Partners with San Francisco Vibes and others to celebrate Gay Porn's roots
March 20, 2008

NakedSword is proudly sponsoring a multimedia event honoring the rich and variant history of Gay Porn. The event, aptly titled The History of Gay Porn, will take place Saturday March 22 at 7pm and will be taking place in the multimedia center at Good Vibrations Polk Street Location. The event is a presentation of San Francisco Vibes, The Triangle Project, The Center for Sex and Culture, and NakedSword. The presentation's assembly was coordinated by SF-based porn archivalist and critic John Carr as well as noted sexologist and San Francisco legend Dr. Carol Queen, a 2008 Pride Parade Grand Marshal Nominee. Dr. Queen will be the evenings emcee.

Gay pornography may be a major contributor to the adult pornographic industry, but it is not without a richly colorful and relevant history that goes hand in hand with underlying themes of homophobia and sexual freedom in America. The presentation will track gay porn as an art-form and enterprise from its days as obscenity. On hand will be models from NakedSword's venerable family of studios.

Dr. Queen turned to NakedSword for support once again after many past collaborations. "I worked with Roma during the annual masturbate-a-thon that good vibes puts together a few years back," said Queen. "It was the first time I heard of NakedSword, and realized what a vast and diverse community they have assembled. I have kept them on my radar ever since!"

Dr. Queen has been a longtime fan of pornography, and assembled a porn clip show for a past event called Beyond Boogie Nights, which aired to much success at the Castro Theater. Despite its fervor, the event only utilized one gay porn clip, a Joe Gage Classic. With the launch of their new line of men's sex toys called San Francisco Vibes, Queen wanted to use the history of pornography in conjunction with her new products to promote and educate the community about the importance and emergence of gay porn as a medium. She turned to her friend John Carr, who has been reviewing gay porn and has watched its progression since he started working for gay publications in the 1970's. "He is truly an expert," hails Queen.

"When you watch some of these clips, the ones that where banned as obscenity and punishable by law, you realize how laughable and oppressive the laws of bygone eras where," said Queen. "Carr and I started looking a these clips from the 50's, and they where so paunchy and posy. We thought; how could this be considered obscene?"

They decided that the turning point for gay porn was at a certain point when the films stopped being produced by the mob, as they were during their days as obscenity, and started to be produced by the men in the community who turned porn into a gay business. "By taking the audience from the oppression laden past of porn to its inception as a community asset and enterprise," Queen continued, "it really shows the measures pornographers had to go through to express their art." The show follows porn from the 50's to the 70's. "It will definitely be more Joe Gage than Jeff Stryker," Queen affirmed.

The film will premiere Saturday March 22nd, with a encore performance yet to be announced.

ABOUT NAKEDSWORD
NakedSword.com has been a top gay adult VOD provider since 1997. After a recent merger with AEBN in January 2007, it is now the largest gay VOD brand in the world reaching over 90 percent of the VOD market. NakedSword maintains exclusive partnerships with Falcon Entertainment, COLT Studio Group, Raging Stallion, and Titan Media, as well as close relationships with top studios like All Worlds Video, Hot House Entertainment, Dark Alley Media, Studio 2000, Pitbull Productions and over a hundred other studios. It pioneered online content delivery with the innovative Wet Palms gay porn soap opera (produced by Jet Set) and differentiates itself with original content like the award-winning Tim and Roma Show webcast and sites like GayPornBlog.com and TimandRomaBlog.com, as well as regular production of behind-the-scenes features for partner studios.

About Good Vibes
Good Vibrations is the original San Francisco-based retailer women have trusted for nearly three decades to provide a comfortable, safe environment for finding sex-positive products and educational materials to enhance their sex life. Good Vibrations is a woman-owned, woman-focused retailer that provides access to sex-positive products and accurate sex information through our clean and comfortable stores, catalog and web site in order to enhance our customers' sex lives and promote healthy attitudes about sex. With San Francisco Vibes, Good Vibes is expanding their horizons into the community of male sex-toy consumers.

About the Center for Sex and Culture
OUR MISSION: To provide non-judgmental, sex-positive sexuality education and support to diverse populations by means of classes, workshops, social gatherings, and hands-on, practical skills-building events; to maintain and house these events and supporting materials and functions; to maintain a publicly-accessible library and archives; to staff and support this learning environment.

About The Triangle Project
With a vision aimed toward the development of a non-discriminatory society, where organizations such as Triangle Project are a choice and not a necessity. Our mission is to contribute towards eradicating discrimination against and within the LGBT community, and to provide defined services to the LGBT community until they are no longer required.