Cody Cummings Comes Out of the Closet — Then Goes Right Back In?
[Editor’s Update: Commentary added at the end of the post.]
For about twenty minutes today, all of our queer dreams came true. Gay-for-Pay actor Cody Cummings announced earlier today that he was gay, before immediately retracting the statement.
His announcement, which in many places reads like a bad porn script (“My body ached for the touch of another man”) ran earlier today on Manhunt Daily and spread wider than a freshman’s legs, before being retracted. Full quote after the jump.
I apologize to my fans for waiting so long to make this announcement. You’ve all been so patient watching me expand my horizons and explore my sexuality onscreen, and while I’ve been hesitating to say this so long — because of all the haters — I feel the need to be honest with you. I am a proud, gay American.
Ever since filming SHADOWKISS with Anthony Romero, things haven’t been the same for me. My straight and bi work began to feel like an oblication. My body ached for the touch of another man, the feeling of him deep inside me… But how could I disappoint the millions of female fans of CodyCummings.com?
After many sleepless nights, it dawned on me that I could still satisfy my loyal customers without sacrificing my integrity. You don’t have to be straight to have sex with a woman. I’m a performer through and through, and when life gives you lemons — you just have to perform.
My latest scene showcases me making love to fellow Next Door Studios performer Joey Hard. In filming this, I hope you can see that I’ve truly evolved into an honest man, whose [sic] willing to share his passion with the world. Thank you for your time.
On the one hand, it’s hard to see why someone who has made a name for himself in gay porn would have problems coming out. On the other, gay-for-pay has its own veneer; we seem pretty attached to the idea that Cody is just in it for the cash.
So now, sites all over the net are scrambling to correct and retract their stories. What do you think, readers? Is this just a bit of a wishful thinking, or is Mr. Cummings tiptoeing around the truth? Cry for help or for attention? How would his coming out (or his refusal to come out) affect his viewership?
I know from past postings that you guys have some strong feelings about this, so share ’em!
*Editor’s Update*
By now, of course, the story has echoed throughout the blogosphere. For the most part, bloggers and commentators are clamoring over themselves to declare how much they don’t care about Cody Cummings and how much this story doesn’t matter. I’ll let that sentence sink in. Clamoring over themselves to declare how much they don’t care. Someone doth protest too much, methinks.
For the record, the story here is not which box Mr. Cummings checks in his sex census. I’m less interested in the “truth” about this article and more curious as to why we care so much. (The ever-proliferating number of similar articles suggests that, in one facet or another, we do care.) What does it mean to have spilled so much ink over this phantom event?
Why are some of us offended by Mr. Cummings’ sexual tourism? Why are we so quick to register how much we don’t care? Whatcha think?
