Is #GayPornSoWhite? “Best Ethnic Scene” Awards Category Causes Controversy

Over the weekend, AVN announced nominations for the the GayVN Awards. After nominations were released, people on Twitter began to notice something was a little off. Not only was there a category for “Best Ethnic Scene,” no actors of color were nominated in the “Best Actor” category, which included nominees like Colby Keller, who recently filled in as Green Lantern in a Justice League parody from Men.com that erased the original movie’s black character.

Gay porn awards made a “Best Ethnic Scene” category if you wanna know how we’re doing with racism over here.

— Phillip Henry (@MajorPhilebrity) November 24, 2017

The category caused a minor social media uproar that intensified when porn actor Hugh Hunter, who was nominated in 3 categories, tweeted that he wished to be removed from the running because of the “Best Ethnic Scene” category and the lack of inclusion of actors of color in other categories.

The @gayvn awards announce nominations including a BEST ETHNIC SCENE category for black, Latin, and Asian models. Meanwhile none are nominated as best actor or supporting actor.

My response, “…I am respectfully declining my nominations in all categories…”

Full letter here. pic.twitter.com/CQPxZFRuZ6

— Hugh Hunter (@theHughHunter) November 25, 2017

Hunter wrote that he’s “never felt so ill-at-ease” with awards as he did with the 2017 GayVN awards. He also called out the awards for segregating Black, Latino and Asian actors into their own category rather than including them in major categories.

“The gay porn industry has always been a place of veiled racism and bigotry,” Hunter wrote on Twitter. “I’m asking fans, supporters and admirers of gay pornography to not support these awards or any awards that promote racism and bigotry.”

INTO reached out to AVN for comment and will update the story if we hear back.

Photo Credit: Flickr/ walknboston