Jay – who hails from Cavite – collects ₱150 (his advertising even plays with “wampipti“, the supposed amount gay and bi men pay hetero-identifying men so they’d agree to have sex with them) for “exclusive access” to sex videos he uploads in Telegram (an app). Using a sex positive lens, this is not supposed to be problem; except Jay does not only upload his own sex videos, but the videos of his sexmates who may have agreed to do something with him, but definitely did not agree for their videos to be uploaded online, or for Jay to profit off these videos. To date, he already has over 2,000 “subscribers”, meaning he already earned… yes, ₱150 x 2,000.
Alas, and sadly, Jay is not a rare case in the gay and bi community. There are more like him who profit by showing other people’s private moments. Without consent. Vic Fabe, of course, comes to mind, with his “promise” to help the career of hetero-identifying men in exchange for sex, for them to eventually find out he taped them and then uploaded the videos on his for-pay website.
Multiply this gazillion times since there are now many sex-related “channels” in Telegram, Twitter, Facebook/Messenger, et cetera, all of them accessible after payment of certain amounts is made NOT necessarily to those in the sex videos, but to those who made them, saved them, and so on.
OPPORTUNISM EXEMPLIFIED
I first encountered Jay via Romeo (nee Planet Romeo), which led to him chatting with me through WhatsApp and, on occasion, Telegram. Skinny and… not-that-good looking, his only claim to fame, if it can be called that, is his bigger-than-average dong. Interestingly, Jay does NOT even frequently use what’s between his legs; instead, he uses it to “trap” others (gay or bi, or hetero-identifying men who have sex with men) to “perform” for him (e.g. jerking off, or fucking others).
Jay has “regulars”, mostly impoverished/destitute/poverty-stricken hetero-identifying men who crossed his path in various contexts – e.g. an 18-year-old basurero/garbage man he met at 7-11 in Zapote; from his barangay, young basketball players in need of sponsorship for their team; senior high school (SHS) students who live in the informal settlers’ areas in Parañaque and in Cavite; and so on.
These “regulars” eventually bring “friends” to Jay, so that the circle widens. Jay, by the way, targets relatives, which satisfies some of his “subscribers”.
Sometimes Jay would “invite” these men for a “drinking session”; though usually it’s to pimp them out to other gay or bi men willing to pay these men… plus Jay’s finder’s fee.
In almost all of these “meetings”, Jay claimed to have paid the men ₱500 not for sex (at least not always) but to be allowed to take their photographs while naked, and then their videos while they play with themselves, or play with others (usually gay men that Jay pimps these guys out to). To clinch the deal, he supposedly tells them these recordings are for his “personal collection”, a fetish of some sort that these men were, apparently, willing to satisfy.
The sad thing is… after chatting with some of these men, none knew of what actually happened to their pics/videos. And had they known, one SHS student said, “Who in their right mind would have agreed? I wouldn’t!”.
THE NEED TO CALL OUT ABUSERS & ENABLERS AMONG US
That this is a complex issue should be stressed.
Poverty sucks, truly. This was why many of the men Jay engaged with fell in his trap to begin with. I’ve chatted with some of them, and I know that: what some earned fed them (and at times their entire families) for at least a few meals; some used the money to apply for regular jobs; and still some used the money for schooling. And yeah, I know there were those who used the money to pay for drugs (comes with the territory, I suppose).
There, too, is no need to shame those who do sex work. OnlyFans shows one can make a living off this (i.e. uploading contents to titillate others for a fee). We can get into details of “real” ownership (e.g. the sites still own the contents), shift of abuses from the physical to the online world, and so on; but when people upload their own contents and ask for payment/s from the same, at least there’s a semblance of agency… somehow. And really, there’s no shame there.
The failure (yes, let’s stop sugarcoating the lack of action and the inaction) of those supposed to “control” the spread of these contents is way too apparent. Former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte “tried” to control online porn, and he failed (he should just have asked people who didn’t kiss his ass if it’s doable at all, LOL) big time. The failure continues even now… with the likes of Jay running loose (so to speak) online.
But then there, too, is the blame that should be hurled our way, the LGBTQIA community, particularly to members who openly “demand” for their human rights to be protected, and yet also pay the likes of Jay to access contents of people who, really, are abused.
One time, one of Jay’s former “regulars” – after finding out his videos are now circulating online – wanted to do “something bad” to Jay. He didn’t know exactly what (though he floated informing the barangay on Jay’s activities), but that he wanted “makaganti” (vengeance) was on top of his head. Eventually, though, he just “dropped” everything Jay-related (including that anger). Out of sight, out of mind, he said. Even if photos and videos of him are already out there, in some online sites somewhere.
But Jay hasn’t stopped. Still driven by his subscribers, he still makes those videos, and uploads them to get cash from the same. He now even has naked photos of the aforementioned guy’s older brother… among others.
The opportunism continues. And many in the LGBTQIA community are to blame. We get titillated oh-so-easily, and we stop caring about the stories about the materials that titillate us. So puwede ba, before we call for our human rights to be protected, can we stop and make sure we’re actually not stepping on others’ human rights, too? Let’s call out the abusers in our midst; let’s not give them money to continue their abuses; let’s protect their victims. Napapanahon naman ito always dapat…
