), to witness the proliferation of condom use in gay porn first hand, as well as the current explosion of bareback titles. As a reviewer for 21 years and a judge in five porn awards shows, it’s easy to chart the use of condoms in the industry.

Here’s a quick history lesson:

1985
The first video to use condoms in gay porn was Life Guard with Leo Ford and Rick Donovan from HIS Video. It was onsidered a novelty at the time, but as the AIDS crisis mounted and more was learned about HIV, more and more companies began using condoms during anal sex, with some even using them during oral sex.

1988
Mostly hetero porn star John Holmes died of AIDS, but it didn’t shake up the industry because many people thought his heavy drug use had caused his illness.

1991
Leo Ford died in a motorcycle accident, but told me in an interview before his death that he regretted his non-condom Falcon scenes and that all companies should be using condoms to educate youth. An AIDS activist to the end, he was joined in the call-for-condoms by Al Parker, Scott O’Hara and other former porn legends who later died of AIDS. We then helped to establish the Leo Ford Humanitarian Award for porn stars committed to promoting safe sex.

1992
The Gay Erotic Video Awards offered the first “Best Depiction of Safe Sex” award to honor videos that cleverly incorporated condom use into storylines. Chi Chi LaRue’s Jumper won that award with a sex-crazed angel who left condoms behind and the Jumper won most of the other major awards that year.

1995
Five major porn awards shows honored the best in gay porn, and none allowed entries that failed to use condoms. Condom use was a gay industry standard and new awards honored safe sex, such as Probe’s Men in Video Awards “Hottest Cock in a Condom” and Adult Video News “Safe Sex Award” (which I shared in 1998 for producing Red, Hot and Safe with directors like Karen Dior and Wash West.)

1998
Bill Gardner and John Singleton founded their Palm Springs film company Hot Desert Knights to produce bareback films. Their business skyrocketed.

1999
Companies like Catalina and Falcon promoted their pre-condom titles, but staunchly refused to produce new titles without condoms.

2002
Legendary star Jeff Palmer did his first bareback title (bottoming for Tommy Saxx) and announced that he was HIV-positive. Stars such as Cole Tucker and Karen Dior announced that they were HIV-positive, but had always used condoms while working.

2006
Chi Chi LaRue left a lucrative deal at Vivid video when they switched to a condom-optional policy. LaRue ended up buying All Worlds and Catalina Video and re-emphasized condom use, saying, “I’ve just lost too many friends.” Later that year, longtime director Kevin Clarke retired from porn after watching 26-year-old porn star Rocky die of AIDS and claiming, “It’s getting harder and harder to produce a video with condoms, and I consider the ones who don’t use them snuff films.”

2007
GayVN (the gay portion of Adult Video News) began reviewing bareback titles for the first time, although bareback titles still weren’t eligible for awards. Titan Media’s legendary director Bruce Cam refused a Lifetime Achievement award from the international David Awards when he learned that bareback titles would be honored.

Today, bareback companies are booming. And even though they feature unsafe sex, the films seem to have struck a chord with consumers because the genre is growing rapidly.

“We are only reflecting what people are doing, and porn is not supposed to be educational. It’s entertainment,” said director Dino Phillips, who hired Kevin Kramer for his latest bareback Toxxxic title Cum Dump. Both Phillips and Kramer are noted for AIDS fundraising and Kramer won the Leo Ford Humanitarian award. “I don’t see any hypocrisy in it. I see hypocrisy in companies who shout about safe sex and then offer their pre-condom titles for video-on-demand. This is the future.”

Other well-known bareback companies include Treasure Island Media, TipoSesso, Spunk Video, Epic Men and Macho Fucker Videos.

Over the years, I’ve been dubbed both a condom Nazi and a barebacking promoter. I am neither. I do believe that seeing hot guys wearing condoms promotes safe sex, but I also believe that responsible journalists need to cover bareback titles.

There will always be companies that resist the temptation to go bareback. Besides those already mentioned, other companies dedicated to safe sex include: Colt Studio, Hot House Entertainment, Michael Lucas Entertainment, Raging Stallion, and Studio 2000.

“It’s just plain irresponsible. It will never happen at Raging Stallion,” owner Chris Ward said just after their film Grunts had set new sales records. “Our titles keep selling, so I don’t believe barebacking is inevitable.”

Mickey Skee has covered the adult entertainment industry for over 20 years and written more than a dozen books.