I was disappointed, but not altogether surprised, by a reader's comment to my first piece for the LGBT Weekly. I wrote what I felt was a comprehensive story about this year's Cybersocket Awards. In it, I gave the reader a look inside the awards, a brief history of gay porn awards themselves and concluded, rightly, that the mystique of the ceremonies - and not just the Cybersocket awards - had been diluted by the very Internet they purport to celebrate. (You can read the article yourself for a fuller examination.)
But one reader, someone calling himself 'YesHeDid,' felt that I failed in my responsibilities by not mentioning the lack of diversity in the awards themselves:
"Not a mention about the total lack of color at the Cybersockets this year. They need to do a much better job of reaching out to black and Latin gays so they too will vote because it’s a problem when there [a]re no/very low numbers of men of color. Just as when you have an election with no females running, one would logically analyze why that is and try to change the trajectory for a decline to an incline. Cybersockets is no one’s People Choice Awards as People Choice Awards are racially inclusive. Instead of checking to see what the old heads were waxing nostalgia over, perhaps you should have looked to see where all the dark skinned nominees were."
My editor, Thom Senzee, was quick to come my defense (without any prompting on my behalf) by noting:
"It’s ironic that Victor Hoff’s feature story failed to mention an alleged dearth of representation of men of color at the Cybersocket awards. Victor Hoff, who is Caucasian, specializes in journalistic coverage of men of color in the adult entertainment industry. Check out his blog on the subject at menofcolor.blogs.com. The focus of the piece was about the survival of a gay-owned show over non-gay events through the years. Had it been a comprehensive expose on the Cybersocket Web Awards, and the story had failed to address the issue of men of color, I think it would have been a major oversight. However, you bring up an interesting point that we may want to jump off with as a starting point to a follow-up story. Can you elaborate in an email to me at editor@lgbtweekly.com? (–Ed.)"
This, in turn, lead 'YesHeDid' to counter-respond:
"I’m aware of Mr. Hoff’s work, it by no way makes him an expert on the subject, but it does seem weird that a guy who talks about diversity and has a blog dedicated to it would put all of that aside to rave about a site he has previous taken to task for colorless representation..."
I just want to make a few remarks. First, I agree with my editor. I presented the idea for a story to him and we fleshed out the idea together, having mutually decided that the piece would be an overview of the awards themselves. There are several angles I chose to ignore including a virtual black out from the studios and stars of the San Francisco area. But should have I mentioned a lack of diversity? No, for this piece I felt it would have been tangential to the main thrust of the story.
Second, I am not a single-issue journalist. While I am as passionate today as I have been my entire life for racial inclusion, I absolutely refuse to be tied down to a single issue. As important as racial equality is, and as disappointed as I am by the lack of representation of people of color (as well as the ghetto-ization of the awards categories), I cannot singlehandedly change this and I refuse to be the whipping boy for an issue that extends much farther out into the universe than just a single man.
Third, by all objective measures, it was a very successful awards ceremony. Everything ran on time, there were no delays, the evening flowed smoothly and the crowd - composed of white, black, Latin and Asian people - seemed to enjoy themselves. Should I discount that part of my piece because an awards ceremony is voted on and by porn lovers who hold deeply offensive racial biases?
And, for the record, I have several interesting stories coming up including an interview with Pultizer Prize-nominated black activist, author and poet, Terry Angel Mason and a front-page feature on MACT, Men of All Colors Together. I also plan to feature many stories relevant to Latinos and Asian - and any other race for that matter.
© 2012, Victor Hoff. All rights reserved. Menofcolor.blogs.com
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