Gay porn star and producer Michael Lucas was once very emphatic that bareback porn was dangerous. He is now not only making bareback porn for his website Lucas Entertainment, but performing without a condom himself.

 

“For many years, as you know, I was vocally opposed to bareback sex in videos, because I felt that it was putting the models in danger," he said in a recent interview with Queerty. "But times have changed. HIV treatments can now reduce viral loads to the point where, as far as we can tell, they pose little to no risk of transmission. Combine that with PrEP [Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis] treatments for HIV negative people, and we’re talking about a much, much lower danger than was previously the case."

 

He said part of the change comes from gay porn consumers, who are more interested in seeing raw sex on camera. He hints that part of the reason some companies have gone under is for failing to give people what they want.

 

“If the industry had stayed united behind condom use, then that would be one thing, but it didn’t," he explained. "And that means that companies that produce only porn with condoms are putting themselves at a very real disadvantage. In the end, this is a business, and we can’t afford to ignore what consumers want from porn these days. I held out for condoms for as long as I could, but with the arrival of PrEP and the new information about undetectable viral loads, the principle behind holding out was not as compelling as it used to be.”

 

In fact, said Lucas, his personal sexual behavior has changed.

 

“My position on bareback sex in porn has adapted accordingly. And not just in porn: I have changed the way I have sex in my personal life, too. I am HIV negative, but I have recently been seeing someone who is HIV positive, and we have sex without condoms. So I feel fine, now, with asking my models to do the same.”

Lucas is on the anti-viral Truvada, a pre-exposure pill which drastically reduces the chance of being infected with HIV; his boyfriend in on medication that has reduced his HIV to undetectable levels. 

At the Phoenix Forum last weekend, Lucas indicated that his studio  would no longer produce any condom porn. There are now more gay studios producing bareback scenes than not, though some take more precautions than others to prevent HIV transmission.