NY Times: How OnlyFans Put Adult Performers In Charge Of Their Own Content

The New York Times does a deep dive today into the latest media outlet for adult content, OnlyFans.com.
Matthew Camp calls OnlyFans “online go-go dancing”

The New York Times does a deep dive today into the latest media outlet for adult content, OnlyFans.com.

As many know, the website allows fans of models or performers (insert whatever term you like) to subscribe to private content that might be too explicit for social media.

The monthly fees generally range from $5 to $20, with the performer taking an 80% cut of the monthly fees.

Along the way, the article talks to former go-go dancer and all-around hottie, Matthew Camp, about his perspective on sharing his content on the site.

“Basically, OnlyFans is online go-go dancing,” said Camp.

Ten years ago, the daddy/twink/bear/boy was making $1,000 on a good night at New York City gay clubs and events. Naturally, he caught the eye of porn studios like Lucas Entertainment.

Camp tells the Times that the idea of “having sex for money is appealing,” but he thought $1,000 or so seemed low for video clips that would live forever on the internet, dubbing him a ‘porn star’ for life.

Instead, he worked to develop a steadily growing following on the more PG-13 Instagram platform garnering well over 500,000 followers.

As the NYC gay club landscape began to dry up, he headed upstate to Hudson, New York, and opened an OnlyFans account.

Even though he would sometimes go weeks without posting new video or photo content, the 34-year-old tells the Times he was taking banking over $10,000 a month.

In addition to the regular content, OnlyFans allows private communication between the performers and fans, who can request anything from birthday wishes to specific ‘themed’ photos or video clips.

And now, Camp is branching out to another subscription-based platform by launching an online radio show via DNR Studios called “Happie Camper,” where fans can join him 3 times a week for a fee of $6.95 a month. It’s a live radio show where you can call in and ask questions as Camp chats with folks like Chris “Leave Britney Alone” Crocker and Cameron Rose.

For many of the content creators, the secret to increased success isn’t always having the most “explicit” content but being regular with posting new video or photos.

The most successful ‘fitness model’ on OnlyFans, Australian Jem Wolfe, has 10,000 fans paying $10 monthly for access to her content. But, according to the Times, she mostly “shows off her Kardashianesque proportions, squatting in really tight leggings and squeezing her breasts together, strategically covering her nipples.”

For folks who are fascinated by how the internet continues to shake up old business models and creates new ones, the Times article by Jacob Bernstein is a must-read.

Bernstein delves into topics like how web-camming led to the current OnlyFans concept, and the challenge of not having an app for OnlyFans due to the content being too racy to pass muster for app stores.

I recently covered the banning of overt sexual imagery by Tumblr because the social media platform was threatened with being dropped from app stores.

Camp explains how OnlyFans and its opportunities for one-on-one interaction with performers makes for a better experience than plain raunch.

“Tumblr was filled with the most extreme sexual experiences you could see,” Camp told the Times. “And I think a lot of people were turned off by that. It’s not what they’re looking for. They want more intimate experiences. They want a boyfriend experience. They want to fantasize about someone that they want to have sex with and not feel disgusted by it.”

Head over to The New York Times for the full article, and you can check out my chat with Mr. Matthew Camp below where we discuss how OnlyFans is allowing adult performers to control their own content.

Poll Shows Virginians Split On Whether Governor Should Resign Over Alleged Blackface Scandal

Virginians are split whether Gov. Ralph Northam (D) should resign after a photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page showed people in blackface and Ku Klux Klan garb.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam

Virginians are split whether Gov. Ralph Northam (D) should resign after a photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page showed people in blackface and Ku Klux Klan garb.

A new poll shows Virginia voters split over Northam’s fate with 47% signaling he should resign while 47% saying he should remain in office.

Somewhat surprisingly, 58% of African Americans feel he should stay in office, according to the Washington Post-Schar School poll.

Regarding the other two scandals going on in the state, 60% of Virginians think Attorney General Mark Herring stay in office after he admitted to dressing in blackface in 1980 when he was 19.

But allegations of sexual assault and rape have left Virginians unsure of Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax with 65% saying they don’t know enough about the alleged incidents.

Great Night For LGBTs & Allies At The 2019 Grammy Awards

It was a great night at the 2019 Grammy Awards as fans saw out artists and LGBTQ allies take home many awards.

Brandi Carlile, who went into the awards ceremony as the most-nominated woman of the night, took home 3 Grammys for best American Roots performance and best American Roots song for “The Joke,” and best Americana Album for By the Way, I Forgive You.

“Americana music is the island of misfit toys,” said Carlile as she accepted one of her Grammys. “I came out of the closet at 15 years old, when I was in high school, and I can assure you that I was never invited to any parties. I never got to attend a dance.”

“To be embraced by this enduring and loving community has been the dance of a lifetime,” she added. “Thank you for being my island.”

Lady Gaga picked up three award last night beginning the evening’s televised festivities with a win for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Shallow,” followed by Best Song Written for Visual Media (“Shallow”) and Best Pop Solo Performance (for “Joanne”).

In her acceptance speech, Mother Monster said she was proud that her hit movie, A Star is Born, addressed mental health issues. “If you see someone that’s hurting, don’t look away” said the openly bisexual artist.

The Oscar nominee also made an appearance near the beginning of the show with Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Jada Pinkett Smith and former First Lady Michelle Obama. And yes, the standing ovation was awesome.

International out pop-star Ricky Martin opened the show performing alongside Camila Cabello, J Balvin and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.

Out rocker St. Vincent snagged two Grammys: for Best Rock Song for “Masseduction” and Best Recording Package.

Pansexual artist Janelle Monáe, who was nominated for Album of the Year and also Best Music Video, brought down the house with her performance of “Make Me Feel.”

Monáe, who came out last year, dedicated her Grammy nominations to her “trans brothers and sisters.”

“My trans brother and sisters, they do it every day. And they are shunned from these sorts of events. So this one is for them,” she told Variety.

And longtime LGBTQ ally, Kacey Musgraves took home four trophies, including top honor “Album Of The Year.”

She dropped the gorgeous and touching new music video for her song, “Rainbow,” shortly before the Grammy festivities began. The video chronicles the everyday struggles of different people including a young queer teen coping with disapproving parents.

“I keep dreaming of the day when we have a gay country music icon, that is loud and proud and really, like, a hero for country music fans, especially in these small towns where [LGBTQ people] are terrified of being themselves and feel like they have to hide,” Musgraves told HuffPost last March.

Musgraves also scored for “Best Country Album,” “Country Vocal Performance,” and “Best Country Song.”

Here’s the list of folks who took home honors last night.

TELEVISED AWARDS

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance – “Shallow,” Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Song of the Year – “This is America,” Childish Gambino

Best Country Album – Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves

Best Rap Song – “God’s Plan,” Drake

Best R&B Album – H.E.R., H.E.R.

Best Rap Album – Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B

Record of the Year – “This is America,” Childish Gambino

Album of the Year – Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves


PRE-SHOW AWARDS

Best Recording Package – Masseduction, Willo Perron, art director St. Vincent

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media – Black Panther, Ludwig Goransson, Composer

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media – The Greatest Showman

Best Song Written For Visual Media – “Shallow,” Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)

Best American Roots Performance – “The Joke,” Brandi Carlile

Best American Roots Song – “The Joke,” Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)

Best Americana Album – By The Way, I Forgive You, Brandi Carlile

Best Music Video – “This Is America,” Childish Gambino, Hiro Murai, video director; Ibra Ake, Jason Cole & Fam Rothstein, video producers

Best Country Solo Performance – “Butterflies,” Kacey Musgraves

Best Country Song – “Space Cowboy,” Luke Laird, Shane McAnally & Kacey Musgraves, songwriters (Kacey Musgraves)

Best Pop Solo Performance – “Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?),” Lady Gaga

Best Pop Vocal Album – Sweetener, Ariana Grande

Best Urban Contemporary Album – Everything Is Love, The Carters

Podcast: Children Of Gay Parents, Trump On HIV, West Virginia & Wyoming

In this week's podcast: • Donald Trump says he wants to eliminate the HIV epidemic within 10 years • A state senator in Wyoming compared being gay to bestiality when she met with LGBTQ youth • A new study indicates children raised by same-sex parents do better in school • And, for the first time ever, a Disney character ever says the words “I’m gay” All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

In this week’s podcast:

• Donald Trump says he wants to eliminate the HIV epidemic within 10 years

• A state senator in Wyoming compared being gay to bestiality when she met with LGBTQ youth

• A new study indicates children raised by same-sex parents do better in school

• And, for the first time ever, a Disney character ever says the words “I’m gay”

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

Hate Group Leader: If Cory Booker Is Gay, He Is Disqualified From Being Prez

Hate group leader Bryan Fischer tweets, "Is America ready for a homosexual president? If Cory Booker turns out to be gay, he is disqualified. Cannot have a man who engages in sexually deviant behavior in the White House."
Bryan Fischer

Wow.

In tweeting out a link to Politico’s article on Senator Cory Booker’s bid to become the Democratic candidate for president in 2020, virulently anti-gay activist Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association, asks:

“Is America ready for a homosexual president? If Cory Booker turns out to be gay, he is disqualified. Cannot have a man who engages in sexually deviant behavior in the White House.”

The U.S. Constitution lists the following as requirements to be president: one must be 35 years of age, a resident within the United States for 14 years, and a natural born Citizen.

While Booker has publicly stated he is not gay (and whether he is or isn’t is none of our business), there is nothing in the Constitution that disqualifies someone LGBT from being president.

The American Family Association has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Twitterverse clapped back with a lopsided 12:1 ratio of comments to ‘Likes.’

Sunday Showtune: "Barry Is Going To Prom" From THE PROM

Brooks Ashmanskas in ‘The Prom’

Check out the thoroughly charming Brooks Ashmanskas in this behind-the-scenes video from the recording sessions for the original cast recording of the Broadway hit musical’, The Prom.

You may recall last November, the production made news when their performance on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ended, as it does in the show, with two females leads kissing.

Ashmanskas plays an egotistical, self-involved Broadway actor, Barry Glickman, whose recent stage flop leads him to find a way to show the world he’s not ‘all about Barry.’

He and several Broadway colleagues head to Indiana to take up the cause of a high school student being bullied over taking her female crush to the prom.

And then, as they say, hilarity ensues.

In reviewing the show, The New York Times praised Ashmanskas, a Broadway veteran of over a dozen productions on the Great White Way (The Producers, Sunday in the Park with George, Promises, Promises), for threading the needle of playing an over-the-top gay character without offending.

Quite the contrary, The Times says his flamboyant character stylings “somehow wind up as poetry instead.”

This song comes as the young high school girl, nervous to head to the prom, asks if he would go with her. Barry, who never went to the prom himself because he was self-conscious as a young gay, is thrilled as he sings, “Barry Is Going To Prom.”

“Who cares if you’re a big old girl, just get into that gym and twirl!”

And he does 🙂

You can find more info about the musical here. Watch below and enjoy.

Wyoming Lawmaker Compares Being Gay To Bestiality While Meeting With LGBT High School Students

Wyoming state Sen. Lynn Hutchings told gay and lesbian high school students, “If my sexual orientation was to have sex with all of the men in there and I had sex with all of the women in there and then they brought their children and I had sex with all of them and then brought their dogs in and I had sex with them, should I be protected for my sexual orientation?”
Wyoming state Sen. Lynn Hutchings

Wyoming Equality shares this disturbing encounter high school students had with state Sen. Lynn Hutchings.

On Friday, February 1st, Wyoming Equality, the state’s only statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization, hosted its bi-annual Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Civics Day where students from GSA clubs across Wyoming are invited to learn about state government and civic engagement.

Students from Central High School, accompanied by their club sponsor and high school teacher, went to visit their representative for their district, Senator Lynn Hutchings.

The students wanted to discuss HB 230, Enhancing Quality Employment Law, and express their support for the bill.

The legislation would prohibit “discriminatory practices based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment practices.”

Meeting with the children in the gallery of the state legislature, Hutchings said she was unfamiliar with the bill’s language so the students shared that they wanted her support because the bill would protect the students from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Hutchings’s response, per Wyoming Equality, was to compare being gay or lesbian with bestiality and pedophilia:

“If my sexual orientation was to have sex with all of the men in there and I had sex with all of the women in there and then they brought their children and I had sex with all of them and then brought their dogs in and I had sex with them, should I be protected for my sexual orientation?”

Wyoming Equality issued this statement regarding Hutching’s behavior with the high school students calling her language “unacceptable and inexcusable”:

It is our understanding that while the state legislature’s anti-harassment policy mentions no protected classes, including sexual orientation and gender identity, Senator Hutchings behavior was unacceptable and inexcusable. Fourteen- and fifteen-year old high school students wishing to engage with the legislative process should ​not​ have been confronted with the comments made by Senator Hutchings. ​Those students, some of which identify as LGBTQ, were deeply hurt and disturbed that they were compared to acts of beastiality and pedophilia. The students’ sentiment was exacerbated especially after Senator Hutchings hypothetically recounted the idea of sexually engaging with children then physically engaged with the students.

At Wyoming Equality, we are horrified. On GSA Civics Day, we expect students to be challenged and engage in lively civic dialogue. This is not what transpired. As guaranteed by the First Amendment, Senator Hutchings may express her beliefs and views however she wishes, but her behavior is not what we expect of adults in the workplace, and we expect even more from a Wyoming elected official. The students spoke with several legislators that day. For the exception of the incident with Senator Hutchings, the students said all their interactions with legislators were civil and respectful no matter where the legislators stood on bills and issues.

The mayor of Cheyenne denounced Hutchings behavior:

(h/t JoeMyGod)

InstaRound-Up: Weekend Edition

Steve in LA

Checking in on favorite Instagrams to see what’s up this weekend…

First up, InstaHunk and professional dog lover ‘Steve in LA’ (above) shows how he spends a quiet weekend at home his his bestie, Tobi. Now that’s a face… and Steve is cute, too 🙂

Gus Kenworthy was feeling nostalgic for the history he and Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon made a year ago as “the first gay American men to walk into the Opening Ceremonies at a Winter Olympics! The only negative is that we accidentally showed up in the same fucking outfit..”

It’s coffee and cuddles for Justin and Nick in Virginia:

InstaHunk Francesc Gascó is so manly he not only has a great, thick beard, his shoulders have beards…

A post shared by Francesc Gascó (@pakozoic) on Feb 9, 2019 at 2:11pm PST

Alex Abramov and Brett Miles were making smoky beef chili:

Diva Shoshana Bean shared a bit of her recent concert at The Standard in Hollywood with this Frank Sinatra throwback:

It might be Fashion Week in New York City, but out singer/songwriter Tom Goss is ‘fashion week’ wherever he goes:

InstaHunk Matthew Camp just needs to stand there. That is all.

Former Amazing Race contestant Seth Tyler is braving the frigid cold of Hawaii:

World traveler and fitness guru Joel Green is always on the hunt for a new beach to enjoy:

Disney Channel Has Its First Character To Say The Words “I’m Gay”

More history was made yesterday when the character of Cyrus Goodman (played by Joshua Rush) became the first Disney character to ever say the words, "I'm gay."
Joshua Rush in the Disney Channel series, ‘Andi Mack’
(screen capture)

In 2017, the popular Disney Channel series Andi Mack announced the show would feature a gay story arc – a first for the channel.

More history was made yesterday when the character of Cyrus Goodman (played by Joshua Rush) became the first Disney character to ever say the words, “I’m gay.”

In the episode titled, “One in a Minyan,” the show’s principal characters are at the shiva of Goodman’s grandmother.

Helping to explain some of the Jewish dishes at the buffet, Goodman points out kuegel, bagels and lox, and gefilte fish before ending his list by telling the character of Jonah Beck, his former crush, “I’m gay.”

“Yeah?” Beck replies. “Cool.”

And, life went on – just as it should.

(photo: Disney ABC)

The writer of the episode, Jonathan Hurwitz, wrote in a guest post for GLAAD that the inspiration for the moment came from his own coming out process back in 2010 with a college friend.

While grabbing burgers one afternoon, he asked me to pass the ketchup, so I handed him the bottle while mumbling the words, “I’m gay.” He looked up at me, said “Cool,” then proceeded to put ketchup on his burger as if I hadn’t just revealed my most personal, deepest truth.

I remember thinking: “That’s it?! After a ten-year journey to come out to myself, I finally come out to my friend and all I get is a ‘Cool?!’” But what I ultimately realized was that my friends and family loved me unconditionally before I’d even learned to truly love myself.

Rush took to Twitter to share his pride, writing,“Every day is a blessing working on this show. This milestone is just another stitch in a rich and vibrant tapestry that is Cyrus Goodman.”

P!nk Announces New Album And Previews 1st Single, “Walk Me Home,” On ELLEN

Sitting down with Ellen this week, international pop-star P!nk announced she has a new album called "Hurts to Be Human" coming out in the spring, and even sang an impromptu preview of the first single, "Walk Me Home."
International pop-star, P!nk

OMG, I love me some P!nk.

Sitting down with Ellen DeGeneres this week, international pop-star P!nk announced she has a new album called Hurts to Be Human coming out in the spring, and even offered an impromptu preview of the first single, “Walk Me Home.”

The singer chatted with Ellen about her 17-year relationship & marriage with husband Carey Hart; how if she were “truly happy” she would be ‘useless’ as a songwriter and artist; plus how she’s really good at getting nominated for Grammys.

To be clear, though, she has won 3 Grammys out of 20 nominations. I’m guessing she’s just feeling a bit of the dry spell since her last trophy win in 2010.

But, she’s totally charming and fun. If you haven’t seen P!nk in concert, make sure you do next time she’s nearby. The best pop concerts I’ve ever attended.

Watch below.