arson attack

Adult entertainer Matthew Camp reflects on the targeted hate crime that burned down his home

By · 9 comments · Updated on January 26, 2024

It was a little over two years ago that we reported on a horrific arson attack that claimed the home of popular adult entertainer Matthew Camp.

Early in the morning of January 14, 2021, a masked assailant poured gasoline on the front porch of Camp’s home, setting it ablaze. He and a friend managed to escape, but lost everything inside.

At the time, local media reported on the fact that it was a historic home—once a meeting spot for the Church Of Satan—but seemed to ignore the possibility it could have been a targeted anti-LGBTQ+ attack. An official police statement also followed suit.

Now, Camp reflects back on that awful tragedy—and the isolating pain that came in its wake—in his upcoming cover story with Attitude. To this day, he has yet to hear any updates from local authorities.

“I woke up, I heard a loud explosion and it was pitch-black,” he remembers. “I look outside and I see flames creeping up the porch. The doorbell was going off constantly as the fire triggered the electrical circuit. The house was filling up with smoke so fast.”

When Camp posted about the incident on social media, the LGBTQ+ community immediately rallied around him. After a GoFundMe was set up to cover Camp’s losses from the fire, friends and fans turned up to support, passing the fundraising goal within the first 24 hours.

Speaking with Attitude, Camp can’t help but connect the dots to the growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, spurred on by the hundreds of state and local bills seeking to ban drag, as well as disenfranchise trans people.

“Anyone that’s different—LGBTQIA+, queer people all over and non-conforming individuals in the community are always under attack because we are a smaller population,” he says. “But I also don’t want to completely divide us and say it’s just us because there’s lots of people under attack. It’s just not OK. You can’t be doing that stuff.”

Related:

Adult star Matthew Camp has something eye-popping to show you

Christmas is just around the corner.

After his own scary run-in with violent homophobia in ’21, Camp is more ready than ever to stand up and fight for the rights of his community.

“People are really spending a lot of time and attention on these drag bills and these queer bills, because they don’t want you to know what they’re really doing, which is consolidating power, deregulating safety protocols, it really is the oldest trick in the book.”

“Any sort of economic system that is starting to waver, they always find a scapegoat,” he adds. Wow, beauty and brains? We’re definitely happy to have him on our side, defending our human rights.

Camp can currently be seen as a judge on OUTtv’s Hot Haus, where LGBTQ+ adult entertainers compete to be named “The Next Queer Sex Symbol.” Additionally, his episode of WOW Present+’s Click Boys—a docuseries about the lives of OnlyFans creators—is available to stream now.

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