December 13, 2017 | Porn Stars

Jaxton Wheeler taking a break from social media

Jaxton Wheeler went too far when, during a debate with straight porn actress August Ames, he told her to kill herself.

The argument was sparked when Ames took to social media to complain about crossover actors -- men who shoot gay and straight porn -- and how they put female models at risk. Many within gay porn called her out for being homophobic.

Some, however, let their frustration get the better of them.

Jaxton tweeted: "The world is awaiting your apology or for you to swallow a cyanide pill. Either or[,] we'll take it."

Later that day, Ames actually took her own life. It was revealed that she was suffering from depression for some time.

Many took Wheeler to task for crossing the line with his tweet. He tried to explain his comment during an interview with The Sword.

"To me, it was a forceful way to say, 'suck a bag of dicks'," he said. "I regret expressing it that way. That will haunt me the rest of my life, but it was never, ever, in any way meant to be an actual course of action."

He also released a statement, which read, in part:

I am saddened a fellow model is gone. My intention was to bring about a conversation about the stigmas and issues talent like myself deal with every day. I acknowledge that I responded with emotions and an unfortunate choice of words. None of my aggression was directed at August nor her ability to consent to who she decides to work with. My issue was with the misinformation that exists within the adult industry on crossover talent. There is a false presumption about the heightened risk & the quality of testing standards for crossover talent. As a professional adult performer, I go through the same rigorous, regular testing all talent does.

 

As a matter of public record, my comment was posted after August had chosen to take her life. I am disappointed my comments have been used to distract from my original issues and devastated they have inappropriately been attributed as the reason August chose to take her life.

 

My heart goes out to her friends and loved ones, and to all affected by this. Hopefully, this allows us to reflect on the choices we make on social media. It may be anonymous, but real harm can be done.

Yesterday, Wheeler went a step further and said he was taking a break from social media.

"Just so it's said, my Twitter remains up but I will be taking a break from actively engaging as I've before said the focus needs to be on support for the family and friends," he posted. "Thousands of apologies won't change anything, me myself has reevaluated every part of me but we can all still do better going forward to use this as something honorable in the memory of this tragedy."

Of course, we've all said things we don't mean or that were truly hurtful in the heat of the moment. Hopefully this will be a reminder to everyone that sometimes it's a good idea to take the time to really think about that post you're about to send out into the world.