For the first time in six years, the GayVN Awards have returned. A subset of the AVN Awards, which takes place in Las Vegas each January, it is a celebration of gay porn industry and awarding who they think performed the best in several different categories. Here's the problem: most of the nominees are stark white.
This was something that was brought up over the weekend when performer Hugh Hunter publicly withdrew his nominations from the 2018 ceremony due to the veiled racism and bigotry that is in the industry, and that these awards only exacerbate it. He brought up why it wasn't necessary to have a Best Ethnic Scene, given how the racial climate is sky high currently.
This isn't something really new, honestly. Let's take a look at the show's history since its inception in 1998 and it's most recent awards in 2011. Performer of the Year for each time it has been held has been won by someone who is Caucasian. Now, let's look at this year's nominees (bolded out are men who are of a different ethnicity than white):
Bruce Beckham
Brent Corrigan
Trenton Ducati
Sean Duran
Quentin Gainz
Jack Harrer
Jesse Jackman
Levi Karter
JJ Knight
Joey Mills
Diego Sans
Jason Vario
Kevin Warhol
Wesley Woods
Sean Zevran
3 out of 15, that's right 3 out of 15. Now let's look at the category of Best Newcomer (once again, bolding out men who are not white.)
Gabriel Alanzo
Beaux Banks
Calvin Banks
Corbin Colby
Marq Daniels
Ace Era
Pheonix Fellington
Sean Ford
Luke Hudson
Jon Kael
Liam Knox
Skyy Knox
Rico Marlon
William Seed
Daymin Voss
Faring a bit better at 5 out of 15, but still pales in comparison to the amount of white men nominated. The Best Actor category has minimal to no diversity whatsoever, with not a single man of color being nominated with the exception of Adam Ramzi. So why are they relegated to the Best Ethnic Scene categories and a handful of others, but when it comes to the main categories, they are left out?
Is Hugh right, does the industry still have a major issue with racism and bigotry? These nominations definitely fuel that fire as you have to wonder if this was a music award show, would we award people like Beyonce for Best Ethnic Album? Hell no, so why do it here?
Commenter Devin Cooper is proof that racists are comically not very smart.
This is such bullshit. You
This is such bullshit. You don't get a free nomination because your black… You get nominated because you are great! If your not on the list! Maybe go work on your body or be a better performer on camera. The people who rise to the top are people who can capture an audience. Whether you are red, yellow, black, or white, doesn't matter! If the best are all black… great, if the best are all white… great, but this isn't everyone gets a participation award and a trophy. Its real life.
What's next the Olympics… oh we don't have a black person on the podium in this competition lets kick some people off who were better so we don't be seen as racist. What we need is a world that is color blind… that applies to everyone.
This bitch completely missed
This bitch completely missed the point.