Above, images of Blue Bailey from his days as an adult star; among the studios he worked with were Lucas Entertainment and NakedSword
CYBERSPACE—Blue Bailey, now retired from performing in adult videos, was one of the most controversial gay porn stars just four years ago, when his part in the video Viral Loads as well as his frankly positive view of bareback sex in gay scenes put him at the center of a discussion on “fetishizing” HIV-positive sex that even made its way into the mainstream pages of the online magazine Salon.
Now, Bailey is moving into a new career—the legal profession. But even with the law degree he earned last spring from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, Bailey plans to maintain an active interest in the adult entertainment industry.
"I am knowledgeable and passionate about the adult entertainment industry and issues concerning freedom of expression," Bailey told South Florida Gay News. "I was recently re-reading The Handmaids Tale and one of the first items that the government outlawed was pornography. Pornography and the kink community often lie on the outskirts of the mainstream LGBT collective conscious, which makes them easy targets, I would love to continue my work of being an advocate for these marginalized voices."
Bailey became the center of a controversy over what constitutes worthwhile expression in porn back in 2014, when he appeared in the video "Viral Loads," in which a jar of HIV-positive semen was poured into his rectum. Even gay porn industry advocates slammed the video as “snuff film” that presents “terror and death” as fodder for masturbation.
At the time, Bailey pointed out that he was already HIV positive at the time of the shoot, and participating in the scene—at his own request—posed no risk to his health.
As for the accusation that the film “fetishized” HIV positive sex, Bailey said that he considered the film, like other forms of porn, a fantasy and offered viewers “a way for them to fulfill the fantasy without actually participating in risky behavior.”
But since his porn career ended, Bailey faced, and conquered, another formidable challenge—law school.
“Being thrown into a class full of extremely smart students from fancy schools all over the world was intimidating,” he told South Florida Gay News. On top of that, everyone competes against each other for a curved grade. I felt inadequate and out of place on several occasions. I took a lot of time and perseverance to slowly gain my confidence."
Bailey stuck with his legal education, and became editor of the Hastings Women’s Law Journal, even publishing an academic legal research paper, "Sex Panic and Videotape," which examined “California’s Proposition 60 and AIDS Healthcare Foundations failed power grab to dictate the choice of adult entertainment performers,” he said, referring to the 2016 ballot measure that would have forced performers to use condoms during all porn shoots in the state.
Now Bailey is weighing whether to start his own law firm, to give himself greater opportunity to advocate for “the LGBT, kink, and HIV-positive communities... working for myself may best allow me to pursue these goals.” In fact, despite his past in porn for which he says he has “absolutely no regrets,” Bailey says that he would “absolutely consider a career in politics or government work, and I don’t think dreaming of such things are naive.”
