Gay Performers Band Together to Spread Safer-Sex Message

A group of eight gay-porn models has taken a stand for safer sex in a catchy public-service announcement they created and posted to YouTube.

Andy Kay, Phillip Ashton, Jayden Taylor, Krist Cummings, Jacob Wright, Zack Randall, Ryan Conners and Angel Benton said they are using the tagline "Safe Sex is Hot Sex" to make a point, and they hope other performers and studios will sign on to the effort.

The message is simple, the men said. So is one potential answer to the problem.

"There has been much talk about safe sex when gay porn is concerned in the past," a joint statement noted. "With the fear of STDs, many companies have come to worship the condom as the saving grace. Others have halted certain aspects of scenes like oral cumshots to help curb the issue. Unfortunately, there is one avenue that many of these companies do not take, and that is the matter of full-panel testing."

Although full-panel STD testing is widely available, the crusading performers said companies and individuals resent the expense. In addition, "bad" test results can delay filming or end careers.

"It's just like it is everywhere else: politics and money," the joint statement noted. "A company might lose models if they tested and found them to have HIV or an STD. A company would also lose large sums of money due to testing costs.

"This message is a message from the models themselves, saying that something just isn't right here. Straight companies work almost solely with testing and extensive databases to make sure they maintain a safe environment. Most gay companies do not.

"[We are] not saying that testing is the answer to everything," the performers continued in their statement. "It is simply a message stating that we can make our environment safer if we really care about safety. It's saying that we can make a change and correct errors in the past now, if we can only band together.

"We've made our stand," the statement noted. "It's up to the rest of the community now to make theirs."