Michael Lucas Survives Canadian Customs

NEW YORK - Over the weekend, Lucas Entertainment president and chief executive Michael Lucas endured what he described as a harrowing ordeal at the U.S.-Canadian border, narrowly escaping with his sexual orientation.

The odyssey, which Lucas described as a "Canadian re-envisioning of Guantanamo," began when Lucas attempted to cross the border pursuant to a scheduled performance at St. Marc Spa in Toronto. In a posting to his blog, Lucas wrote he suspected something was up when the border guard began to question what he did for a living.

"The unpleasantly bored man started off with the usual questions: What are you doing in Canada, eh? How long will you be here?" Lucas wrote. "Then the survey went a little deeper, probing at what I did for a living. What kind of company is it? Is it softcore or hardcore? His obnoxiously tired act turned abrasive and superior. His agenda at this point was to get my porny ass back to America."

In February, the agency banned as obscene two of his fetish films, Piss! and Farts!. Lucas said he carried several DVDs of his films in his luggage, intending to give them to friends as gifts, but he did not mention what titles were on the DVDs.

After a fairly uneventful, if reportedly attitudinal, quizzing by the first border guard, Lucas was directed to another border guard and then pulled aside for additional investigation before being given permission to enter the country.

According to Lucas, the border agents were suspicious about his lack of a wallet, which Lucas said he explained as having been forgotten at home. In addition, the agents seemed suspicious about his reservations at a five-star hotel.

Adding further insult to a process Lucas found tedious, Canada Border Services agents emptied his bags and searched the contents.

"Of course I had my movies on me, a stack of nude pictures to sign, and lube," Lucas wrote in his blog. "The essentials. Homophobia was running rampant with these captors, and they were highly offended by said essentials."

Eventually the border agents relented and allowed Lucas to enter Canada. He chalked up the experience to further evidence of what he considers Canada's love-hate relationship with gay civil rights.

"I have traveled extensively around the world," Lucas wrote. "I have stepped foot in the most strict and forbidden countries, yet I have never felt the homophobic and anti-pornographic force of the Canadian border patrol. ...[I]n a country which is sturdily progressive and in support of gay marriage, this is shocking."

Canadian Customs has waged a running battle with gay adult entertainment since at least 1984 and has seen itself called overzealous by the country's highest court at least once.

Lucas' account of the adventure is available in its entirety here.