LAS VEGAS—The 2025 edition of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) attracted crowds to the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, as fans from around the world shared their praise and support their favorite adult content creators, webcam models, and porn stars.
One thing that makes AEE special is the commitment AVN undertakes to promote LGBTQ+ representation during the expo.
A perfect example of this is “The Village,” a special LGTBQ+-themed tract of exhibitors that returned at this year's show, creating a space where fans, performers, and industry professionals can engage with one of the fastest-growing segments in porn. The Village was first introduced to provide the gay community with a dedicated place for booths and exhibiting companies.
The annual GayVN Awards highlight the best of the best in gay-focused verticals of pornography. While the GayVN Awards event was already held with great fanfare, historic winners, and recognized success across the board, The Village adds a much more intimate and human experience for performers and adoring fans.
In a text message to AVN, 2025 GayVN Fan Award winner Santana XXL explained that his experience at the GayVN Awards foreshadows the importance of representation at these events.
He said, "I was overjoyed with so much love and support. People were coming up to me, telling me to keep going. I cried a little bit of tears of joy."
Santana XXL won Hottest Porn Newcomer and Favorite Indie Creator, marking a historic 2024 with his work for Men.com.
On the expo floor, AVN spoke with several exhibitors and performers who lauded The Village’s role for adult content consumers and the men in front of the camera who give their all to shine and entertain. Throughout most of the expo, exclusive contract performers Dylan Tides and Lane Colten signed and met fans at the Carnal Media booth. They said that The Village was an experience that welcomes everyone—not just fans of the gay vertical and queer-focused content.
"So far, the event has gone very well," lauded Tides in a joint interview.
Colten added, “I always have a great time at things like these. It’s always incredibly fun. ... I always do love coming here.”
Both briefly confirmed that they’re both working with senior leadership and the production staff at Carnal to launch new projects in collaboration with executives. Sharing the booth with Tides and Colten includes Daniel Keating of MaxAI, who is integrating their artificial intelligence models with CarnalPlus.
"We make AI models of real porn stars," said Keating, who is gay himself and the co-founder of his company. He confirmed that CarnalPlus is going to be the very first paysite in the adult entertainment segment, gay or straight, with an integration for popular contract stars attached to their proprietary models.
"Yeah, so we have already have models of LeGrand Wolf, Tyler Tanner, and Eddie Patrick, and fans have absolutely loved them,” added Keating, pitching his platform. "We do have really strong moderation around things...We've locked that down very strongly."
Keating went on to explain that The Village and AEE are excellent environments for understanding early reactions to technological innovations. Technology that improves queer-focused pleasure and adult entertainment can make The Village an exceptional venue.
For example, Dominic Pacifico pitched his new online platform Fetish Only when he took a few minutes to speak to AVN. Fetish Only is an independent platform that is extremely friendly to fetishes and kinks beyond traditional mainstream platforms in this arena.
“I got a wild hair when I had my content on a particular platform, but I got my content deleted due to the rules for the country governing the platform,” Pacifico told AVN. "A lot of people got their content deleted from this platform too: You can’t really say 'daddy.' You can’t really use large toys. You can’t really do anything super ‘fetish-y.’"
He adds, “So I decided that I wanted to put something together that is all-inclusive. My site is non-binary and is for anyone and everyone who likes fetish. Everything is a fetish. If you are a hot MILF, that's a fetish. If you're a bareback bottom twink, that's a fetish."
Pacifico also explained how the show was a great platform to bring in new users: women, trans people, and men. He was also sharing a booth with his talent agency with an array of gay-focused performers signed for fans of all backgrounds and attractions. Greg Dixxon told AVN that he was extremely privileged to be signing at The Village.
"We got traffic,” said Dixxon. “Other than that, representation in the show has been great.”
Taking a pause in the interview to sign posters and hug adoring fans, Dixxon explained how he felt that The Village could have been more integrated at a more “centralized” location in the expo so that folks on the "edges" of a tract of exhibitors can be exposed to superstars in all verticals of porn. But he praised the support for the community and the work put in to develop the Adult Entertainment Expo into an event where all people, regardless of their sexual preferences, can be accurately represented.
"I feel like there are a lot of vendors to network with us, as it relates to the trade show component of AEE," explained Dixxon. "This year is going to more than take off for me and my colleagues across all of the industry."
Photography by Toby Acuna, Rony Alwin and Mari Blue.
For more photos from the 2025 AVN Show, click here.
