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.

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.

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

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