UPDATED: Pat Bateman: Has “Gay-For-Pay” Had It’s Day?

Pat Bateman
How does the above image make you feel? Confused? Angry? Insulted? Horny? Pat Bateman says he’s straight, but take the magazine away and what have you got left? Hmmmm…
UPDATE (1/27): Apparently, Pat Bateman is gay-for-pay in more ways than one. We found his escort ad online and for the bargain price of $1000, he’ll fuck you with a titty mag on your back! Check out his profile, AFTER THE JUMP!
Everyday here at QueerClick, we enjoy featuring “gay-for-pay” performers, that is, guys who do gay pornography but maintain that, off-camera, they are straight. This includes some big names such as Reese Rideout and Zeb Atlas, many of the Sean Cody boys, and many others we feature day-to-day. Pat Bateman, in particular, has recently raised the hackles of some gay porn lovers because of his reading preferences while fucking.
In a video on FalconStr8Men, Bateman fucked Marc Stone doggie style while looking at a boobie mag resting on the Stone’s back. It portrays a sort of straight boi bravado a la “Hey dudes… lemme show you just how much I’m totally NOT INTO this gay buttsex I’m having right now. Sure his manhole feels like warm moist poon, but there’s totally NO WAY I could even keep my shit rock hard unless i was lookin’ at some fly titty bitches to help me keep me up. Y’know what I’m sayin’? HOLLA AT’CHA BOY!!!” That’s just one take on it, but one that’s been shared by at least two other blogs: the Gay Porn Times and Fleshbot.
The Gay Porn Times, cites porn performer Tre Xavier who posted the following comments in his blog, in response to Bateman’s scene. The post is lovingly called, What Recruiting Bitches Deserve:

I think that to all media, producers and viewers who are dumb enough to be recruiters by making the whole gay-for-pay scenario seem like good entertainment, this is exactly the kind of behavior you deserve. Having this rubbed in their faces with such humiliation. I’m glad to see it.

If viewers make enough noise about their anger towards this as they have here, maybe these producers will hire some gay or bi MEN. I emphasize MEN, because a real man is secure enough to admit that he is gay or bi, instead of the bullshit “I’m straight, but I find gay sex fun, too.”If these guys find gay sex fun as well, then they should stop being wimpy bitches and admit to being bi.

Xavier goes on to blame gay-for-pay with promoting gay self-loathing, hetero-phobia, and even gay bashing as he equates “gay-for-pay” with the idea of gay recruitment. Xavier raises an interesting argument. What’s the allure and consequence of “gay-for-pay” anyway?


For starters, gay-for-pay does play into the fantasy of getting a straight guy to go gay, if even for a night. Enough drinks, money, or seduction could turn any guy gay—that’s the fantasy anyway. The newness, awkwardness, and objectification of both the “str8” dude and his lover in a fuck scene is enough to make us spring a boner just writing about it. Finally! That unrequited crush with the hunk you liked from high school, college, or yesterday at work gets fulfilled and we pop a load in celebration. To those who equate maleness with sexual orientation, str8 performers also exude a masculine mystique. Gay performers are just doing on video what they’d be doing anyway, but a str8 man in gay porn? He has to really want it… or so the thinking goes.
What then about Mr. Bateman? Is he really throwing it in our faces by looking at a boobie mag while fucking a dude? Call us old-fashioned, but we here at QueerClick prefer substance over style. No matter his reading preferences, Bateman’s still FUCKING A GUY and last time we checked, that’s just about the gayest thing you can do, no matter your stated orientation. Not that QC’s into labels, far from it. But it seems to us that “gay-for-pay” is little other than a genre type. Whether it perpetuates self-loathing and hetero-phobia as Tre says, those have many other causes outside of the porn scene. Backing up Tre’s a claim is perhaps better left to social scientists. To us, “gay-for-pay” seems a somewhat arbitrary label. We didn’t feel even remotely insulted by Bateman’s bravado. However you wanna get your rocks off is fine by us—of course, we enjoy all sorts of freaky shit. But still, the more the merrier!
There’s one other thing though… consider the following video. It’s an interview Bateman did with College Dudes 24/7 after an initial performance:

Sure he’s sarcastic, but he’s got a nice body and a pretty hot dick. Whether you like his answers and his use of bottoms as coffee tables or not, you still might not mind sucking his cock… or even better, having him suck yours—labels be damned.
What strikes us is that Bateman actually felt less comfortable with the idea of even seeing two men kiss before being in gay porn himself. Now he realizes it’s not a big deal. Sure, there’s money where his mouth is, but it suggests that there might even be something socially progressive in “gay-for-pay.” It’s the act, not the perception that’s most important. By blurring the distinction between gay and straight behavior, gay-for-pay breaks down the constraining preconceptions of sexual orientation and reinforces the idea that sexuality is fluid and ever-changing. If other so-called straight guys would just relax and realize that kissing or fooling around with a dude doesn’t “make you gay,” that labels in and of themselves are meaningless, we might actually have less homophobia and self-loathing, the idea of male straightness no longer needing constant protection and proving against us dastardly gays.
What do you think?
UPDATE (1/27): Here’s his escort profile. Whad’ya say? Any takers?
Fuck me, you over-priced titty-lover!

Jan 29, 2009 By paperbagwriter 62 Comments