What with the (somewhat benign yet very popular) Folsom Street Fair approaching this Sunday, it's not shocking that Treasure Island Media [NSFW], a local porn company that specializes in bareback (i.e., condom-free) adult entertainment, has been 86'd from Sunday's festivities. In fact, they've been banned for several years now. No, not for distributing films with such titles as Plantin’ Seed (Folsom Underground) or Dawson's 20-Load Weekend, but for having had actual sex acts inside their booths at past Folsom Street Fair. (It might come as a shock to some, but live sex acts are verboten at SOMA's annual slap-and-tickle street fair. Why? Because the city frowns upon sex and such public acts could affect the fair's annual revenue.)
The Bay Area Reporter notes:
Folsom Street Events Executive Director Demetri Moshoyannis was clearly annoyed when asked about the ban, telling the Bay Area Reporter that covering the 86′ing is “lame” and “I don’t think it’s news.”“They haven’t been allowed back to the fair for several years now, because they refuse to follow our exhibitor guidelines,” Moshoyannis said. “It’s as simple as that.” He estimated the porn company’s been banned for at least three years.
He said the blacklisting has “nothing to do with the fact they’re a bareback porn company,” and explained that exhibitors aren’t supposed to allow sex in their booth spaces.
Moshoyannis angrily went on to tell the BAR, "You’re writing a story about nothing, and they got you to write a story about nothing." Which: sigh. Business owners and civic leaders love to explain to reporters that they're "writing a story about nothing" when said story doesn't shine a retina-scorching light on their interests. Grain of salt here, folks. We get that FSS raises loads of money for charity. And that's super. However, as San Francisco turns into a haven for right-brained tech ilk who do creative on the weekends, "microtrend" blathering yokels, and cupcake-bacon-food-truck-Bi Rite-line-waiting zealots, it's noteworthy to point out how the city's increasingly puritanical bent and quarantined gay culture has affected some, if not most, of its racier texture. (OK, we're not quite there yet, but still.)
For their part, Treasure Island isn't losing any hot loads over the ban. Turning lemons into golden showers, they've capitalized on the non-drama by having this sign (pictured here) in front of their Ninth Street offices as well as hosting parties around SOMA during the Folsom Street Fair season.
[BAR]