Top gay porn actor Hugh Hunter has declined his nominations for the GayVN Awards, citing industry racism.
The model and cabaret performer took the awards ceremony to task for confining POC actors and scenes into the ‘ethnic’ category.
The GayVN Awards, launched in 1998 and returning for the first time since 2011, honor achievements in the gay porn industry.
Writing in a letter posted on Twitter, Hunter said: ‘The gay porn industry has always been a place of veiled racism and bigotry.
‘It now appears as if the GayVN Awards have chosen to make this racism and bigotry more blatant in their return to the awards arena.’
With an average of around 20 nominees per category in Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, the exclusion of black, Latin and Asian performers looks even worse. Only three actors of the 15 nominees in the Best Performer category are non-white.
‘Why? Why were these scenes not just included in the best scene category?’ Hunter asked.
Why would a gay porn company chose to separate minority groups into their own race at an event that is supposed to celebrate the gay industry in its entirety?
He added: ‘Why would this category be created in 2017 when the political climate is so thick with racial divide in this country?
‘Why would they call it ethnic? Who uses the term ethnic? I have many, many questions that are valid and should be answered.’
Hunter has called on all members of the gay adult entertainment world to ‘to stand up against the systematic racism and bigotry in this industry’.
‘We are members of the LGBTQ family,’ he said.
‘This family includes all colors of the rainbow and all people from every corner of the world.
‘Let’s force this industry, one built by and dependent of the passions and fantasies of the LGBTQ community, to be all-inclusive and shed racism and bigoted bias.
‘For so many we are the educators of sexuality. Let’s be the best educators we can be. ‘
Since his call for action on 25 November, Hunter has said he has received ‘admonition and pushback’. He said this is even more reason to try and inspire change in the gay porn industry.
Hugh Hunter @theHughHunter
—further validates my call for a conversation about race inequalities in this industry.
I've heard the asinine argument of skin color being a sexual preference for years.
If one of your criteria for a sexual liaison happens to be the color of their skin, then yes, your a racist.
It isn't open for debate it's just a simple truth.
What you do about it, defines what kind of person you really are.
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