Nobody thought about the conflicting message porn was sending. There was so much confusion and misinformation in the early days, and when it became clear how HIV is transmitted and the behaviors associated with seroconversion, I can see why porn was targeted, but the method and message alienated consumers.
There was a need for sex education for gay men because we were ignored in any and all such materials and especially classrooms where anatomy was taught, and early activists worked with community resources and got bars to put bowls of condoms near entrances and posters on bathroom walls among general outreach programs. It wasn't the early days of Falcon when Chuck Holmes sold VHS tapes out of the trunk of his car, to the tune of $60 to as much as $100 a pop (in late 70s-era cash) when men would line up because there was nothing available in adult shops (making Chuck a wealthy man), but the resulting explosion in content producers made gay porn widely available in neighborhood video stores by the late 80s and early 90s.ĪIDs, however, struck and the gay porn industry went off the rails. First, people still paid for porn then, and pornographers could make a decent living.
The era of gay porn you're describing probably was the golden age, but frankly, that's not saying much.
