At the end of a long hall in the Los Angeles Convention Center’s west wing, there’s a fork in the road. On one side, a gathering of Latino Christians, Congreso Juvenil Union del Pacifico: Discipulos de Jesus, announced with a painted poster depicting a white woman (blond hair, blue eyes) whose locks are being blown by divine forces. She clasps the Holy Bible and wears a determinedly serene expression. A trio of dress-shirt- and conservative-tie-clad Latino youth follows that arrow. I follow the bread crumbs that lead in the other direction, to the poster that reads “Gay Erotic Expo.”Immediately past the entrance to the homo event, there’s a booth for Project Mix, whose friendly staff ask me to take a one-minute quiz on sexually transmitted diseases. Nice mood-setter.Across the way at Adonis Pictures, an upstart gay porn studio, company vice president Jeremy Spencer beams on the sideline as stars Trevor Knight and Bobby Williams strike lewd poses and shed tighty-whities for the crowd’s cell-phone cameras and camcorders. Knight’s dick is so huge that my gag-reflex kicks in just looking at it.“When Clinton was in office,” says Spencer, keeping an eye on his boys, “everything was fine. Bush came in and freaked everybody out, but then 9/11 happened. It’s sad to say, but 9/11 helped the industry because it kept his attention off us. Now, with all that stuff being pushed aside, they’ve just reinstated these laws called the 2257 Regulations [requiring all porn producers to prove that performers are over 18 or risk being shut down], and [U.S. Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales is coming down. Because we’re a new company, we have records for all our guys. Companies that have been around for 10 or 20 years, they may not be quite so lucky. Papers get lost; things have not been tracked carefully.”A few moments later, a friendly but droll Knight weighs in on the gay-for-pay brigade in homo porn, both in the movies and countless Web sites that hawk straight boys “pushing their sexual boundaries.” He scoffs at the notion.“I don’t believe that those people — gay-for-pay — can really do this if they’re really straight,” he says. “Look, I was engaged to a woman, did the whole woman thing, but I’ve accepted within myself that I’m a gay man and no amount of money in the world can change me into being a man who does women. These guys who say they’re gay-for-pay, they’re living out a small fantasy. I’ve seen it time and time again. I drop my pants, they see a big dick, and they’ll [snaps his fingers] get right on it.”About that time, a roar goes through the auditorium. Guys from the Web site Straightcollegemen.com stand on chairs, whooping like horny, drunken frat boys in the direction of a gorgeous Asian woman who passes out fliers at a nearby booth. The guys drop trou and wag their dicks in her direction. She laughs and blows them kisses, which only incites them to be louder and cruder. Two of them pull up their pants and run over to her booth. The entire time, fans’ celly cameras are clicking, and video cameras are rolling.When I introduce myself to Caleb, one of the biggest stars of the Web site, I stick out my hand by way of introduction. He grasps it but pulls me to him and gives me a kiss. “How ya doin’?” he asks in a sexy rasp.I ask him how a “straight” man like him is able to perform sexually with another guy, and he laughs. “I think it’s the money. At first, I was like, no fucking way. I’m totally straight. But the money’s so good. We try to make it a good time so it’s not too uncomfortable. I’ve been in a situation with another guy who I’ll never work with again ’cause it was too uncomfortable, but the money helps a bunch. I don’t go to a bar to pick up a dude. It’s just a work thing. People can think what they want.”Where do you draw the line, I ask. What won’t you do for money? Without missing a beat, he replies, “I won’t fuck another guy or get fucked. If the money was there — if the amount was acceptable — I might break my rules. But these videos are around forever, and you don’t wanna do something you’ll regret, you know?”Later in the afternoon, the divine Jackie Beat hosts an audience-participation session that turns into one of the day’s highlights. After two of the straight guys French kiss for a lackluster 3.5 seconds, Ms. Beat quips dryly, “Oh, that was really sweet. I haven’t been that turned on since I saw Martha Stewart being hauled off to prison. I’m starting to believe you really are straight. But there’s no way you motherfuckers are in college.”

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