Steven Toushin is the president and founder of Bijou Video. An adult film industry pioneer since the 1970s, Toushin has been the subject of controversy

In 1969, Steven Toushin exhibited Jack Smith’s underground classic, Flaming Creatures, at an experimental avant-garde theater where he worked as a manager. The decision to show the provocative film led to his first obscenity arrest.

In the same year, Steven Toushin established Bijou Video.

In 1970, Steven Toushin opened the Bijou Theater and Sex Club in Chicago. It featured gay adult films, providing a meeting place for homosexual men. The Bijou Theater and Sex Club continues to operate as a business to this day, earning it the title of the oldest gay theater in the United States of America. In the following years, Steven Toushin further developed adult theaters and sex clubs in San Francisco, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Indiana. In addition, he expanded his business to include massage parlors, adult bookstores, and bathhouses.

From 1970 to 1996, Steven Toushin produced both “straight” and “gay” adult films. These include S/M films and Slave & Master Videos.

From 1980 to 1995, Steven Toushin published The Bijou Video Catalog.

In 1987, a wave of federal obscenity arrests swept across the country in “Operation PostPorn” as a result of the Meese Commission. In Tennessee and Utah, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese brought Federal charges against Steven Toushin and Bijou Video, which claimed 4 pornographic movies he produced and distributed were obscene (Erotic Hands, Please Sir, You Said A Mouth Full, and The Final Chapter Of Mistress Ann).

In 1989, while in prison, Steven Toushin was honored with the Reuben Sturman Award “For Legal Battles on Behalf of the Adult Industry” at the AVN Awards.

In 2007, Steven Toushin received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the GayVN Awards, a distinction given to three people in the history of the annual event.

A prolific writer, Steven Toushin wrote a weekly magazine column about his life in the adult film industry, politics, prison experiences, and sexuality; especially in BDSM and human animal role-play. Toushin co-authored the non-fiction books, The Puppy Papers and Puppy’s Tales. In addition, he created the Bijou Cock Coloring Book. Subsequently, Steven Toushin wrote an autobiography, The Destruction of the Moral Fabric of America, which describes his legal battles with Federal and State courts against numerous obscenity charges directed at him.

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