Jun 24, 2005  |  By: DYANA BAGBY  | COMMENTS     

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Gay men who cruise online with nude photographs may be required to provide signature proof of their age and identities with the Web sites where they post their pictures under federal regulations set to take effect this week.

A handful of sites, including Gay.com, BigMuscle.com and m4m-usa.com, are already reacting to the regulations by alerting members and evaluating their policies.

The federal law impacting such content, 18 U.S.C. §2257, is the federal records keeping and labeling act that outlines penalties for failure to document the ages of models and actors who appear in sexually explicit imagery.

The revised regulations, which specify how documentation for the federal regulation must be kept, who must keep it, and how it may be inspected, were published in the Federal Register on May 24 and were slated to take effect June 23, according to the Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry trade association based in California.

Web sites react
BigMuscleBears.com and BigMuscle.com, Web sites for gay men, recently issued a statement to members asking them to not post images depicting sexual fluids or any kind of anal penetration due to the revisions in the federal regulations. Nudity was still allowed, according to the statement, but both sites recommended only solo images be posted as part of a self “policing” process.

Bigmuscle.com and BigMuscleBears.com, operated by two men identified as Andy and Bill on the sites, declined comment for this story.

“Thank you for the offer, but we are holding our opinion of 2257 till the injunction is ruled on,” the company said in an e-mail response.

m4m-usa.com to defy new regs

Steven Alexander, Web site director for gay male site m4m-usa.com — also known as m4m4sex.com — recently issued a statement to its members regarding the new regulations and blamed the Republican administration of President George Bush for infringing on First Amendment rights.

“Starting June 23, in the name of save-our-children-from-becoming-porno-slaves, new regulations take effect that require model releases on all photos displayed on all Web sites if the photo is sexually explicit,” Alexander wrote.

“We strongly support all laws that prevent the sexual exploitation of minors, but typical of hastily drafted moralizing legislation, it makes no distinctions or exceptions, such as photographing oneself [versus] photographing others and doing so for money [versus] to meet other men.

“So if you want to exercise your free speech in an autobiographical non-commercial personal ad by posting a nude photo of yourself where you proudly show off your equipment loaded, ready to go into battle, you may not do so anonymously under a self-chosen username,” according to the statement.

Alexander said in the statement to members that m4m.com would not remove nude photos or require signed release forms from members posting them, although it is possible they could be prosecuted.

“Sometimes things are just plain wrong and someone has to stand up and say no. This is too broad and restrictive of our rights and it’s overkill regarding protecting minors. Our rules regarding photos remains the same — we want all photos that honestly depict our members,” he said in the statement.

M4m-usa.com did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Donna Gibbs, a spokesperson for PlanetOut Inc., which owns Gay.com, said the company is a member of the Free Speech Coalition and supports its lawsuit against the new regulation.

“Beyond the impact on Web sites, we feel this is a privacy concern,” she said.

Requiring Gay.com to maintain records on each individual who posts photos to the site is “beyond onerous,” she added.

But Gay.com is developing “contingency plans” for the posting of sexual images to meet the requirements of the federal regulations, though Gibbs declined to provide further details.

Coalition files lawsuit
On June 16, the Free Speech Coalition filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado.

This week, the Free Speech Coalition filed a complaint and motion in the U.S. District Court of Colorado seeking a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the recently re-issued requirements. A hearing was set for June 23 in Denver, after press deadline for this publication.

Primary and “secondary producers” of sexually explicit images are included in the new regulations and are mandated to keep detailed information on all the people depicted ...