Source: New Republic, Stanford Daily

Porn star and producer Michael Lucas spoke at Stanford last month about safe sex, but his neocon political views  generated controversy both before and during the talk Stanford Daily photo by Mehmet Inonu

Michael Lucas discussed sexual health and AIDS prevention in the adult film industry and responded to claims that his views on Islam are intolerant.

All of Lucas’ films in the past decade have featured condoms, a decision Lucas said has had negative financial consequences.

“People never fantasize about sex with condoms,” he said. “It’s no secret that sex without condoms is much more pleasurable. But I have always preferred to make less money and send the right message. Seeing beautiful men enjoying each other while using condoms makes [viewers] think.”

Lucas is a longtime porn actor and director of such films as Hunt & Plunge, The Bigger The Better, and Fire Island Cruising (editions one through eight).

Bareback flak

A fixture in New York nightlife and head of his own production company, Lucas is one of the biggest names in gay porn. His 2006 epic La Dolce Vita had a $250, 000 budget, which Lucas says makes it the most expensive porn film in history. The movie garnered best-picture honors at the annual GAYVN Awards, the Oscars of gay porn. (It also garnered a lawsuit from the company that controls the rights to the original Fellini film.)

New York magazine has dubbed him the "last of the New York porn moguls."

“After having sex more often and with more partners than most people, I can only attribute my negative HIV status to always using a condom when it comes to sex,” he told the crowd at Stanford.

He refuted student remarks about the possibility of AIDS transmission despite condom use.

“It’s not possible to get AIDS when you have a condom on,” Lucas said. “It’s not an easily transmitted virus.”

However, some students felt that his views regarding the effectiveness of condom use were misinformed.

“He was just slightly hypocritical,” said Ben Robinson ’08, “saying you need to be educated, but that you can’t get AIDS using a condom.”

Lucas added that he does not ask partners or performers about their HIV status because it is both private and pointless.

“It’s incredibly cruel to people who have AIDS,” he said. “If someone has AIDS, I should fire him? I should deny him the right to work for me?”

According to ASSU Speakers Bureau Director Meera Venu '08, the event was not what the Speakers Bureau had planned or expected.

"We thought it would be a lot more about safe sex and AIDS prevention," she said, "but obviously the Speakers Bureau can't censor the people we bring to speak."

Patrick Cordova, the organizer of the lecture for the Speakers Bureau, had expected some controversy when he invited a porn star to speak. The Stanford junior had wanted to host a lecture on sexual health. And he figured that a provocative and fun way to tackle the issue would be to bring a prominent pornographer to speak on campus. So Cordova sent out some invitations.

The first person he heard back from was Lucas.

Lucas--a staunch advocate of safe sex who, unlike some porn directors, uses condoms in his movies--sounded like exactly the kind of guest speaker Cordova had in mind. "We were hoping that people would embrace his ideas on sexual identity and sexual health," Cordova told The New Republic's James Kirchick.

But, after Stanford had already booked him, controversy erupted. Some students felt that Lucas shouldn't have been invited to lecture. By the day of his speech, the storm surrounding Lucas had made its way into the pages of The Stanford Daily, where organizers found themselves defending the invitation against the protests of their outraged peers.

Members of the Stanford group Queer & Asian (Q&A) voted through email not to co-sponsor the event. Of about 15 active members, approximately half voted against supporting the lecture, with the lone affirmative vote retracted after a Q&A member sent out an email with more information.

What had provoked such heated debate? It wasn't Lucas's porn. It was his politics. Lucas, it turns out, is a fervent supporter of Israel and a harsh, often offensive, critic of the Muslim world.

He has called the Koran "today's Mein Kampf" and regularly inveighs against Muslim homophobia and anti-Semitism in less-than-charming terms. "It totally escapes me how gay people can side with burqa-wearing, jihad-screaming, Koran-crazed Muslims," he opined last year. At the talk itself, which took place this past Valentine's Day and drew an audience of about 50, Lucas stuck to his guns.

Cordova found himself defending the choice of speaker in the pages of The Stanford Daily.

He told the paper that while he does not condone Lucas’s opinions, his comments are rooted in real criticism of homophobia and hatred around the world.

“Do they induce some hurt feelings? Yeah, it appears as if that’s the case,” Cordova said. “But I don’t see that there is a real connection between pornography and Muslim issues. The issue of sexuality and of individuals being susceptible to HIV/AIDS transmission — that’s not race- or religion-specific.”

Cordova said that Lucas’s offensive statements should not preclude him from having an opportunity to speak on campus about a separate issue.

“If we want to cut down on racism and sexism and homophobia in this world, we need to confront it,” he said, inviting students to engage in a dialogue with Lucas.

“I would be shocked if no one asked him about his political beliefs, and I hope people do,” Cordova told the Daily before his appearance. “I hope that some of the individuals who have spoken out against this event show up and ask the tough questions.”

And they did speak out on the night of the lecture. Lucas defended his anti-Muslim sentiments -- the opinions that drew controversy from some students before the event.

“What’s the point to respect their culture, or supposed culture, when they have a strong contempt for mine?” Lucas said. “I have a problem with people separating terrorists from the world that breeds them, from the world that originates them, which is the world of Islam.”

Lucas contested student comments that he was generalizing about certain communities.

“I don’t generalize -- a fact is a fact,” Lucas said. “I am definitely not a racist if I’m telling you the truth. The Muslim community is much more homophobic than the black community, the black community is much more homophobic than the white community -- and there are reasons for that.”

"What's the point to respect their culture, or supposed culture, when they have a strong contempt for mine?" Lucas asked. And he wasn't content to leave it at that. The day after he spoke, he published an op-ed in The Stanford Daily responding to the charge that he is racist. "I never in my life said or wrote a bad word about Arabs--go read any of my articles," he explained. "My criticism was always addressed towards the religion and ideology of Islam. So I would like to ask Stanford students not to exploit the word 'racism' at their own convenience."

The Stanford controversy wasn't an isolated incident. Over the past few years, Lucas has developed a side career in political commentary to go along with his more lucrative day job. He frequently updates his blog with thoughts on world affairs, writes a regular op-ed column for The New York Blade (a gay newspaper), and has feuded with the popular, liberal gay blog Queerty. "I would be better financially if I didn't open my mouth," he tells me. And, yet, Lucas can't seem to help himself.

Born Andrei Bregman to a secular Jewish family in Russia, Lucas is a graduate of Moscow State Law Academy. But he always craved celebrity, and the allure of fame enticed him to Berlin in 1995 to work as a model and prostitute. He came to the United States in 1997 and founded Lucas Entertainment the following year, eventually earning enough to move his parents and grandparents from Russia--"the putrid country of my birth"--to New York. Ever the resourceful entrepreneur, he put his father to work as a set constructor on his films.

When The New Republic's Kirchick called Lucas to arrange an interview, he said he was a longtime subscriber to The New Republic, and, arriving at his Manhattan office, I found The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Times of London spread out on his glass desk. (I couldn't tell if the papers were there to impress, were film props, or were actual reading material.)

When Lucas, who turns 36 this month, does wear clothes, he tends toward the form-fitting, and he sported a sharply tailored suit for our interview. He has a strong Russian accent, which is very much on display in his films. As we spoke, he occasionally paused to yell instructions at his publicist. Meanwhile, models entered and exited the room, slamming doors in search of sex toys.

You wouldn't know it from watching his movies--which are apolitical--but Lucas has opinions on everything.

He criticizes Republicans, whom he calls "homophobic and anti-Semitic," while labeling ultraOrthodox Israelis "anal warts on the body of Israeli society." But the true objects of his ire are gay liberals whom he sees as overly sympathetic to the Arab side in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Like many Russian Jews who were forced to repress their identity under Soviet rule, Lucas's Jewish heritage is the anchor of his worldview. He visits Israel annually.

Like the Stanford students who thought they were putting together a lecture on safe sex only to find themselves embroiled in a controversy over Islam, members of the porn community have learned a lot recently about Lucas's views on international affairs--probably more than most of them care to know. Unlike Stanford, however, the porn world is a place where people say and do outrageous things for a living. No wonder that, according to most of the porn community insiders I spoke with, the industry seems to be greeting Lucas's emergence as a pundit with a collective shrug.

These insiders tend to view Lucas's punditry as a mere extension of his brash personal style--a style that has led to frosty relations with other pornographers. Several years ago, Lucas told sex shop owners in New York that he would stop distributing his movies to them if they continued to stock those of a rival, a former Lucas actor with whom he had fallen out.

Full article: Michael Lucas Causes Controversy More For His Views Than His Films | New Republic (CBS)
Lucas talks safe-sex, AIDS and controversy | Stanford Daily
Adult film star’s remarks spark debate | Stanford Daily