Adam Ramzi On The Ridiculous Rentboy Raid and the Future of Sex Work

Hello, friends. We interrupt this regularly scheduled program (my initial plan to write a second piece on porn shoots that go wrong) to speak on the topic of the recent Rentboy scandal that we were all buzzing about at the end of August.

If you somehow hadn’t heard the news, the Rentboy offices were raided and several employees were sent to jail. The feds treated it like a Homeland Security issue, the website was shut down, and the entire industry was sent flailing, as escorts and clients alike were plagued with worries of what this meant for their future. Would the sting go beyond the offices and would the feds raid actual account holders? Would well known escorts go down with the lead employees, and how should this be addressed in their widely popular social media accounts, which had become an increased means of elevating business revenue? And, most importantly, how are these boys going to pay their rents?

The story broke in a big way, making it to national news, on TV and in print, and there began a mad dash for all escorts to delete any mention of Rentboy, or any business conducted through it, anywhere in all social media. I happened to be on the Kink.com set with none other than Rocco Steele (also known as Rentboy’s Mr. International) the morning the news broke. Rocco was nervous the entire day, constantly checking his phone for any updates as more of them appeared. There were not many, it seemed to me.

At that point on my end, as the sub in another elaborate Bound Gods situation as plotted by the devious Sebastian Keys, I was worried as to how this would affect Rocco’s performance as well as the general feel on set. Keeping in the sub headspace when there’s this sort of turmoil clouding the set can be tricky.

You may have heard before, but not only is Rocco one of the sexiest men in the universe, he’s also incredibly sweet and professional on set. As distracted as he was throughout the arduous day, he always took the time to check in on me and make sure I was alright. As the tiny bits of news rolled in, he was able to relax a bit more and we had a fairly decent shoot. That said, there was no publicity that day about the shoot as it was happening, as per usual Kink.com protocol, and we decided to keep quiet about Rocco’s whereabouts, in case there would be any searching for the big names in the industry.

Not much news has surfaced since the 26th when this all went down — the only thing I could find is a Wall Street Journal piece that talks about the 50 or so protestors who marched outside the courthouse in Brooklyn where the initial charges were held, as well as a fantastic statement made by Mx. Justin Vivian Bond. Why is there not more happening in the social media forum about this? Is our sex panic and sex shame still so prevalent that we are not discussing the fact that the federal government decided to make this a fucking Homeland Security issue, using taxpayer dollars to raid a company that was hurting no one?

I have high hopes for what this raid could do for the general discussion about prostitution and escorting. Similarly to how gay marriage was brought up years ago as a “gateway” to other debaucheries, and how PrEP has been discussed as a “party drug,” fear-inducing language around the evolving thought processes on these once very scary ideas also has the potential to lead to very progressive discourse that gets people thinking.

Prostitution, or whatever word you use to describe the exchange of money for sex or intimacy, once held with it a very scary and dangerous connotation. But on the flipside, it is an often therapeutic practice that has been around a long time, and has been given a bad name by the conservative forces that contribute to the fear-based rhetoric that has plagued our collective opinion about sex and sexuality.

Bottom line: THESE ARRESTS WERE COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. I hope if this post does anything it encourages readers to contribute to this evolving discussion, and that when you hear someone speak negatively about the services that sites like Rentboy provide that you can offer alternative perspectives. About the lonely travelers, businessmen, and social outcasts who benefit greatly from the company of beautiful men who are paid to give them intimate attention. About the young men who may not have had the financial means to support themselves through college, so they use their bodies to put food on the table.

There are so many more ways to look at this than “whores and johns.” I hope this disparaging language around escort work slowly goes away, and we can look back on this raid as a gross misuse of government resources.

P.S. Since people may be wondering whether or not I was affected in any way by the Rentboy raid, the truth is despite my curiosity, I never delved into the world of escorting. I’ve been approached multiple times, and always wondered if it was for me, but I never quite pulled the trigger. I think it takes balls of steel to open that door, and for now the world of porn is enough for me. Side note: The dialogue that occurs at the beginning of the upcoming scene I share with the adorable Colt Rivers in Naked Sword’s latest Hooker Stories 3 is entirely truth-based – the set-up of the scene is that I would hire an escort to help me make the decision of whether it’d be something I’d like to try some time. The only thing that scene did for me was get a scene under my belt with my weird, grey hair. Not to mention getting to bang Colt Rivers.

Previously: EVERYONE SHOULD BE OUTRAGED ABOUT THE RENTBOY RAID, AND HERE’S WHY

13 thoughts on “Adam Ramzi On The Ridiculous Rentboy Raid and the Future of Sex Work”

  1. I would say haters gonna hate hate hate, so shake it off, but in this case I can’t stand you Adam. Please just go away, go away!

  2. Oh I’m sure it takes balls to become a prostitute instead of getting a real job like every other human being.
    Why don’t you get the balls to just disappear Adam.

  3. Oh just shut it Adam, no one cares. Plus honestly kink.com gay shoots are already in the gutter ever since van darkholme left.

  4. This was a total set up. I know inside information that Massagem4m.com was raided and then made a deal to abruptly change the way their ads were presented as well as give their advertisers violating rules to follow so they could “verify” their true identity. Why? in exchange they showed the feds how easy it was to get more than 2 million from the raid and in return M4M stayed in business. M4M is violating the same laws the feds claim Rentboy has. sound shady? hmmmm Also the Jarec Wentworth may have also had the feds realize Rentboy was worth a lot of money and an easy target. case and Massage m4m turning them was no coincidence when Rentboy went down. Pretty Pathetic Right? Well it happened just like that.

  5. good for once i do not live in the states, i wouldn’t know what to do without my rentboys (or how to contact them) preferred brothels to internet contacts but also brothels seem to have vanished. One left in amsterdam and one inc ologne and that’s it

  6. While it may be stupid and a waste of taxpayers money to shut down Rentboy, an internet prostitution site, and cause escorts to lose their jobs and “lonely travelers, businessmen and social outcasts” to miss out on the “intimate attention” of “beautiful young men” it is not a civil rights cause that the LGBT community should spend any political capital on. We need to use our influence to get Congress to pass a comprehensive ENDA Bill to protect the employment opportunities of millions of LGBT people seeking or engaging in legal job. Let those in the majority straight community, who want to see prostitution legalized, use their influence in that struggle. Too many of our fellow citizens already identify LGBT issues as all about sex. We don’t need to reinforce that by fighting to legalize prostitution. We have too many far more important goals, not yet achieved.

    1. Exactly, andrew. I’m tired of these confused gay guys that seem to be more interested in preserving negative stereotypes forced up them by the homophobes instead of wanting to be ordinary people. We are gay. Does that mean we have to be sexually loose or revolve lives around sex or around the sexual parts of gay culture where we lose our personal individual, identities? No.

      I am so sick and tired of this oversexualization attitide that gay men for one reason or another seem to think is so normal where we aren’t even in touch with reality. That’s the shit that had rentboy sticking it’s chest out begging the feds to shut them down. Sex should be a part of someones life. It doesn’t have to be their whole life. I’m tired of hearing the excuses too where folks are ready to find a reason to justify this. All this talk about sex shqming

      1. But here’s another side to the very judgmental coin you just pulled out: what if the attempt to be monogamous, heteronormative, morally acceptable couples you seem so set on promoting as the better option is actually the act that gay guys put on, and not the natural state of gay males with little interest in playing house, reproducing, or in what other people’s definition of right or wrong is when it comes to their dicks and what they do with them? I’d go so far as to say that being male, whether gay or straight, comes with a biological default that leads us down a naturally promiscuous path in life, and that monogamy is the unnatural construct imposed upon us under the guise of being “civilized” and “responsible”. I’m not saying that giving in to animal instinct is a great way to live one’s life day in and day out, but let’s not pretend that we aren’t at least nudged in the direction of unabashed whoredom by our baser instincts, which are neither wrong nor shameful.

        If people spent as much time focused on introspective contemplation as they do passing judgement on others and gnashing their teeth at those who don’t share their particular system of beliefs or values, there would be a lot more brotherly love and support in our community. Next time you see someone you want to accuse of adhering to negative stereotypes, take a deep breath and ask yourself who decided it was negative and what business it is of yours if you are living up to your own high standards.

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