GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Salon.com interview with Seymore Butts

As the porn industry reels from an HIV scare, "gonzo" king Seymore Butts announces a condom-only policy. He tells Salon why.

Will this outbreak change the way the industry works?

I've heard a lot of people saying that they'll go elsewhere -- to another state, or another country. To me that just doesn't seem to be a great solution. Some other state isn't just going to let some group come in and start shooting thousands of sex scenes, without getting involved.

Do you feel you're taking a big risk in requiring condoms in your movies?

Look, the big risk is that I'm risking losing a lot of sales. But I'm minimizing the danger to the performers I work with, so it isn't really a question. I think that, generally, I'm at less risk than someone else in the gonzo world. I have a little bit more of a mainstream audience than the average gonzo producer, thanks to my name being well-known and through the cable show. Because of that I think I have a less demanding gonzo audience -- I have couples and I have a lot of women. I don't think to the couples and women it will make much of a difference whether people in my movies are wearing condoms or not.

So, I'd like to think that I'm taking less of a risk than others would be, but the other side of the coin is not taking the risk and just going on with business as usual. I couldn't do that. I need to be able to sleep at night.

It seems like this couldn't have come at a worse time, politically.

I would have to agree with that assessment. Right now the Bush administration, Ashhahahahaha, the Department of Justice, they've declared war on pornography as well as drugs, Iraq and abortion.

Have you chosen not to work with people before because you suspect they might be sick?

If I think someone's using, or comes in all sketchy, yeah, I don't work with them. And if you don't want to wear a condom, who cares -- you do what you're asked to do.

http://www.salon.com/sex/feature/200...tts/index.html

Three page interview with one of the kings of gonzo.