CPAC’s Gay Porn Star Honoree Matt Sanchez
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James Joyner | Wednesday, March 7, 2007 |
Max Blumenthal passes on word “several gay blogs revealed late yesterday” that Marine Reserve Corporal Matt Sanchez, winner of the Jeanne Kirpatrick Academic Freedom Award at this year’s CPAC, “was known during his halcyon days as Rod Majors, a majorly well-endowed gay porn star.” In his spare time, he was “a $200-an-hour male prostitute who advertised himself as an ‘excellent top.’”
Assuming this is true (frankly, this is one time I have no desire to click through the various links involved), it is rather funny. While John Hawkins is right to note that people can turn their lives around and that “conservatives should be proud to have a guy like Matt Sanchez attending CPAC,” somehow I don’t think he’d have been so prominently featured had his past been known.
Indeed, Michelle Malkin, a major Sanchez booster, observes, “Should CPAC organizers be embarrassed if the rumors about his alleged porn star past are true? Well, yes. Next time, they should do more extensive background research before handing out an honor with Jeane Kirkpatrick’s name on it.”
Don Surber calls Blumenthal out as a “homophobe” for his insinuation that gays can’t be conservatives. But, surely, Blumenthal is right that there is a faction of the conservative movement that “exploits anti-gay sentiment for political gain.” It’s not unreasonable to point that out.
Scandals, real or imagined, simply have more resonance when they go against type. And it’s not just conservatives who feel the sting of such hypocrisy. The recent flap over Al Gore’s ginormous, energy sucking mansion would not have made the news had he been a Republican booster of the oil industry. When anti-gay evangelical ministers turn out to be gay, that’s news. When Congressmen in charge of protecting kids from child molestation are having gay affairs with teenagers, that’s news.
UPDATE (August 13): Matt Sanchez has contacted me and acknowledges that he appeared in gay porn videos. He adamantly denies, however, that he was ever a male prostitute.
Max Blumenthal continues to stand by this story, having repeated the “male prostitute” assertion as recently as August 2.
OTB has no independent corroboration of this charge. We have contacted Blumenthal for comment.
UPDATE (August 14): Blumenthal responds,
He admitted it to Alan Colmes in a radio interview, said he wouldn’t deny it in his Salon piece, and advertised his services in a public web page that was recently taken down. He never denied it when I stated it as fact on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Why is he denying it now? Possibly because he is the Weekly Standard’s only on the record source in its completely bogus attack on TNR’s Baghdad diarist, but who am i to ascribe motives?
My impression at the time was that Sanchez admitted to all charges. Michelle Malkin and others said as much contemporaneously and then approvingly linked to his pointed to his Salon piece as evidence that liberalism is so bad that even gay porn star prostitutes get turned off.
Aside from issues of legality, I’m not sure what differentiates a porn actor from a prostitute, in that both are exchanging sex for money. Regardless, his former “summer job” is by all indications something Sanchez has left behind.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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What does it say that the whole focus of this is about a homosexual being honored at CPAC as opposed to the fact that he was a porn star and male prostitute? Would the same sentiment be expressed if he was just a porn star (i.e. with females) and a gigolo? Why the hell is this being couched in "gay" terms?
Would the same sentiment be expressed if he was just a porn star (i.e. with females) and a gigolo?
Doubtful. Would the Ted Haggard or Mark Foley scandals been as big had they not been gay? No, of course not.
Okay, it's clear that Coulter's remarks a few days ago were out of bounds, but isn't this overcompensating a bit? ;>
Indeed, Michelle Malkin, a major Sanchez booster, observes, Should CPAC organizers be embarrassed if the rumors about his alleged porn star past are true? Well, yes. Next time, they should do more extensive background research before handing out an honor with Jeane Kirkpatricks name on it.
I'm not sure what the award was honoring, but I'm willing to bet it wasn't the "Best non-gay non-porn star" award.
So here's the question, whatever he did to deserve this award in the first place, is it stripped of it's meaning because he is gay? or a former porn star?
So here’s the question, whatever he did to deserve this award in the first place, is it stripped of it’s meaning because he is gay? or a former porn star?
Well, sure. Part of the point of an organization presenting an award is to confer its bonafides on the individual and, conversely, to say "these are the kind of people we are."
Further, symbolism matters. The fact that Sanchez is a Marine and Iraq War vet added substantial credibility to his stance. The he is someone who, had the facts been known, wouldn't have been allowed into the Marine Corps changes that message. (Although it adds yet more fuel to that particular fire.)
Maybe Ann Coulter can present the award?
They really should just have the Gay Porn Star of the Year Award. It would make the convention a lot more festive.
James,
Why are you even reporting on this if you don't know if it is true or not??? THAT seems very irresponsible. If Marine Reserve Corporal Matt Sanchez is NOT gay and was NOT in porn, it is reckless of you to print this story.
Can Ann Coulter call Sanchez a "f*ggot?" Can Sanchez then proceed to pop Coulter in the mouth?
Why are you even reporting on this if you don’t know if it is true or not???
To give the gallery a chance to opine, of course. Getting out in front of the facts in any story is what we commenters are for.
Would the Ted Haggard or Mark Foley scandals been as big had they not been gay?
Kind of have to disagree with this one, James. If Foley had been pursuing young female pages it still would have been huge. Haggard maybe not so much, but it would still have been a scandal if it was a female prostitute furnishing him with drugs and other favors, for a fee, of course.
Can Ann Coulter now say there are "faggots" she admires?
Isn't it the contention of the conservative christians that one can switch ones sexual orientation as easily as making a choice between paper or plastic? Maybe the selection committee just assumed that Sanchez was gay on film but had "straightened out" when in went into the Marines.
This would solve that whole DADT silliness. The troops could come out on liberty on Friday night and be hetero as Mark Foley on Monday morning.
Somehow I think Jeanne Kirpatrick would find all this highly amusing . . .
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