Gay Japanese Porn Star Masaki Koh Has Died

TOKYO — Gay Japanese porn star and LGBT advocate Masaki Koh died on May 18 from complications after surgery, his partner Tien Tien has confirmed.
Koh was 29 years old.
Tien said that the performer “was receiving treatments from a ruptured cecal (which is considered the beginning of the large intestine) due to peritonitis and has had surgery several times since last month.”
Koh appeared in a number of films according to his filmography that included “Hunk Movies” “Boy’s Evolution,” “Sodom 2” and many more.
According to his website, Koh was also an underwear model and go-go dancer.
“This is a sad day not only for us but also for his family, partner, and friends who have always supported his career. We will always love you Koh Masaki,” Tien wrote.
A tribute in Gay Star News said, “Koh was a vocal supporter of LGBT rights. When a lesbian couple held a wedding in Tokyo Disneyland in March he said ‘your wonderful wedding will bring inspiration and hope to many people who still hesitate to take the first step.’
“In April 2012 he traveled to Taiwan to star in a safe-sex event in Ximenting, Taipei's gay bar area.”

Porn Star Wilfried Knight Commits Suicide After Long Battle With Immigration

French native Wilfried Knight died March 5, two weeks after his American husband took his own life, following years of unsuccessful efforts to have their Canadian marriage legally recognized in the U.S.

 

Wilfried Knight, an acupuncturist and porn star, has reportedly killed himself just two weeks after husband also took his own life, according to The Raw Story. Both men lived in Vancouver, Canada, at the time of their deaths. Knight was a French citizen, who married his American husband, Jerry Enriquez, in Canada in 2011, reports Raw Story. But the so-called Defense of Marriage Act made it impossible for Enriquez to sponsor Knight for spousal-based citizenship in the U.S. Desperately seeking a way to stay together, Enriquez found work with the athletic company Lululemon in Vancouver last year, and the couple moved to Canada, where Knight had full legal access to his husband's benefits. But Enriquez was fired by Lululemon, and five months later, Knight came home to find his husband dead by suicide. In a blog post written on March 2, Knight places the blame for his partner's death squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. immigration system. The post is titled "My partner's life and death and its lesson: U.S. Gay Marriage Must Pass on a Federal Level." Speaking of his and Enriquez's nine-year relationship, Knight pulled no punches about the legal hurdles placed before them as a binational couple. Knight had obtained a student visa to pursue acupuncture, and the couple had been living in Portland, Ore., for five years prior. "By the end of my studies, my visa was going to expire, and i would be sent back to Europe," wrote Knight. "No other way around it. Again, it does not matter whether gay marriage exists in California or Washington, if one is not American, it will not apply. Therefore if you are in love but not straight, you are fucked!" After Enriquez's death, in a blog post March 3 taking Lululemon to task, Knight made clear his feelings about the unjust immigration laws in this country: "Gay marriage should exist on a national/federal level," he wrote, "so that multinational gay couple[s] can simply live together as multinational straight couples do. Laws should change for any international gay couple: my partner net clear signs he wanted me to die with him, to follow him, therefore had no will after our 9-year relationship. My marriage is valid in Canada, NOT in the USA. Therefore his family gets it all, when I get nothing." Two days after he wrote that post, Knight committed suicide, a friend confirmed to Queerty. Michael Mew, who Queerty identifies as "a close personal friend" of Knight's, said his friend was anything but a porn-star cliche, calling him "a funny man with a kitschy sense of humor." "Up to the end, [Knight] expressed how he wished that no couple would have to endure what he and Jerry had to in trying to stay together," writes Mew. "They would both be alive today if America had gay marriage." If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, isolation, or thoughts of suicide, visit the Trevor Project’s website or call the confidential, 24-hour hotline at 1-866-488-7386. In the U.S., you can also call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, or visit StopBullying.gov.

Michael Lucas Pens Column on Prison Abuse Against Gays

NEW YORK — Lucas Entertainment CEO Michael Lucas’s latest column for OUT magazine sheds light on the disturbing prison conditions that face gay inmates and the tragedy of rape behind bars.

Lucas spotlighted the bullying and humiliation of former performer Milan Gamiani who was an inmate at a Manhattan correctional center after refusing to testify against his boyfriend accused of financial crimes.

Gamiani told Lucas he was verbally abused, robbed, kicked, punched and repeatedly raped while incarcerated.

“Abuse of adult men is something we have been taught to laugh at, not take seriously. No wonder so many victims stay silent about it. Milan Gamiani is a brave exception,” Lucas wrote.

The article points out how the gay community is the most vulnerable in the prison system and suffers the highest rate of victimization. Lucas said it’s bullying on a grotesque scale and a national disgrace.

Recounting his original professional friendship with Gamiani, Lucas described him as friendly, confident and sexy.Now, after his harrowing ordeal, he’s fearful, deeply sad and could barely finish his interview for the story. “A cocktail of medications helps him keep his terrors in check, but only barely,” Lucas said.

After being repeatedly raped and beaten Gamiani attempted to hang himself. His pleas for help to guards and even doctors were ignored, according to the story, that quoted Gamiani as describing officials’ responses as, “’Come on, you guys like playing with each other and now you’re going to call it rape?’”

More than two years after his release, Gamiani is still traumatized and suffers from nightmares and day terrors that have nearly broken him. “I'm not over what I went through,” he said. “My mind can't handle it. I feel like disappearing.”

Understandably outraged over the abuse and rape, Lucas called for action to be taken.He asked people to visit the website of Just Detention International to learn more about the ongoing human-rights crisis in prisons.

“Demand that your elected officials get involved. Prisoner rights are not a popular issue for politicians, who don’t want to look ‘soft on crime.’ But prison assault and rape are crimes, and should be treated seriously as such. People who have been convicted should serve out their sentences according to the law. But those sentences do not include being physically and sexually tortured by other inmates while the law looks the other way,” Lucas wrote.