GayGeek

A bit of interesting news for y'all this week.

First, Towelroad has a fascinating interview with George Duroy from Bel Ami. He's the power behind the company and gives a rare glimpse into how one of the world's famous porn companies operates.

Second, gay.porn.truth blog is reporting that Colt Studios has filed for bankruptcy. Colt Studio was once famous for hypermasculine men like Steve Kelso. The company is currently in chapter 11 bankruptcy (restructuring) while owners John Rutherford (formerly Falcon's top director) and Tom Settle attempt to elevate the bankruptcy to chapter 7 (liquidation of the company).

Steve Kelso

According to gay.porn.truth, Colt is currently over $2 million in debt. That figure includes $1.45 million owed to the former company owner Jim French, $700,000 in unpaid taxes, $130,000 for an old personal loan made to the business, and $600,000 in various debts to companies ranging from Paladin to Fedex.

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As you may recall, I vanished from GayGeek last summer and was gone for months. I returned in February and blogged that I was back on GayGeek, but declined to explain where I had been. I said I hoped to be able to tell you in a few months.

Well, I am pleased to report that time has arrived. Here's the scoop: I became a daddy!

No, not a hot, love 'em and leave 'em daddy type like Jake Cruise. Rather, a daddy who changes diapers, sings out-of-tune lullabies, and takes his child to the park on warm afternoons.

My husband and I began the process of adopting a little boy several years ago. It's very slow going, especially for a gay couple. Last July I was busy working on GayGeek when we got the phone call saying that it was time. A little boy had been born, and although he would be in the hospital for a few weeks with some breathing troubles, he was going to be our son.

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On Friday the powers behind the Internet are set to approve a .xxx suffix for websites with pornographic content.

The approval of .xxx has been a matter of intense discussion for years now with an unusual alliance of both left and right-leaning groups opposing its creation. Supporters of.xxx believe it will serve as a "adult entertainment district" for the Internet. Responsible adult webmasters can move their businesses there allowing concerned users to easily set their Internet browser's controls to prevent accidental access of any content stored in the .xxx domain. This would be particularly useful in preventing children from accessing pornographic content.

Liberal groups, particularly porn site owners, fear that the .xxx domain could be a first step toward driving adult business out of .com and .net on a larger path towards Internet censorship. They are also wary that ISPs and government organizations could arbitrarily censor access to .xxx sites. Conservative groups fear exactly the opposite -- that the .xxx domain name "legitimizes" Internet pornography and would would become a permanent part of the Internet.

Ultimately, no one knows what will happen when the new .xxx domain extension goes online. That fear of the unknown is precisely why both sides have fought the creation of .xxx for so long. In reality, whatever happens is likely to take a generation before its effects become clear. The .com suffix is still the standard for international business on the Internet, and even extensions like .biz are only just beginning to tap into their potential. It is unclear whether others such as .info or .name will ever take off.

What is clear is that in the short term .xxx will be a cash cow for domain name registrars, the companies that "sell" domain names. Any marginally successful adult webmasters will want to buy the .xxx version of their domain names. Plus cybersquatters, those famous for grabbing domain names for the sole intention of reselling years later at exorbitant profit, will buy up available domain names by the hundreds of thousands. At $10 or so a year, that's millions of dollars in income for domain name registrars. With that in mind, is it no wonder they have been among the most aggressive proponents of the .xxx suffix.

I've been meaning to start blogging about interesting porn news and figured today is a good day to start. In the news today is Bel Ami's new approach to barebacking, a Sean Cody model wanted for murder, and just how much of the Internet is pornography.

First, Bel Ami has released its first-ever bareback video, Skin on Skin. With the subtitle of "No inhibitions, No condoms" it is clear that Bel Ami has broken the model of safe-sex only videos for which until now they have been known. The video was not specifically shot for DVD release, but rather is a collection of scenes that were shot for Bel Ami Online.

Skin on Skin is almost certainly test to see how well Bel Ami bareback porn sells. Porn companies have believed for years that bareback sex equals good money. Bel Ami has resisted that trend, but now they want to find out for sure. If the video sales meet expectations you can bet they will release more bareback films in the future, especially full-budget DVD releases.

A promotional picture from Bel Ami's Skin on Skin

Lots of explicit promo photos have been released for the video, but of course we can't show them to you because of American 2257 requiring we have IDs for the models. I did find this picture from the video though. If you think they look good here though you'll explode when you see the hardcore shots.

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Let it be a lesson, folks. If you are a politician holding elected office and plan on taking a porn star/escort to dinner, make sure he doesn't have his own Twitter feed.

That's exactly what happened last Sunday when Minnesota State Senator Paul Koering (R-MN12) took porn twink Brandon Wilde to dinner. Their evening had not yet begun when Wilde took to Twitter announcing his impending dinner with Koering, "lol so funny !! in 45 min's im going 2 dinner with the senator :)"

Brandon Wilde and State Sen. Paul Koering

For those of you who don't know him, Paul Koering is something of an anomaly -- an openly gay conservative Republican who actually managed to get voted into office. Not an easy task in a conservative district, and so it is not surprising he votes anti-abortion and pro-gun.

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