With all the benefits the internet has brought to the world, the one area where it has done more damage than good is gay porn. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that gay internet porn sucks (no pun intended) but rather that there is just so much of it. And a lot of it is free. That these days you can log on and soon be watching two ultra hot guys fucking their brains out must be a godsend to the newly gay. But that’s part of the problem. Getting your hands on some gay porn is just too easy. And there are so many people out there trying to make a buck out of the industry, there is an over abundance of porn material to choose from. Hard to believe anyone would say that’s a negative (well, accept ‘mo haters), but it does do our tribe a disservice. The world of gay porn has just grown too large. There is no porn community left among gay men.

Joey Stefano. Jeff Stryker. Jon King. Ryan Idol. Sound familiar? All gay men of a certain age instantly recognize those names. Even if those particular porn stars weren’t what turned them on, they were so huge (uh, pun intended this time) everyone knew their names. Amongst other things. Ditto for William Higgins, Chi Chi LaRue, and Kristen Bjorn. Not porn stars but porn director/producers known for quality material and exceptionally hot guys. The latter two are still at it (I just learned). But can you name a leading porn director of today? One whose name every gay man recognizes?

Sure there are still some current porn actors who have reached the pinnacle of their careers, but the exclusivity of that accomplishment pales in comparison to the porn stars of yesteryear. Gay porn actors no longer become household names, they no longer have the Q rating that guys like Phil Bradley and Mike Henson pulled. Today you can mention some porn star you find incredibly hot, like Dionisio Heiderscheid, and rather than drawing a big smile you get a look of bewilderment. The sense of community we all once shared in our enjoyment of gay porn is a thing of the past. Now when you have some hottie bent over in front of you and you say, “I’m gonna fuck you like Rex Chandler” instead of anticipatory moans of pleasure, he’s more likely to look back over his shoulder and say, “Who?”

When I was a child young gay man the only way to get gay porn was by mail or a visit to your local x-rated movie/sex toy store (if you were lucky enough to live in a city large enough to have one). Even then, unless you were in or near a place like San Francisco, that meant a straight sex shop that might have a small smattering of gay porn tucked away in the back corner. It was a sleazy way of obtaining the material that not only got you off, but taught you how to get some other guy off. But damn it was exciting to lay your hands on that stuff. One of the first gay porn videos I bought was a William Higgins production and I quickly became familiar with his work, that of Catalina Studios, Matt Sterling, and Falcon Studios. And so did every other gay man that I fucked met.

By the time Powertool came out, the gay porn industry had really taken off. And every gay man in existence knew who Jeff Stryker was. Then Kristen Bjorn debuted with Carnival in Rio, and while few guys knew who any of those hotties were, they all knew Kristen’s work. Gay porn had moved out of the closet and into the gay mainstream world. By the time Bel Ami started producing movies, all you had to say was ‘Lukas’ and everyone knew who you meant. And started drooling. By then, the internet had started becoming a part of everyone’s daily lives. But it was a place to hook up with other guys, or a way to discreetly buy gay porn. You could find photos of naked guys, usually porn stars you already knew of. Occasionally you’d run across pictures of real guys, usually amateurs who wanted to break into the porn industry. But bandwidth was still small enough that other than an occasional 15 second clip, actual porn video was not to be found. We still all relied on gay videos, and soon thereafter gay porn dvds. And we still all masturbated over the same guys.

Today, Google returns 46,300,000 sites on a search for gay porn. The first page of results are all sites offering free gay porn. I don’t even know anyone who buys the stuff any more. I seldom, if ever, watch gay porn these days. There are just too many available guys out there, easily reachable through the internet, that sitting at home by myself with a gay porno on just doesn’t make sense. Jeff Stryker is filming low-rent lawyer commercials in Los Angeles. Ryan Idol was recently convicted of attempted manslaughter for trying to kill his girlfriend with a toilet tank lid (you could never trust those gay for pay porn stars). Ken Ryker is in jail after his third DUI arrest. And while there are plenty of gay porn stars out there today with big tools, few qualify as a big star.

Thanks to the internet, reaching out to touch someone is pretty easy these days. Finding suitable porn when you feel like touching yourself instead is even easier. For young gay guys and those just discovering their interest in men, the internet is a great boon. But as a community, we’ve lost a sense of familiarity, a sense of place that gay porn once provided us. Maybe I’m just being nostalgic, but I think it’s a shame that younger gay men will never know the fraternity that gay porn once brought to our community.