If you’re a gay man with internet access, a wandering mind, and some time to kill, chances are you’ve stumbled across the work of Broke Straight Boys once or twice over the years.
The adult film brand is one of the most recognized on the web that specializes in “gay for pay” content, with heterosexual men (so we’re told) typically enjoying some stiff banter before they engage in decidedly un-heterosexual relations with reckless abandon.
“But, wait, are these guys really straight?,” you might ask. If they weren’t, would that ruin the appeal for you?
Well, back in 2014, a reality docu-series attempted to answer those questions—and so many more—by following along with the lives, loves, and lubes of a group of men who dared to make “gay-for-pay” a career, a lifestyle.
Fittingly, that series was called Broke Straight Boys, and its eight episodes ran on gay network Here TV nearly a decade ago.
Considering it aired on television, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising to learn that the series itself doesn’t feature any sex or explicit nudity, but it does show you just about everything else going on in these guys’ lives, from rehearsals to vacations to all the drama that goes down behind the scenes when the cameras are off.
At its center is Mark Erickson, the owner of adult film studio BluMedia, who houses a rotating cast of young straight men in his mansion while they come to town to film scenes for Broke Straight Boys.
The series logline touts itself as the story of a “dysfunctional family,” and that’s certainly one way to look at it! As performers come and go over the course of the eight episodes, we’re treated to a fascinating glimpse into their psyches as they make their living in a career that many would call taboo.
Some maintain they’re providing a fantasy—”there’s no enjoyment in it”—and we even get to meet a few of their girlfriends. And others… well, *spoiler alert* but we can confirm that, by the end of the series, we discover that two of these guys are actually in love with each other!
Suffice it to say, the Broke Straight Boys series is a wild ride!
After its original broadcast, all eight episodes became available on the adult film studio’s website—and later on their OnlyFans page. But now the series returns to Here TV, where it can be viewed by subscribers through their streaming platform (or through Amazon Prime Video via a free seven-day trial).
For the curious, check out Here TV’s new trailer for the series below:
Donston
It seems like the media is still semi obsessed with this tired “gay4pay” concept. It’s like the world is full of so much inherent gay panic and male homophobia that the very concept of a guy sexually engaging with another guy without there being attractions there is so interesting in and of itself, and it’s really not. The actuality of “gay4pay” was always mostly nonsense. It was a marketing tactic by porn companies to make money off of “straight’ guy” fantasies and a way for male performers to preserve an image. The more you learn about sexuality and the more you listen to many sex workers, the more you realize that even most of the “straight” and “gay” presenting performers have some type of dimensions, bisexuality, fluidity, paraphiliacs, get off on being worshipped no matter the gender, etc. And having a gf and/or not really enjoying homo sex does not make a dude thoroughly and conventionally “straight” and hetero. It’s 2023. We should all know “sexuality” and the gender, sexual, affection, romantic, emotion, commitment are more complicated and individual than that. While the small percentage of truly conventionally, thoroughly heterosexual and “straight” performers in gay porn tended to be druggies and/or ex-cons.
It’s kinda sad/fascinating how up until about a decade ago the porn industry was probably the main thing that unified “queers”, an industry built on problematic shit, exploitation, whittling people down to categories and fetishes and an industry that often leaned on gay shaming, homo inferiority and masculine superiority. We still haven’t entirely matured from that era, though we’re getting there. However, none of it is fascinating enough to watch an eight part series that’s mostly designed to promote a dying site and a dated formula.
Diplomat
I love straight boy fantasy, it’ll be around forever. Get used to it!
MrGoldman
Donston,
Chill out gurl!
Your reply makes you seem actually and totally obsessed with gay4pay. Just as you use ” the media” to describe what is actually a very small percentage of all media, we know what you mean. Using the term “straight” does not have to be absolute to be accurate. A guy who can get hard and climax from another man’s body, does not mean they are secretly gay. They just found it an easy way to make quick cash and I’m not sure why they don’t seem to care about this being on video for eternity. Just as I have had sex with women, it is not what I really wanted to do, but I focused on the physical only. I could do it again for money, but certainly not on camera.
abfab
Dear Don. I always appreciate that you take the time and your thoughfulness to write what you do, and with clarity. As we can see from those responding, the old saying holds; ”don’t toss your pearls before swine”. I have questions for you, not deep ones, but ones I still want your views on. Maybe next week.
-abfab xox
Donston
MrGoldman, I’m not here to kink or fantasy shame. However, for some years we kept seeing mainstream media write articles about “gay4pay” performers and mainstream media giving interviews to supposed “gay4pay” performers. We’ve seen quite a few supposed “gay4pay” performers go on insecure and homophobic rants. We’ve seen “gay4pay” and “straight” used as a way to belittle unabashedly same-sex interested men and to uplift “straight” men. It’s not a fantasy that will ever go away. And that’s fine. But there are consequences to that fantasy when it’s designed for widespread consumption.
Porn/sex work made “identities” about persona more than anything else. And yes, a large percentage of guys (perhaps most) who claimed to be “gay4pay” later on claimed to have some type of queer dimensions, fluidity, paraphiliacs. Some even claimed “gay” identities or indulged same-sex relationships. The main point though is that many queers still have a difficult time separating the fantasy from the realities of psychology, sexuality, behaviors, love, the gender, sexual, affection, romantic, emotion, commitment spectrum. So, it does go a bit deeper than porn categories or busting a quick nut. Once again, this isn’t about shaming people but instead looking beyond the fantasy and the monetization of identities and sexual behaviors.
quantum
Glad to know you’ve taste-tested enough adult performers’ pee to generalize them as addicts and ex-cons.
That said,
One of the episodes goes into a performer coming out and being confronted by his parents for being in the closet for so long and recently overdosing. It’s not the fun promotional party you imagine. I watched it when it came out. The site comes off worse for it, and while most people didn’t have access to the Canadian gay channel it was broadcast on, it was very popular on gay torrent sites at the time, and I think it probably contributed to the site’s downfall from the zeitgeist.
Of course vulnerable young men run to pornography for quick cash when they’re young. You’re not doing any kind of expose here, neither is the show.
Donston
Yeah, I don’t really think I’m “exposing” anything. Anyone with a lick of knowledge knows that the porn/sex work industry takes advantage of desperate people. Whether that desperation has to do with contending with addictions, past criminal behaviors, a very damaged ego and sense of not belonging, general mental health struggles, young people not truly knowing better and not understanding the real consequences, or people not knowing how to deal with stuff like hyper-sexuality, paraphiliacs, fluidity, contradictions, confusions, internalized phobias. My main issue has always with queer media’s desire to still promote porn and the sex work industry and make money off of it while rarely acknowledging the problematic elements, and when they do it’s mostly sensationalistic. Queer media is still focused on selling fantasy.
Res1
Well said, Donston.
This topic has been run into the ground (this documentary is old). However, it seems to be a fixture that won’t go away anytime soon. I don’t even engage in this topic like I used to. I find gay men to be the most annoying component of the discussion. They’re so hellbent on a straight fantasy that they’re quick to shoot any rationality down. They’re often behind the whole “let them experiment” movement because they’re so wrapped up in what they can get out of it regardless of the homophobia that is at the root of the gay for pay. But the most confusing thing of it all is straight men’s sexuality is flippant, according to gay men, but gay men’s aren’t. Make that make sense.
Neoprene
Another moronic “copy n post” from Peter Pedantic (aka Comma Boi).
Hayden
In the words of Danny Devito
“Some dicks can’t be unsucked”
bachy
Most sex involves some kind of projected delusion. Not sure what makes this one better or worse than any other.
abfab
Maybe yours does, but not most. Who are you Doctor Ruth all of a sudden? Projected delusion?
bachy
Abbie: are you booze-posting again?
abfab
That has to be a clear projection. So no. I’m not. Muzzle yourself.
Diplomat
Bachy,
From the girl’s locker room I suspect.
dbmcvey
@Diplomat
“From the girl’s locker room I suspect.”
What does that mean?
Diplomat
Abfab is booze~posting from the girls locker room. Typical daily fare.
Rambeaux
Oh, hell.
The entertainment industry is based on fantasy.
Sit back and enjoy it.
abfab
We can both enjoy and anaylize. Unless you’d rather dictate and become our official moderator.
Tombear
Where do they find these guys? They look like straight hustlers working an adult bookstore.
Diplomat
Oh Behaaave! As little as possible! Now what bookstore was that?
Godabed
Unless it followed these men home and got their actual back stories, the drugs used, and family histories. I don’t care for this. G4p is such a historically old concept, it shouldn’t be news anywhere.
Res1
One more tidbit: The Onlyfans era kind of exposed the whole gay-for-pay pornstars. Before, you had guys talking about how they had to take several breaks and go to a corner to beat off to straight. Now you have an iPhone set up on a tripod, single shoot, no cuts, and these guys, are enjoying the hell out of themselves with no assistance.
wiggie
wait….Queerty, along with other gay publications, did this story years ago when it first appeared on Here TV and now all the episodes can easily be found online. Completely recycled article.
bakeembakeem
I don’t know about anywhere else, however here in Philly, they all end up addicted to many drugs, homeless, infected, cast aside, and eventually being found dead on some back lot or alley
SDR94103
they are gay as hell. Playin a game.
scotty
coz no one knows who you are when you have your head shaved. now put on the puka shell necklaces and stfu. such hypocrisy is rivalled only by politics and clergy.
MrMichaelJ
Yeah, I hooked up with one of the Broke Straight Boys off a hook-up website back around 2008. Didn’t tell him I knew him from the videos but, uh, yeah. Think it was Adam4Adam and, no, there wasn’t cash involved, etc.