Know Your Rights
Yesterday I was a panelist at Q-Me Con 2006 sitting along side New York gay porn impresario Michael Lucus. The panel was ably moderated by Lisa Vandever, Co-Founder & Director of the CineKink Film Festival. Among the topics that came up was the nebulous cloud of obscenity that hangs over anyone that makes and distributes sexually explicit films.
My response to that, both at the conference, and as a matter of how we conduct our business is that I make films that I believe in, both as an expression of the freedoms guaranteed me as a citizen of the republic, and as an artist; and that we will make them, sell them, and defend our right to do so; whether it’s in San Francisco, New York, or Nashville.
Michael’s response startled me. Said Michael:
“Well I’m not going to ship to Tennessee or Alabama if those people won’t even stand up for their rights.”
I have no problem with Michael or anyone else deciding that it’s not worth the risk to do business in places like Alabama or Tennessee, Western Pennsylvania, or any of the other places in this country where you can go to jail for embarrassing the angels. My favorite sex retailers have banned zipcodes built into their shipping software. It’s the wise and prudent thing for a business to do.
But please don’t turn around and tell us that you won’t ship to dicey zipcodes because the session drummer in Nashville won’t stand up for his rights, or the health clinic physician in Alabama won’t stand up for his rights, or the teacher in Western PA won’t stand up for his rights.
No one, and certainly not me, is accusing Michael of being a coward or a traitor for making the decision not to invite unwanted attention to his company. Let’s not accuse the gay men who live in Tennessee or Alabama or whereever else it’s not as easy to be a gay man as it is in New York City – and make whatever compromises they need to – of being cowards either.
