Gay porn star Hugh Hunter calls out GayVN Awards for racism and turns down nominations

This weekend, the gay adult film performer Hugh Hunter turned down each of his nominations for The GayVN Awards, an annual awards ceremony.

In a lengthy Tweet, he called out both the organization and the industry as a whole for racism.

“The gay porn industry has always been a place of veiled racism and bigotry,” he writes.

“It now appears as if the GayVN Awards have chosen to make this racism and bigotry more blatant in their return to the awards arena. As I browsed through the GayVN award nomination categories and its endless list of nominees I noticed a category which immediately struck my sensibilities as wrong and, quite frankly, turned my stomach.”

Hunter is particularly angry that there’s a separate “Ethnic” category for “black, Latin, and Asian” actors:

“Why? Why were these scenes not just included in the best scene category? Why would a gay porn company choose to separate minority groups into their own race at an event that is supposed to celebrate the gay industry in its entirety? Why would this category be created in 2017 when the political climate is so thick with racial divide in this country? Why would they call it ethnic? Who uses the term ethnic?

“I want to be remembered for stepping forward and starting a movement to eventually end racism and bigotry in this beleaguered industry. We are members of the LGBTQ family. This family includes all colors of the rainbow and all people from every corner of the world…For so many we are the educators of sexuality. Let’s be the best educators we can be.”

Read the complete statement below: