As a queer person who used to work in porn (and now works by writing a lot about it), there’s a conversation I often have with people who are in the queer community but outside of the adult industry. I mention my line of work, and they try to relate by saying something along the lines of, “it’s too bad there’s no good queer porn,” or, “ugh, I hate that lesbian porn is made for straight men.”
But there’s no lack of good queer porn from where I’m sitting. In fact, I’m surrounded by people making the gayest, most incredible porn I’ve ever seen.
Don’t get me wrong; I know where skepticism comes from. I grew up in an era of pornography where “girl-on-girl” meant three-inch acrylics and a mandatory labia slapping session. I know we’re not going to find content made for us on the first page of Pornhub, but I find the sentiment that “there’s no good queer porn” frustrating. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, where many queer people expect queer porn to be bad, so they don’t engage with the adult industry enough to find the pornographers that make content catered to them.
The key to finding great queer porn is familiarizing yourself with great queer porn creators, and engaging with sex work beyond the clips you watch to get off. This might mean looking up a production company’s website, following a performer on social media, or signing up for their subscription service on platforms like OnlyFans or MV Crush. Following just one production company or creator opens up entire networks and archives of like-minded artists.
What makes porn ethical?
Before we dive into the queer porn creators and networks that produce ethical porn, let’s get into what exactly makes it ethical. While “ethical porn” can seem like a nebulous or subjective term, it’s actually pretty straightforward. Sex work is work; so think about what you’d expect from any other industry: safe working conditions, adequate compensation, and informed consent.
Like with any ethically-sourced good or service, it’s important to look at where the content is coming from. Does the company’s website state how its porn is produced, how involved performers are in the process, and other important background information about the content (like a performer’s rights document, or BTS materials)? If the answer is yes, you’re likely looking at a site you can feel good about. But if there’s very little information about the content featured on the site, or an absence of upload verification systems (like ID and consent forms required to upload content) there’s a chance the featured videos could be pulled from other sites without the performer’s consent. If that’s the case, it might be a moment to pause and research the website you’re perusing. While there are some sites that use a YouTube style, “per view” payment structure, a good rule of thumb is that you should be paying for your porn. If no payment is made, it’s likely no payout is received — and performers, directors, writers, and lube technicians (okay, I made that last one up) deserve to be compensated for their hard work in getting you off!
While it isn’t my job to yuck anyone’s yum, the content of the smut you’re consuming can also say a lot about how ethical it is. If your porn only focuses on pleasure that centers cis, straight men getting off rather than all parties experiencing pleasure together, then it might be time to keep browsing. Mission-driven ethical porn also tends to feature a variety of people with different body sizes, races, age groups, and genders.
Finally, aside from being mindful about where you source your smut from, it’s important to engage ethically with the people who make the porn you consume. Follow them on social media, subscribe to their pages, and engage beyond the scope of one clip or one orgasm. Take that next step! Sex workers are constantly fighting against censorship, de-platforming, and criminalization, all while being able to get you off. Sex workers have also historically been critical community builders and revolutionaries for queer and trans people. So, learn your history! Without the labor and tenacity of sex workers, the queer liberation movement would not be possible. It’s pretty impressive, and if you’ve jerked off to even one piece of hot content in your life, you should care about the livelihood and freedoms of sex workers.
To get you started, here are some queer-owned, queer-operated, and very much queer-performed websites and networks making incredible queer porn today. (And this might be obvious, but many of the links below are NSFW.)
Crash Pad Series
Created by Shine Louise Houston in 2007, Crash Pad is a pillar of the queer porn community and has won multiple awards and accolades over the past 15 years. The Crash Pad world celebrates voyeurism; its videos are set in a secret apartment in San Francisco where hot queer sex reigns supreme. Performers are granted a key to the space, and whatever happens next is up to them.
Crash Pad was the first place I had ever seen butch-for-butch porn — a welcome breath of fresh air from the femme4femme standard set by megacorp adult entertainment studios. According to their website, “Crash Pad has long been recognized by lesbians as a dyke porn site, although much like a reflection of queer women’s community, we feature people of many genders and sexualities — as well as diverse ethnicities, body types and abilities, ages, and experiences.” Those who don’t yet see themselves represented in the series’ now 340+ episodes are encouraged to apply.
In 2022, the director’s key and role of shaping the Crash Pad’s voyeuristic vision was passed on to queer porn videographer Ava LaPrima. LaPrima says model comfort and agency are key to her mission, especially given that Crash Pad welcomes new and first-time models.
“Models can call hold at any time if they need more lube, a condom, a sip of water, want to take something off or put something on, go to the bathroom, or even kill the scene completely,” LaPrima says. “The models are really the directors in a way and it’s the magic of our website. I don’t direct the models’ actions or anything but only the other videographer.” She calls it porno vérité, or truth porn.
If you want to check out Crash Pad Series, a 30-day membership is $25, while a yearly membership works out to $9.99/month. A membership includes outtakes, behind-the-scenes interviews, and access to 53 seasons and counting of iconic queer pornography.
Gender Flux
Previously known as “Dyked Down,” Nikki Hearts’ studio brainchild recently rebranded as Gender Flux, described on its website as “a gender-inclusive site with something for everyone, featuring some of the hottest queer and trans performers.” If you’re looking for high-production-value scenes featuring tattooed hotties of all (and no) genders, Gender Flux is the site for you.
Hearts started creating porn after they realized what they wanted to watch wasn’t available. “I was like, there is nothing exactly what I'm looking for,” Hearts tells Them. “It doesn't exist, so I guess I’m gonna have to make it.”
An industry veteran with over 12 years of experience, Hearts says the binary of straight and queer porn scenes are “like two different planets.” The work of queer porn performers fighting for recognition coupled with the rise of independent creation platforms like OnlyFans and MV Crush have slowly allowed for great queer porn to exist outside of mainstream studios.
“That’s the cool thing about this current generation of queer porn creators; they all entered in the era of it being an option to just go right into making your own content and selling it directly to the consumer,” they say.
Aorta Films
If you’re looking for something more experimental, Aorta Films offers high concept, boundary-pushing porn with incredible production quality. Their short films and feature length projects prioritizes those who feel mis- and under-represented in the mainstream porn industry. From high-intensity roleplay scenes to gorgeous leather and latex kits, their masterful handling of BDSM and kink scenes does their history proud. Personally, I love Aorta’s trials with mixed-media film, with films like Queerantine Fantasy delivering hot content shown in gorgeous hand-drawn animation.
Membership comes in three tiers, including one month, three months, and 12 months of access to all of Aorta’s content and clip library. It also includes an invitation to their semi-annual queer porn festival, BEDDED, streamed every July and December for their members. BEDDED shows off independently-created, international porn clips curated by the Aorta team, and the clips remain available for Aorta members for the entire month of the BEDDED festival.
PinkLabel.TV
If you love the Crash Pad series, you might already know it’s part of a large adult entertainment network of content under Pink & White Productions, a studio and network created by Crash Pad founder Shine Louise Houston. Their network website PinkLabel.TV hosts their own content as well as a wide array of other porn, including vintage, modern, feature-length, narrative, and gonzo clips featuring a variety of fetishes, genders, and sexualities.
“Each shoot is a gift to queers,” Jiz Lee, PinkLabel. TV marketing director and production assistant, tells Them. “It is so powerful to create images of ourselves, to document and build an archive of queer and trans sexuality. It's something I cherish because discovering queer porn had such a positive, healthy impact on my own sense of self and my understanding of gender and sexuality. I want to leave a legacy for future queers, long after I'm gone from this world, to be able to look back on our lives. Sex is freedom.”
When asked how they want consumers to engage with their work, Lee tells Them, “pay for your porn and tell your friends!” Paying for porn, Lee says, is the recognition that sexual entertainment has value and the people who make it deserve to be compensated for their work and vision. They also want consumers to start advocating for the adult industry and the decriminalization of sex work. “Let sex workers have a voice, everywhere, but especially when the conversation is about us,” Lee says.
Pink & White Productions is an expansive network of creators and archived erotica. Here are a few names to get you started on your exploration:
Vianniall is a Black, trans, U+ (a person living with HIV with an undetectable viral load) porn performer that offers content on both Onlyfans and PinkLabel.TV. She’s an advocate for trans and sex worker communities, as well as an out U+ advocate, sharing her experience as an HIV positive performer on her blog and with publications like the Huffington Post.
Carnegie Velvet describes themselves as a “Queer Disabled* Fairy Witch of Color, Porn Star Provider of Fun and Magic in Seattle.” Their studio Carnegie Hole is “a lush and intimate cabaret for Black and Indigenous art whores and their paramours.” Whether you find their work on Carnegie’s own site or through PinkLabel.TV, it’s sure to be dreamy, sensual, and fun.
Xenon Universe is a porn performer, poet, and winner of Manyvid’s Trans King of The Year Award 2020. You can find his content — featuring gorgeous natural light and frequent collaborations with other content creators — on Onlyfans, Manyvids, and PinkLabel.TV.
Now go turn on private browsing, you beautiful perverts!
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