Devon Hunter

…m’a fait me rendre compte que je dois “oublier le passé: le futur t’attend.”

It’s almost time to say good-bye to this year. I hope you have a wonderful celebration this coming weekend! I never did this in 2007, 2008, or 2009… But 2010 has been much more eventful. So, here’s a quick run down of the Year in Devon (click the month to read a related entry from that time):

January – I was feeling confusion after my last attempt at dating got complicated.

February – I got stood up twice for Valentine’s day, but wrote a nice poem, so it wasn’t a total waste.

March – I was coming into myself as an escort, and explained why I am happier than when I was dancing in clubs.

April – My contract with Sean Cody expired, and I began making work with other video companies.

May – I was quite busy making videos with other gay models, and began talking more openly about the process of making these videos.

June – I wrote an exposé about gay-for-pay porn that started an international hurricane in a tea cup. My grandmother and dad both went to the hospital on my birthday during the fallout from the Sean Cody brouhaha, my legal name was revealed publicly in retaliation, Sean Cody and I exchanged threats of law suits, and I took several weeks off to rest and regroup from all the combined stressors.

July – It became clear I had to take care of myself better. I committed to taking time off on a regular basis, and I finally began traveling again once the harassment stemming from June calmed down.

August – In an attempt to expand my audience I started on Twitter, and several of my films came out in short succession throughout the month.

September – Throughout the month I gave several interviews. I had been turning them down in the wake of the summer upheaval, because I didn’t want to feed that monster. Once time had put some distance between it all, I began conversing with people who didn’t try to sensationalize what had happened. In particular, I had a nice conversation about race with MenOfColor (though that ruffled some feathers, too). I seem to be good at that (and don’t apologize for it).

October – I injured my back at the end of September during a theatrical performance, and it was becoming a serious problem. I had to get several forms of therapy, and (along with my massage therapist of 4 years) I found a chiropractor. I wasn’t recovered until November. I did more video work, and met a reader while in Palm Springs shooting for Falcon.

November – There were more opportunities to interview and converse with other bloggers and writers. I also decided to hunker down and reconnect with my spirituality (which I’d been neglecting for over a year, and all but abandoned since June). Everything had already been improving on all fronts, but from that time on I entered into a period (still ongoing as I write this) of total contentment. It was 180-degree reversal from the summer stress.

December – Throughout the month I paid off various debts, got my mind wrapped around the idea of committing to my happiness and success, and asked myself to marry me. It was a pretty spectacular month on so many levels, both personally and professionally. In fact, it was the best month I’d had in all of 2010: A wonderful way to end the year. At the beginning of December I did a homemade video with David-SF that made a bit of a splash, and was featured on several sites and blogs amidst a mild flurry of excitement at the idea of a professional porn model making good content and distributing it for free.

Going into 2011 I have decided that I am going to take my career to the next level. I said that going into 2010 and experienced some spectacular growth. Sometimes it was painful, but sometimes it was intensely pleasurable. What do I mean by that going into 2011? Suffice it to say that I have ideas for my escorting and video careers that I am ready to begin molding into something tangible. I really am excited, and I look forward to sharing with all of you as I always have.

I WISH YOU A HEALTHY, HAPPY, AND PROSPEROUS 2011!!! xoxoxo

(In the spirit of providing useful information and a place for intelligent dialogue, www.DevonHunter.info accepts well written blog entries about topics of concern to adult entertainment. The views expressed in the following article are not necessarily shared by the operators of the hosting site. Archived guest writers’ articles will be listed under Interviews & Essays.)

“While L.A. County finally doing something by closing AIM is a good thing, we’ll see if they have the backbone to shut down productions,” said AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, a longtime critic of AIM, who renewed his call for public health authorities to shut down productions that do not require condoms.
- Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2010*

Have we failed the test?

Six months ago, I had never heard of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation.  In August, I started researching a new project which includes characters that become gay adult models.  Of course, I’ve been a fan of the industry for a while.  I find watching a man make himself physically, if not emotionally, vulnerable to another man incredibly erotic.  That’s one of the reasons I author novels in the genre of gay erotic fiction.  However, I had no idea that there was a clinic in Los Angeles dedicated to the testing of adult models until I began to follow dozens of models on Twitter and saw a tweet from Wolf Hudson mentioning it.

As I started talking to a few of these guys, I found out that testing policies range from strenuous to non-existent depending on the studio.  From watching the ACS (Amateur College Sex) side of Corbin Fisher, I knew that sometimes condoms aren’t anywhere to be found.  This puts a lot of pressure on the models to keep themselves tested and put their health in the hands of their scene partners.  I think a database with test results for everyone involved in a shoot is a band-aid, but it’s better than fucking in the dark.

That’s why I was very surprised to see that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation was a longtime critic of the AIM testing clinic.  I absolutely understand their position about requiring condoms on every shoot, but that’s not likely in a society driven by capitalism.  While there are customers that want to see bareback sex, there will be studios that will produce it.  The government tries to stay as far away from the stigma of porn as they possibly can.  I mean, porn stars bring it on themselves don’t they?  If they were worth anything, they’d find another line of work.  This is another attitude that pisses me off, but that’s a post for another day.

If the goal is to minimize the new outbreaks of HIV and other STDs, how does it possibly make sense to close a facility geared toward industry performers?  Consistent testing for models isn’t going to solve all of the world’s problems, but it will allow them to get treated sooner and allow reputable producers to minimize risks to other models.  Of course, that’s a lot of sex to be had in the thirty days between tests and the variables are exponential, but it’s better than them not being tested at all.

I don’t know what the solution is which is why I’m an author and not a politician.  It just seems to me that if the goal is to try and keep models safe and healthy, as I think it should be, they should have more options for achieving that goal, not less.

- J. P. Barnaby
http://www.jpbarnaby.com
Twitter: @JPBarnaby

Erotic fiction is more than just moans, grunts, and physical pleasure. To J. P. Barnaby, erotic fiction consists not only of the mechanics of physical love, but the complex characters and relationships that lead to those all-encompassing feelings of need and longing.  Sex without context is merely sex – but sex coupled with attraction, with explosive repercussions – that is good erotic fiction.

*http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/10/local/la-me-porn-hiv-20101210

Hello friends and lovely readers!! I have gotten questions asking what I want as a present for the holidays, and I wish I’d thought of this sooner: I need and want for nothing. My business has allowed me to surpass all my goals for the year. I am blessed to have everything I need and want for myself; however, one of the most amazing dancers/choreographers I have ever met is doing a fundraiser, and if you could give me anything that I would want, it would be to help this little dance company grow into a bigger one. I went to UCLA with Bradley Michaud (see a nice interview with him here), and I know him to be an artist whose work is exciting and intelligent. Please, consider helping me to help him! I’ve already given the gift that will push them past their goal and secure ALL their funding, but why not add a little more to the pot?

Thanks for considering it!

Click here to add your gift to their fund raising contribution system via Amazon.com’s secure processing system BEFORE THE CUT OFF DATE OF January 1, 2011.

I’m just getting home from Boston, and I found some new pics of me from Julian Vankim in my email. I will update this post once I get home from the airport.