YNOT – Just as the debate about requiring condoms on all adult movie sets in California hits a fever pitch, San Francisco-based gay studio Treasure Island Media has announced its latest exclusive contract star: an HIV-positive man who will perform “bareback,” or condom-less, in the studio’s productions.
James Roscoe and his longtime real-life non-monogamous life partner, Brad McGuire, both signed contracts with TIM in late October. Roscoe is living with HIV; McGuire reportedly is HIV-negative to date. Both men have been exclusives for the studio previously, and both perform bareback.
TIM owner Paul Morris said he views positive portrayals of HIV-positive gay men in sexually explicit situations to be a “moral and social imperative.”
“As a community, we have a moral and social imperative to demolish the HIV-positive closet,” Morris said. “We are adults, and we are participating in a tremendously vital and important sexual culture that is under attack. We know exactly what we’re doing, and we will not allow reactionary individuals and organizations to dictate our behavior.
“James and Brad are fitting role models for young gay men,” Morris continued. “They are living their lives with honesty and integrity. I couldn’t be more proud to have them in the TIM family.”
Morris called the public outcry following mid-October’s revelation that a heterosexual performer tested positive for HIV “hysteria” and suggested California’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the adult industry and mainstream HIV-AIDS activists are creating unwarranted drama surrounding an issue they don’t really understand.
“Hysteria due to the recent disclosure that a straight porn actor tested HIV-positive halted filming for much of the industry,” Morris noted. “But Roscoe’s sero-status hasn’t stopped anything for Treasure Island Media. To the contrary, TIM is currently shooting work that features proud poz men fucking each other to within an inch of their lives. The first of these poz-only bareback pics is slated for general release in Spring 2011.”
Adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition, which favors industry self-regulation over government-mandated standards, worries claims like Morris’ could damage the industry as a whole at a time when additional regulation would represent an enormous financial blow to an industry already reeling from content piracy and general economic malaise.
“If the claims in [TIM’s] publicity release — regarding unprotected sex on camera between an HIV-positive performer with an HIV-negative performer — are true, such conduct is at the center of the efforts to find appropriate regulations for the adult industry by both CalOSHA and the Free Speech Coalition,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke told YNOT. “Despite our opposition to a state-imposed mandate for the universal use of condoms, FSC does not endorse the exploitation of potential HIV infection of performers for promotional purposes.”
The publicity materials to which Duke referred stated, “In celebration of Roscoe and McGuire re-signing, Treasure Island Media has released a never-before-seen bareback fuck session featuring the two men together. The scene — Soul Fuck — is currently streaming, for free, on the studio’s premier fuck site: TIMFuck.com.”
Both Roscoe and McGuire have appeared in numerous TIM titles. Roscoe’s resume includes roles in Christian: 24 Cocks in 24 Hours, The 1,000 Load Fuck and Suck Dick, Save the World. The latter title was released in October.
McGuire has appeared in more than a dozen TIM titles, from his debut in 2003’s Riding Billy Wild to this year’s Breeding Season 2. He also is the subject of a compilation collection, Legendary Studs: The Best of Brad McGuire.
