Porn Panic 2011: Derek Burts — From Rentboy To Crossover HIV+ Victim…To Anti-Gay Double Agent??? (OR:When Mike Weinstein and Bryan Fischer Are In Sync, We Have A BIG Problem)
OP/ED by Anthony Kennerson from http://bppa.blogspot.com/2011/08/porn-panic-2011-derek-burts-from.html
Oh, but you are so NOT going to believe what I am about to type here. As crazy as the latest porn scare is, the stuff I just discovered is going to blow things up to the level of insanity. It’s kind of convoluted, so bear with me.
Bryan Fischer is the chief spokeperson for the American Family Association, which is one of the oldest and loudest "Christian Conservative" lobbying groups in this country. You may remember the AFA when it was formerly known as the National Federation for Decency, and its head honcho was a gruffy old Mississippi Baptist preacher named Don Wildmon, and they were in the 80’s one of the main leaders of the 1980’s war against "ungodly" sex. From abortion to homosexuality to pornography to "promiscuity" to just plain adultery, there was no sexual sin that they wouldn’t attempt to uncover and severely punish…all in the name of salvation through Jesus, of course.
When Don Wildmon passed from this earth a few years ago, the family syndicate was passed on to his son Tim, who also appears from time to time…but these days, its Bryan Fischer who is the main mouthpiece for AFA these days. To that end, he has his own online radio talk show (to match the over-the-air radio show he does for the Family Values Radio Network and Christian Right talk radio daily) where he discusses the issues of the day from his own American Christian Taliban perspective.
Usually his show consists of varying shades or the usual wingnutter talking points: Barack Obama is a socialist Marxist Muslim Kenyan who faked his birth certificate; "Communist" Russia and "Communist China" are out to bury us, Government not redeemed by Christian Right values is illegitimate and must be abolished; the Founding Fathers of our country were rock-ribbed Christians who wanted a "Christian Nation" (their Deism and secularism not withstanding), and so on ad nauseum.
Their main obsession of the moment, however, is sexuality…and homosexuality in particular. To folks like Fischer, "sexual deviancy" (meaning, any form of sexual expression or act not intended to make lots and lots of babies for Jesus within a Biblically approved marriage) is at the heart of homosexuality, abortion, masturbation, pornography, prostitution, and all other forms of what he considers to be "sexual sin"…and their practioners need at least to be punished severely for their heresy and deviance from the Godly order…or, at its most extreme, simply killed.
Which brings me to one of Bryan Fischer’s latest online programs that he streamed for the AFA’s website, titled "Sexual Deviancy Welcomed In U. S. Army".
(I hear ‘ya thinkin’, Clones…"What the hell does this have to do with the porn scare, ‘Dog??" Hang with me, folks….I’m getting there.)
Anyways, the original background for this particular program was the upcoming finalization of the 60 day cooling period when the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue" policy preventing homosexuals from openly serving in the military would finally expire, and gay men, lesbian, and bisexual folk would be free to enlist and serve in our Armed Forces free of public persecution and dismissal merely for their private sexual preference. For most average folk, this is a grand step forward for equality and justice, since performance of the job should be the principal criteria for a soldier’s effectiveness, not his private sex life. (Besides, it’s not as if the military is bending over backwards to purge itself of hetero adulterers or divorcees, you know.)
But to people like Fischer, it is a grave and destructive step backwards, simply because it means, in his mind and that of likeminded homophobes, that gay men wielding their leather ass chaps and rock-hard dicks and Anal-Eze will be fully able to seduce and buttfuck impressionable young recruits into the evil and Satanic "homosexual lifestyle", thusly destroying morale and the will of Americans to fight and kill and torture and even die for the glory of God and their country.
And so, Fischer dedicated this program to how decent, Far Right-believing Christians can fight back for decency and morality.
The first portion is the usual talking points about fear of gay stalkers in the showers and sex in the foxholes, and talk of a protest on the day that DADT is scheduled to officially expire.
In the middle portion, though, it gets real interesting.
Unfortunately, it’s streaming video, so I can’t capture and embed it; you will have to go over to the AFA website to view the clip and see for yourself. But, here’s the abridged version.
Fischer goes on to describe how he thinks homosexuals should be punished for their public "deviancy" and then announces that for his "Liberal News Tweak of the Day", he will use "an activist gay male porn star" to dictate what he feels should be the proper law against public homosexuality. He then quotes directly from an activist gay performer who happens to be HIV+ who had openly called for fines and even jail sentences for any gay man who has sex in porn without using a condom. Fischer, of course, extends that sanction to include not only all gay men in general, but also any one, gay, straight, or bi, outside of marriage.
But the real kicker is in the gay porn star he quotes to support his position. Three guesses, Clones.
Try….Derek Burts.
DEREK BURTS?!?!? Not that Derek Burts, alias Cameron Reid?? The one who was the Patient Zero of last year’s HIV scare? The one who openly boasted of being proud of being both a crossover gay performer AND an escort for Rentboy.com? The one who claimed that AIM had dissed him after he got infected, and sought treatment from them, and then got himself on AHF’s payroll?? The one who even boasted that the scene where he apparently got infected was a condom scene in which his partner took of the condom at the end and blew out on his butthole, causing the infected spooge to enter via the anal cavity?? THAT Derek Burts??
Yup…that’s your man.
In fact, Fischer was so confident in using Burts as the perfect example of the kind of gay male porn role model for Christian bashing that he followed his show up with a post on the official AFA blog, Rightly Conserned, where he liberally (no pun) quotes both Derrick Burts and Michael Weinstein, as well as their LA condom mandate ordinance, which would call for huge fines for porn companies not mandating condoms in all shoots. Of course, Burts and Weinstein are more concerned about protecting performers (or so they say), while Fischer is all about banning gay sex (and non marital non procreative hetero sex)….but you can see the shared vision of deep sexual fascism and sexual repression in both.
Here’s how Fischer attempted to get on Weinstein and Burts’ good side:
A gay porn actor is way ahead of me, but I’m all caught up now. He wants to fine people who don’t use a condom when they have gay sex.
Now he wants to restrict the fine to people in the porn industry, but why stop there? If contracting HIV/AIDS is the threat to human health he says it is, why shouldn’t we try to protect everybody?
Derek Burts is an actor in both straight and gay porn films, and shut down the porn industry late last fall when he tested positive for HIV, which he says he almost certainly contracted while filming gay sex scenes.
Now, according to the Los Angeles Times, another sex performer has been diagnosed with HIV, and once again the porn industry has been temporarily shuttered.
Burts and others are now collecting signatures for a ballot initiative sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation which, if passed by voters in 2012, will require all performers in adult films shot in L.A. to wear condoms during filming, whether the sex is gay or straight. The only standards in place right now are strictly voluntary, and ask performers to be tested every 30 days.
The president of the foundation, one Michael Weinstein, says that not requiring gay porn actors to wear condoms shows “outrageous disregard for the health and safety of performers and the community at large.” So he too admits that gay sex is an enormous threat to public health, and that the threat is community-wide. In other words, he’s saying that homosexual sex, indeed random sex in general, is not a victimless crime. I couldn’t agree more. I feel like I’m listening to myself here.
Now if condoms are going to be required in filming gay sex scenes, then there must be some penalty for failing to do so. I was unable to find out exactly what the proposed penalty is, but I’m assuming it’s in the nature of a fine.
What I’m suggesting is that we enact ordinances in city after city and laws in state after state that mandate that same exact penalty – whatever penalty gay activists think is appropriate – for unprotected homosexual sex. Hey, if it’s good enough for porn stars, it should be good enough for the average gay man on the street.
And if someone wants to extend that same penalty to unmarried straights who have sex, who am I to complain?
Why should we only care about the health of those who get paid $1000 to $2000 for filming a sex scene and not care about the little people who have gay sex in public bathrooms for free?
Of course, this is just the place to begin, but it is a first step in de-normalizing and de-legitimizing homosexual sex. And the beauty here is that we would be following the lead of homosexual activists. We ought to take their advice in the simple interest of human health and out of concern for future possible HIV victims.
So oddly, I find myself in the same corner on this issue as gay porn stars. I’m willing to take their suggestion and apply it not just in L.A. but nationwide and not just for people who get paid to have sex but for every gay sex partner in the land. It’s not all we can do, but it’s the least we can do.
Anyone wants to do an over-under on how long it will take for Ministress Lubben to appear on Fischer’s show?? I’d give it about 2 weeks.
More importantly, what does that say about Mike Weinstein’s fervent denials that he’s not a right-winger or in any way associated with right-wingers who are dedicated to destroying everything related and not about porn, and that AHF is only and solely concerned with the safety and health of the performers?? Will he and his newly founded asstroturf group FAIR (For Adult Industry Responsibility) come out and directly repudiate Mr. Fischer and all other open homophobes and erotophobes and fascists? And how in the hell can a man who still sells bareback gay male porn at his thrift stores feel fit to fellow travel with some of the most toxic racist/sexist/homophobic/fundamentalist Right people around?
I suspect only two motives…either Mike Weinstein and Derek Burts and the rest of AHF are really right-wing double agents playing the "liberal" good cop to the "conservative" AFA bad cop scheme to wipe out porn and sexual expression a bit at a time; or they’re all motivated more by the golden showers of cold hard cash that can be gotten by exploiting sex hate and shoving condoms down performers’ throats.
Then again, we’ve already seen with such "liberals" like Mike Weinstein and Gail Dines that political consistency always tends to be flexible based on the amount of dollar bills thrown at them. Why should this be any different for them?
Once again, this is why faux liberalism, like faux ho’s, should be taken very seriously. What you see might not be exactly what you ultimately get…and beware of men and women hiding behind curtains with really big microphones and bells and whistles.