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May 21, 2008
When Haters Hate
The Puritanical right-wing hate machine has recently gone into conniptions over the Michael Lucas Wikipedia entry as well as various other entries that include some sexual imagery.
Never mind that anybody can walk into major museums of the world and see equally graphic sexual imagery on urns from ancient Greece. The Puritanical haters, the morality police, come out in a show of force, convinced that if people are exposed to sexual imagery on the internet, the fabric of society will come ripping apart at its seams.
You can’t believe how far they will go. I can respect anybody for rationally expressing a point of view in an appropriate place. But in recent months, the Wikipedia entry about me was being sabotaged by haters and made into a muddle of idiocy having nothing to do with who I am and what I do. An obsessed hater or stalker doesn’t think twice before turning an entry into a hate-filled, disorganized jumble.
Enter David Shankbone, an accomplished journalist who has served as a Wikipedia editor. Among his credits are interviews with Augusten Burroughs, Shimon Peres, Evan Wolfson, Eric Bogosian, Al Sharpton and Larry Kramer. His work as a photographer is of a very high caliber; he has done photographic portraits of Susan Sarandon, Madonna, Jim McGreevey, Floyd Abrams and Julianne Moore, among many others. In February, David noted that the article about me was becoming a muddle and decided to put some order into it. For example, he fixed my name to reflect that my family name is Bregman, but was given at birth my mother's maiden name, Treivas, in an effort to circumvent the anti-Semitism of the 1970s.
For making such changes, David Shankbone was made the object of harassment and, believe it or not, death threats. He aimed to provide those interested with accurate information presented from an enlightened perspective. He wanted to rationally counter hysteria over allegedly ubiquitous victimization and drug use within the industry, and I naturally approve of that aim. Those who have worked with me and/or read me know that I take strong stands against drugs, and pride in treating my full-time and contract employees well.
Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America, and additionally the profoundly anti-gay fake journalism site WorldNetDail wrote a series of tirades against the sexual imagery on Wikipedia. They even targeted the image from the cover of Virgin Killer, an album by the German heavy metal band The Scorpions. The image is widely available elsewhere on the internet, including on Amazon, yet these parties are accusing Wikipedia of violating federal obscenity laws for leaving it on the site despite their protests.
That album cover depicts a young female, but most of the protests made against the sexual imagery on Wikipedia are made specifically because the imagery is gay. Yet my company is a model for producing safe sexual entertainment. Condoms are used at all times in Lucas productions. Besides, Wikipedia is informational. The images of fireballs in the World Trade Towers before they collapsed are also on Wikipedia, but Concerned Women for America and WorldNetDaily aren’t protesting those images. You could argue that those images empower terrorists. And maybe they actually do. But should those images be banned from Wikipedia? The Wikipedia article on Violence in Hockey shows violence taking place, but these loonies don’t protest it. Not that they should. It’s informational and illustrative of the accompanying text. So have been the pictures accompanying the article on me, some of them taken by David Shankbone himself.
Wikipedia has identified a particular IP in Northern New Jersey responsible for cyber-vandalism of many gay-related articles on its site. Both David and I have received death threats. I ask you!
Posted by Michael at May 21, 2008 11:14 AM
Comments
Hello Michael,
It is horrible to read
you have received death threats
and you are stalked by some groups in America.
I hope you can continue with your work.
It would a pity if you can't do the things you think are important to you.
And since you are proud you support a safe industry,
I hope you can convince others.
Of course not everyone has to like what you do
(I can understand not all of the American people fancy gay sex)
but they shouldn't try to stop you.
Regards,
Edwin
Posted by: Edwin at May 31, 2008 09:09 AM