# Are the actors in gay male porn films really straight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879 "2001-10-11T20:24:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/21 "2020-04-14T23:04:17Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I’m going to guess, based solely on what I read about the sordid life of young gay male prostitutes that many do it because it’s a living, and actual orientation does not figure into it as long as they can make a living, so whatever category they get started in pays the bills. If they can make additional money working both sides of the fence, so to speak (I was going to say “both sides of the street,”, but…) then perhaps some have a preference or reluctance, but I wonder how many stand on principle? Plus, I’m not conversant with the size distribution in real versus movies, but I gather than having extraordinary endowment would also make an actor in high demand going either way. And as mentioned - endurance is a useful attribute. > > I’m assuming too (since I know nothing about the industry) that a male could not really be type-cast as there are probably not a lot of male straight porn watchers who see enough gay porn also to decide “hey wait a minute, that guy was gay last time I saw him…” But then, maybe there are. I don’t know. > > The little I read and a long time ago (you know, if you read the magazines for the articles, too) mentioned that female actors were paid substantially more than males in straight porn because there was no shortage of males willing to perform. I know nothing about the business of porn, gay or straight, and not much more than that about prostitution, gay or straight. I will say that, back in the days when New York City had active street prostitution, and lots of it, the gay prostitution strips were worked by desperate drug addicts for the most part, who needed twenty bucks, or even smaller sums, _right now_. Plenty of straight boys working those streets. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/22 "2020-04-14T23:06:39Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I know nothing about the business of porn, gay or straight, and not much more than that about prostitution, gay or straight. > > I will say that, back in the days when New York City had active street prostitution, and lots of it, the gay prostitution strips were worked by desperate drug addicts for the most part, who needed twenty bucks, or even smaller sums, _right now_. Plenty of straight boys working those streets. Yeah, listen to some early Ramones songs. Some of the boys had experienced this. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/23 "2020-04-14T23:52:10Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I’m reminded of _The First Nudie Musical_, a movie from 1976, in which Cindy Williams (who played the squeaky-clean Shirley Feeney on “Laverne and Shirley”) is dealing with a male porn star who is–shall we say–having problems when the cameras roll, for the reasons you describe. She ends up yelling out, “Stunt cock! Can we get a stunt cock here, please?” I remember that film! And, the reaction of one of the actresses to the “stunt cock”: “He was joost so beeg!” ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/24 "2020-04-15T00:44:39Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Note when this thread was spawned. Was Viagra available in 2001? Hmmm, it was, but not cheaply nor without a prescription. I remember going out drinking with a bunch of people from my adult dodgeball team, which would have meant the summer of 1998, and a couple of us were debating whether health insurers should be required to pay for Viagra. This was an issue at the time since the drug was beginning to enter the public lexicon. ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/25 "2020-04-15T01:05:20Z")
Gay for pay is absolutely a thing in Eastern Europe. Here’s a piece from 2010 about the scene in Prague. The Bel Ami guys, for example, are totally phoning it in. [https://www.pri.org/stories/2010-03-24/special-report-gay-4-pay-prague](https://www.pri.org/stories/2010-03-24/special-report-gay-4-pay-prague) ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/26 "2020-04-15T03:10:11Z")
My theory is that it has to do with adolescent wish fulfillment. One thing most gay men have in common is the experience of spending our teenage years lusting completely unavailable straight boys while having to avoid the appearance that we’re lusting after said boys (& being trust into _much_ closer contact than boys & girls get with each other). That’s why the idea that every “straight” man will have sex with another man if they’re horny enough. That being said in every video when it’s supposedly the performs first time with another man it’s really, really oblivious that he’s done this before. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/27 "2020-04-15T04:34:09Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I know nothing about the business of porn, gay or straight, and not much more than that about prostitution, gay or straight. > > I will say that, back in the days when New York City had active street prostitution, and lots of it, the gay prostitution strips were worked by desperate drug addicts for the most part, who needed twenty bucks, or even smaller sums, _right now_. Plenty of straight boys working those streets. I assume too, that over the last 20 or 30 years (since VHS, and especially since the internet and DVD) that the porn industry has gone more upscale in terms of money made, money paid, and the quality of actors that fit the part. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/28 "2020-04-15T04:49:49Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I assume too, that over the last 20 or 30 years (since VHS, and especially since the internet and DVD) that the porn industry has gone more upscale in terms of money made, money paid, and the quality of actors that fit the part. That is not my impression at all. There was a short window after VHS and DVD and before the proliferation of free and amateur porn available on the internet that allowed for high salaries. Now that’s no longer the case. Anyone with an iPhone can be a porn “star” or producer but for the most part they aren’t making much money per scene. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/29 "2020-04-15T05:45:28Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Note when this thread was spawned. Was Viagra available in 2001? Hmmm, it was, but not cheaply nor without a prescription. Viagra was launched in 1998. Before that, they had Caverject. Don’t Google that on a public computer. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/30 "2020-04-15T05:57:42Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Viagra was launched in 1998. > > Before that, they had Caverject. Don’t Google that on a public computer. They injected that there?! eek ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/31 "2020-04-15T06:09:50Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > They injected that there?! eek After I graduated in 1994, I worked with another pharmacist who had a desk job, and was almost totally bald even though he was barely 40 years old. His head would also turn red if he heard the word “Caverject”, and people would casually say that as they walked by his desk, just to watch his head turn red. It never stopped being funny. I will also add that I told this story before here on the Dope, and other people accused us of, among other things, sexual harassment. Maybe it was one of those “you had to be there” things. As for insurance coverage, I have no idea what it is now, not having practiced for a while, but most insurance companies that did cover it paid for 6 tablets a month. Medicare Part D(isaster) and Medicaid do not pay for it unless it’s used for any of a number of rare circulatory diseases, and it’s easy to tell the difference because it’s not dosed the same way for that. Some insurers also had age limits (usually 50) and required proof of a pre-existing condition in younger men. And most people would be quite surprised at how many women also use it for sexual dysfunction. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/32 "2020-04-15T06:25:42Z")
I have nothing to link to but I do recall from an episode of Pornicopia the narrator stating that the majority of male actors in gay pornography did identify as straight in their personal lives. while I don’t remember the exact episode I do remember the statement as I thought to myself “no amount of money, Viagra, or both would ever motivate me to have sex or even simulated sex with another man”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/33 "2020-04-15T13:32:17Z")
Which gets back to what I said about sexuality being a spectrum. There are some men who would never have sex with another man for any amount of money. There are others who would never do it for fun, but would still do it for the right price, and for some of them, the right price is a price that porn producers are willing to pay. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/34 "2020-04-15T13:46:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > That is not my impression at all. There was a short window after VHS and DVD and before the proliferation of free and amateur porn available on the internet that allowed for high salaries. Now that’s no longer the case. Anyone with an iPhone can be a porn “star” or producer but for the most part they aren’t making much money per scene. Although this has nothing to with whether actors in gay porn are straight I just wanted to follow up on this one point. Mia Khalifa has been the #1 or #2 most searched for porn star over several years. She made a total of $12,000 for the scenes she did and gets no residuals from sites that show her scenes for free. The money isn’t what it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/35 "2020-04-15T15:12:52Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > They injected that there?! eek Yes. [I’ve had it done for diagnostic purposes,](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12832773&postcount=31) and it’s as unpleasant as it sounds; I can’t imagine routinely doing it as a prelude to sexyfuntimes. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/36 "2020-04-15T16:23:03Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I have nothing to link to but I do recall from an episode of Pornicopia the narrator stating that the majority of male actors in gay pornography did identify as straight in their personal lives. while I don’t remember the exact episode I do remember the statement as I thought to myself “no amount of money, Viagra, or both would ever motivate me to have sex or even simulated sex with another man”. NO amount of money? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/37 "2020-04-16T05:28:25Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > NO amount of money? This reminds me of that old joke where a guy asks a woman if she would have sex with him for 5 grand cash. When she says yes he asks “how about 5 bucks”. To which she exclaims “Five dollars? What do you think I am!?!”. **You already told me what you are. I’m just trying to negotiate a price.** Some of us, however, are beyond reproach when it comes to these matters. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/38 "2020-04-16T10:23:13Z")
I’ve known a few gay porn actors. They ones I’ve known are all gay. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/39 "2020-04-16T19:37:33Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > After I graduated in 1994, I worked with another pharmacist who had a desk job, and was almost totally bald even though he was barely 40 years old. His head would also turn red if he heard the word “Caverject”, and people would casually say that as they walked by his desk, just to watch his head turn red. It never stopped being funny. > > I will also add that I told this story before here on the Dope, and other people accused us of, among other things, sexual harassment. Maybe it was one of those “you had to be there” things. Do you not understand why people thought you were being a size large jerk in that thread? ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879/40 "2020-04-16T20:48:41Z")
Until recently being gay was nearly universally seen as a bad thing, even fairly commonly among gay people. So I’m sure most gay porn actors prior to, I don’t know, 2005? would say publicly that they were straight, and just doing the gay thing for a paycheck, if they thought it would save face among the non-porn-professional crowd. Also, I’ve used Viagra, and it isn’t an aphrodisiac. It doesn’t cause arousal, it just makes sure that _if_ you’re aroused, the plumbing all works flawlessly. And I’ve read Quora answers by actual porn stars who said drugs of any kind are forbidden on set, and that includes Viagra. I know I’ve seen enough softies and semis in the porn videos I’ve watched to believe it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-actors-in-gay-male-porn-films-really-straight/86879.md?page=3)