Transgender porn star shares story
Transgender porn star shares story
Monday, February 15, 2010
Despite receiving an anonymous threat before his visit, Buck Angel, a female-to-male transgender porn star, spoke at a Master’s Tea as part of Sex Week at Yale on Saturday.
Angel shared his life story with an audience of about 50 students at the Pierson College master’s house. He emphasized the importance of self-acceptance and urged people not to submit to the labels society assigns them. Some students said they disagree with his participation in pornography, while others said they enjoyed his message.
Buck Angel, a transgender porn star, said at a Pierson Master’s Tea that he “wasn’t hiding anymore” after his sex change.
Angel grew up in Southern California as a girl who enjoyed sports and often hung out with the boys, he said; both his family and his neighbors treated him like a boy.
When puberty came, everything changed.
“I started to not feel right in my body,” he said. Angel felt like a boy, but people started to treat him like a girl. “People were not interacting with me like they were before.”
In order to suppress his inner turmoil, he said he turned to drugs and alcohol and attempted suicide several times.
He became a female fashion model, he said, although he felt out of place walking down the runway. The fashion industry furthered his drug addiction, he said, which precipitated the end of his modeling career. After becoming a prostitute in Hollywood for a while, an old friend convinced him to become sober.
“Sobriety is what woke me up,” he said.
He realized that he needed to change something in his life, so became excited when he learned of the possibility of a female-to-male transformation, he said. He researched and finally found a doctor that had performed male-to-female transformations, he said, but never female-to-male. Angel received hormone shots and later breast removal surgery, and said he felt that his external appearance finally matched his inner feelings.
“I wasn’t hiding anymore,” he said.
In a clip from his YouTube program “Bucking the System,” which he showed at the Tea, Angel explained that his sexuality is very fluid. He considers himself not bisexual, but “sexual,” he said.
“Labels are not necessary,” he said.
After his transition, Angel pioneered a new genre of female-to-male transgender pornography with a goal of “fulfilling fantasies for people.”
In late January, Angel posted on his Facebook that he received a threat with regard to his visit at Yale, and he needed security while on campus. Angel did not address the threat while speaking Saturday.
Students at Yale had mixed opinions on the star and his visit.
Dan Geoffrion ’10, a member of Yale Students for Christ who did not attend the event, said he did not disagree with the decision to invite Angel to speak at Yale, but he disagreed with the overall tone of Sex Week.
“The SWAY events are very sexual-normative and don’t include speakers that promote values such as saving sex until marriage,” he said, adding that he disagreed with Angel’s promotion of pornography. “I believe that God made sex to be this awesome, wonderful act of physical and spiritual intimacy. Pornography has far too low a view of sex. Pornography promotes the view of sex as an act of physical gratification rather than the holistic intention of what sex can and should be.”
Six students interviewed who attended the tea all said they appreciated Angel’s message.
Stephen Silva ’10 said he enjoyed listening to Angel speak and approved of his work.
“[Pornography] helped me become comfortable with my own body, and it opened up forms of sexual expression that I simply wouldn’t have learned otherwise,” he said.
Sunday marked the last day of Sex Week at Yale.
Comments
None 2 years, 3 months ago
This is definitely a material for Yale admission video “That’s why I chose Yale”. President Levin please include these highlights in the fund raising letter to Yale alumni.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
This is brilliant satire!!!
Oh, wait...
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Oh how the mighty have fallen! A Master's Tea is now the forum for a porn star. Yale was slipping away when I was a student. Now it is gone.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
I, for one, think that this Master's Tea is exactly what Sex Week at Yale is about: breaking down some of the barriers that our society is has been so comfortable constructing, and many are comfortable residing in.
And, as a completely straight male, I think he is brave, and I think his story is fascinating.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Joe W, in case you've forgotten, masters' teas are about listening to and dialoguing with people who have fascinating stories, backgrounds, and insights. What about Buck Angel doesn't fit this criteria? Should Yale not let its students learn from people because they don't fit society's norms? Should they not invite people to speak because a few conservative alumni may be made uncomfortable?
None 2 years, 3 months ago
there is something screwed up about a university that will not allow ROTC but will invite Buck Angel to speak...
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Yale should not invite a porn star to speak because “a few conservative alumni” may be made uncomfortable. If he was at Haiti saving lives after his transformation then I would say it was a fascinating story. He was a porn star before and after.Yale let him promote his new brand of pornography on campus! Where are the Yale legal team and PR team?
Do not forget Yale’s endowment is coming from “a few conservative alumni”. Do not forget who is paying your tuition.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
He/She is neither brave nor admirable.
He/She is a very confused individual who peddles in the worst kind of filth.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Well said.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Trans people tend to have psychological issues early in life (like Mr. Angel here). Why do LGBTQ activists presume that the psychological issues are the result of attitudes towards trans persons when it's much more plausible that transgenderism is a mental disorder that tends to manifest itself along with a host of other problems?
None 2 years, 3 months ago
: "Sunday marked the last day of Sex Week at Yale."--another form of sexual relief I did not know about.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Actually, this only shows what a small but powerful faction at Yale value and want to see. Most of us have no interest in this kind of stuff, and would much rather go to Master's Teas about genuine controversies, such as the suggested pro-life activist. But Yale College is controlled by p.c. humanists. The rest of us are just left out -- they only pay attention to us when lecturing us on how terrible our thoughts are.
So much for inclusion, intellectual diversity. Fortunately for Yale, we will always be loyal, although our loyalty is to what Yale should be and not what it is.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
There was in fact about waiting until marriage to have sex and the spirituality of sex. However, the population that happens to wait until marriage is a minority at Yale. Therefore, most of the events focus on sex education that applies to a larger portion of Yale students. Even though I'm a great supporter of SWAY, I do agree with you that maybe next time around there has to be a smaller focus on pornography.
To everyone else.. Buck Angel did not focus on the pornography industry and bringing him to a Master's Tea does not show the corruption of Yale's values. He talked about transition and acceptance, something that a lot of people at Yale struggle with. His overarching message goes beyond pornography, which is just his employment of choice.
None 2 years, 2 months ago
Transgender People don't have a host of other problems. It's the Hate in this world that some carry in their hearts. For those who are trying to become who they feel they should be. Being educated does not make you loving or smart.Most people who are highly educated leave miserable lives. when you are all old and wrinkeled none of the master's tea guests won't matter,instead you'll be thinking about which laxative to take.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
I didn't say Yale shouldn't be allowed to bring this man(?) to speak. Master's Teas, like everything else, tend to be a barometer of what the university community thinks is worth talking about. For this reason, they bring in people that they think are worth hearing (transgender porn stars, social activists) and don't bring in people they don't think are worth listening to (pro-life activists for instance). College masters (if I may use that archaic and classist term) can do as they please, of course. But when Yale masters choose people to bring in, they make a statement about what they value. And that value system is moving farther and farther astray... and more toward Jerry Springer.
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