SAN FRANCISCO - Titan Media, parent company of gay adult brands TitanMen, TitanMen Fresh, ManPlay and MSR Video, and Folsom Street Events have established the TitanMen/Folsom Fund. Titan Media endowed the fund with most of a $25,000 donation; the remainder of the money will be used to underwrite the costs of producing Up Your Alley and Folsom Street Fair.
"Titan Media's sponsorship gives back to our community in two ways: The TitanMen/Folsom Fund provides grants directly to organizations focusing on gay men's health, and our fair sponsorship helps keep event costs down so all of the proceeds from the gates and beverage sales can go directly to local charities," explained Keith Webb, vice president of Titan Media.
The new TitanMen/Folsom Fund will support non-profit organizations specializing in gay men's health and education across the nation and will be administered wholly by Folsom Street Events. Folsom Street Events will match the original funds with additional national grants, bringing the total for the 2007 national grants program to $27,500.
"The TitanMen/Folsom Fund is a cornerstone of the Folsom national grants program," said Andy Copper, president of Folsom Street Events. "[This year] marks the first year for our national grants program, and thanks to the generosity of Titan Media and the creation of the TitanMen/Folsom Fund, we are off to a great start."
The recipients of 2007 grants from the TitanMen/Folsom Fund are:
- St. James Infirmary (San Francisco) - HIV prevention, testing and harm reduction for sex workers.
- L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center (Los Angeles) - HIV prevention programs.
- Gay City (Seattle) - HIV prevention and testing programs.
- Howard Brown Health Center (Chicago) - Youth-oriented HIV prevention and testing programs.
- Gay and Lesbian Community Center of South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) - HIV prevention and testing programs.
"As a leader within the gay adult industry, TitanMen is proud to be one of the largest studio contributors to non-profit organizations specializing in gay men's health and education," said Titan Media founder and chief executive officer Bruce Cam. "We have been able to show that protection and profit can go hand in hand by producing the best-selling gay adult films in the world while still maintaining a condom-only/safer-sex policy. The greatest gift we can give back to the community is the portrayal of safer sex and the use of condoms in our films. The value of a single human life is worth more than any amount of money we could ever contribute."
Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Folsom Street Events, said, "We are proud to have created this special philanthropic relationship and partnership with Titan Media. With this partnership, we have been able to raise and distribute more grant money than we have in the past. This year, Folsom Street Events gave away $350,066 to charity. [It has been] our biggest and most successful year in our 24-year history."
Titan Media has created a co-branded TitanMen/Folsom line of hardcore leather/fetish films that have been designated the "exclusive leather/fetish films of the Folsom Street Fair." A portion of sales from co-branded DVDs finances the grants. The first film in the series, Folsom Filth, won Best Specialty Film-Extreme at the 2006 GAYVN Awards. It was followed by Folsom Leather and FEAR. The success of the films enabled Titan Media to exceed its guaranteed minimum contribution to Folsom of $20,000 by $5,000.
"TitanMen promotes fetish and leather play as safer and morally responsible alternatives to the growing trend of bareback within the gay adult entertainment industry," Webb said. "By portraying and eroticizing safer sexual alternatives, TitanMen hopes to lead by example. While other studios promote and sell bareback films that portray and eroticize high-risk unprotected anal sex, TitanMen will hold firm in its steadfast commitment to the community by portraying and promoting condom-only and safer sex in all its films."
