Why I Stand With Rentboy
The anti-gay backlash has begun.
My name is Alexander Cheves, but lovers call me Beastly. I write about sex for magazines. Send me a question! Email askbeastly@gmail.com or go here. This site is supported by readers like you. There are no ads or paid posts. I write “adult content” so WordPress will not let me profit from this blog directly. Please visit my Patreon site to support my work. Patrons get perks, gifts, a newsletter, and more.
Last Tuesday, the feds raided the Manhattan offices of Rentboy.com and arrested seven people, including the CEO. Kelly Currie, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said: "As alleged, Rentboy.com attempted to present a veneer of legality, when in fact this Internet brothel made millions of dollars from the promotion of illegal prostitution." This "brothel" had been publicly advertising its business on social media since 1996. So why now? Yes, prostitution is illegal in the United States — a fact that only makes sex work more dangerous for those in it and results in the disproportionate incarceration of black people, trans women, and other minority groups who find viable income in it. Authorities alleged the site was under investigation for some time. Rentboy is challenging the prostitution allegation by saying its services were for time, not sex — there was even a "no sex" disclaimer that popped up upon entering the site. See below.
Still, its name points to the contrary: "rent boy" is a British term for a male escort. According to NBC New York, the site billed itself as "the world's destination to meet the perfect male escort or masseur" and boasted a database of more than 10,500 men in 2,100 cities worldwide.
Beastly's Note from the Future: When I first wrote this post, I was not "out" as a sex worker and did not include the fact that I was one of the 10,500 men on Rentboy.com who lost his business in the raid.
Funny enough, a friend messaged me last Saturday, three days before the raid: "Hey, bugging you for a spare second of your time. No rush. Just take a few sentences and describe me, physically. No pressure, just looking for a place to start."
I texted back: "Is this for a profile of some kind?"
"Yeah, Rentboy."
I described him. Bulldog build with thick arms and a cock to match.
His reply: "I could kiss you for that."
My friend has found clients on hookup apps like Scruff and Grindr, and in person at the bar where he has danced, for many years. He's a mature adult who has consensual sex for money. What is his crime?
The crime, in the U.S., is that exchange: sex for sale. A victimless crime, sex work becomes dangerous often just by the methods people take to avoid the law — and the involvement of people who avoid the law for other reasons, too. Criminalising it creates the victims. Shutting down Rentboy.com, regardless if it was an "internet brothel" or just a place where people exchanged time for money (and did in that time what they chose) will do little more than just put people like my friend — consenting adults — out of work. It will force them to find other work, face poverty or, most likely, turn to more dangerous, below-ground ways to continue sex work, ways with greater risks and worse people. Online, clients can be vetted and screened, at least a bit. On the streets, physical risks are greater. My friend is a white, cisgender male, so he'll probably be fine; the people who will suffer most are sex workers with disabilities or huge medical bills or staggering debt who depended on Rentboy for survival. Men of color, undocumented men, and men trying to escape prison — Rentboy's shutdown will only hurt and disenfranchise the most vulnerable.
Think of the sex workers who will eventually be incarcerated because of this raid. This will keep them in the cycle of being unable to find work (with jail on their records) and force them to return to sex work. This loop is intentional and cruel — a way to keep for-profit prisons full. The U.S. has a booming private prison industry sustained on criminalising things like marijuana possession and sex work.
Though prostitution is illegal, Rentboy.com had a publicly accessible site, branding, and swag — a global image. It was visible. Less visible and more dangerous alternatives exist. People with few options and no ways to support themselves are most at risk of sex trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. People will die without Rentboy.com.
Men joined the site freely, paid a monthly fee, and arranged meetings via email and text. If something seemed wrong, they could move on to the next guy without ever risking their physical safety. So why Rentboy? Why now? Countless sites across the internet advertise "Russian brides", "horny Latinas" and young Asian girls. I get spam emails from them all the time. I haven't heard of any of these getting raided or shut down (I assume at least some of them are based in the United States). The biggest difference I see between these spammy porn sites and Rentboy.com is the fact that Rentboy catered explicitly to gay men. It was the only successful site like it in the U.S. and its shutdown comes just a few months after same-sex marriage passed.
I think this was a backlash — a gay raid. It smacks of the Stonewall era. I can't help but feel this is just an ugly start to a long road of anti-gay legal maneuvers in reaction to the marriage ruling.
The New York Times reported that "the criminal complaint [against Rentboy.com] is so saturated with sexually explicit details, it’s hard not to interpret it as an indictment of gay men as being sexually promiscuous."
“Based on my investigation,” Susan Ruiz, a Homeland Security special agent, wrote in the complaint, “I have learned that a sling, also known as a ‘sex sling,’ is a device that allows two people to have sex while one is suspended.” Later, she helpfully explained that “the term ‘twink’ is a slang term for a young, gay man with an effeminate manner, thin build, and no body or facial hair.”
In response to the raid, protests have been organized in major cities from New York to San Francisco. Go to one. Defend your friends and lovers in sex work. Before, they needed us to write their cute profile descriptions and take their photos. Now they need public support. Supporting protests against the shutdown of Rentboy.com should make us examine the larger problem of criminalising sex work — an ugly system that does far more harm than good. We should defend all sex workers, not just gay ones, not just the ones we jack off to or find sexy. The women working on the corner in high heels are working women. They have a job. They deserve safe clients, not prison.
Love, Beastly