Gay porn producer: I think bareback porn is hotter
“I personally think that condom-free porn is hotter, yes. Yes, you can make hot porn with condoms, and we have made a lot of it. But porn is a fantasy, and no one fantasizes about condoms.”
— Gay porn producer Michael Lucas, owner of Lucas Entertainment, in an interview with Queerty. Lucas was vocally opposed to condom-free porn initially, stating that he “felt that it was putting the models in danger.”
Lucas’ position has changed due to advances in HIV treatments and PrEP treatments for HIV negative people. Current treatments can reduce viral loads to undetectable levels, lowering the risk of infection, while HIV negative men on PrEP who have condomless sex reduce their risk of contracting HIV. A Partner study is currently underway in Europe to study the risk of transmission in serodiscordant couples where the positive partner is using HIV medication. Condoms are still the safest and most effective way to reduce transmission, but Lucas feels confident enough in current medications to go bare. “My position on bareback sex in porn has adapted accordingly,” Lucas stated. “And not just in porn: I have changed the way I have sex in my personal life, too. I am HIV negative, but I have recently been seeing someone who is HIV positive, and we have sex without condoms. So I feel fine, now, with asking my models to do the same.”
Personal opinion isn’t the only factor in Lucas’ decision — finance is obviously having an impact. “If the industry had stayed united behind condom use, then that would be one thing, but it didn’t. And that means that companies that produce only porn with condoms are putting themselves at a very real disadvantage,” he said. “In the end, this is a business, and we can’t afford to ignore what consumers want from porn these days. I held out for condoms for as long as I could, but with the arrival of PrEP and the new information about undetectable viral loads, the principle behind holding out was not as compelling as it used to be.”
Asked whether the switch to bareback videos could lead to his viewers abandoning condoms, Lucas was diplomatic in response. “I’m not a messenger. I just make movies. And the shift away from the condom code reflects significant changes to the dangers of transmission and the lethality of HIV. I don’t think that bareback porn has driven gay men to bareback sex; I think that the rise in bareback sex has driven the industry to bareback porn.”
Condoms are still essential for reducing the risk of contracting other STDs, but the CDC have adjusted their own terminology to stop describing sex without a condom as “unprotected.” It is now called “condomless,” a reflection of the ways modern treatments are changing attitudes and practices towards HIV.
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