Why the Feds Just Busted Gay Escort Site RentBoy.com (Daily Beast)
The subscription-based website—rates range from $59.95 to $299.95 a month—lists thousands of paid advertisements describing the physical appearance (height, weight, penis size) and sexual preferences (position, fetishes) of thousands of working men.
Often times, they include sexually explicit videos and photographs with their hourly, or nightly, rate. It’s teeming with porn stars and industry hopefuls. Previous clients are even able to rate their sexual satisfaction.
But by offering “companionship” instead of “sex” and outlying their “Terms of Services”...the company has lived in legal grey area that has previously prevented them from being classified as prostitution.
“The difference between escorting and prostitution is that a prostitute offers sex for money, whereas an escort offers time for money,” Duncan Black one of the site’s escorts told The Daily Beast last year.
“If you were to book me, you wouldn’t be booking me for a specific sexual act—you’d just be booking me for my time. We could go to dinner, or for a walk, or just hang out and talk… or, y’know. Other things can happen, too!”
Whether or not physical intimacy is involved is superfluous, because these clients are paying for the time, not the sex. The distinction has kept Black—and thousand of others escorts and clients—grounded on the right side of the law, even when sex is what they are typically known for.
Since 2006, RentBoy has recognized the physical attributes and sexual talents of their most popular escorts at the Annual International Escort Awards, aka “the Hookies.” They’ve doled out awards for “best boyfriend fantasy,” “best dressed/style” and “best cock.”
Last year, when The Daily Beast, profiled Black who was up for two of these awards—“Best Newcomer” and “Best Ass”—and is exclusively signed with one of the Internet’s biggest gay porn studios, CockyBoys, he insisted that the only service he has ever offered was his time, not sex.
“I’m not a hooker,” he asserted, before describing some seemingly innocent situations with clients in which he describes as “social service.”
“I’ve had clients tell me about their coming-out stories, how if it weren’t for escorts, that they’d have probably committed suicide,” he said. “They don’t have someone to talk to, but with escorts, they can talk about their sexuality and their feelings.”
But not all of the escorts are as coy about their profession. Some know that’s exactly what clients want and sees the value in the commodity without fear or the escort-or-prostitute.
Fellow RentBoy escorts Raj and Viktor Belmont emphasized to Mic that their “jobs empower people to enjoy sex more and be less ashamed of their innate desires,” Belmont said in an article titled “7 Surprising Things We Can Learn About Sex and Intimacy from Professional Sex Workers.”
But by offering “companionship” instead of “sex” and outlying their “Terms of Services” to include that “this site may not be used for the advertising of sexual services or to engage in activities requiring the payment of money for sex or other illegal activities,” the company has lived in legal grey area that has previously prevented them from being classified as prostitution.
entary of one of RentBoy.com's advertisers.
