September 24th, 1997 to September 30th, 1997

Pleasure Activist

Talking with Author Scott O'Hara

by Owen Keehnen

Scott O'Hara first came to fame in the early '80s when he was awarded the title "The Man With the Biggest Dick in San Francisco." With that on his resume he went on to make more than two dozen porn films over the next few years. After discovering his HIV-positive status, Scott moved to Wisconsin where he founded and published the late great queer magazines Steam and Wilde for several years before eventually moving back to SF. Last year, Do It Yourself Piston Polishing, a sizzling collection of his erotic adventures, was published. This year Scott's memoir, Autopornography, was released to enthusiastic reviews. Simultaneously juicy and poignant, the book chronicles his youth, his wanderings, his diverse career, and of course his sexploits with both great insight and admirable honesty.

Recently I had the chance to talk with Scott about his writing, his career in porn, Steam, his HIV+ tattoo, barebacking, his new play, and much more.

O'Hara will be at Chicago's Unabridged Books, Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m., 3251 N. Broadway.
Owen: Why was the timing right to write your life story?

Scott: Is there a bad time to write a book? I was tired of being asked a lot of the same questions and I wanted to get it out there once and for all. I can't imagine any situation where keeping secrets is good for you. That's been one of my big messages and the best way to put that into practice was to write this book.

Owen: In reading Autopornography I was really struck by that unflinching honesty. Was that tough or does it come naturally to you?

Scott: It's very natural for me. Straightforward and personal is the only way I can write. Idon't write fiction very well.

Owen: Does that mean the erotica in your book Do It Yourself Piston Polishing and your stories in each of the Flesh and the Word books are true?

Scott: Yes. Those stories didn't necessarily happen that way, but they all came from my feelings about those situations and in similar experiences.

Owen: What's your cardinal rule for writing good porn?

Scott: I'm the stereotypical porn writer. I sit at my desk with a hard-on jerking off while I'm writing. If it isn't hard then nothing good will come out of it.

Owen: So to speak ...

Scott: Oh boy!

Owen: In Autopornography you write about not believing in long-term commitment and monogamy, but I understand that's changed in the past few months.

Scott: It's true and it's still going well. It's an 8-month semi-monogamous relationship. There is commitment, but it's not of the "Til Death Do Us Part" variety. Nothing I've really written in the book has changed. I still believe people change, situations change, and that's just the nature of things-but I will say we are committed to trying.

Owen: I also heard you've written a musical?

Scott: It's called Ex-Lovers. I wrote it in Wisconsin primarily as a valentine for all the men I've known and loved in San Francisco. It's about that strange queer phenomenon that's developed in the past couple decades where everyone is everyone's ex-lover and how that all works and how that is family. It's odd. I didn't set out to write a musical. I've always been a musical queen but I set out to write a play and then I added a couple songs and before I knew it ... I've been kind of blown away by the fact.

Owen: Are there production plans?

Scott: It's being staged here (in San Francisco) at The Rhinoceros in January. It's my current obsession and I'm still so surprised that it happened.

Owen: It's so typical of your life though. You've had so many overlapping careers. You said you wrote it while in Wisconsin. While you were there you also had an entirely different career as the founder and publisher of Steam. What was your objective when you began it?

Scott: Like most of my projects it grew and changed. Originally it was a journal of my sex travels and a sort of consumer reports of bathhouses. I've always loved bathhouses and it bothered me that so many owners didn't pay attention to their customers. I wanted to create a quality index and it grew into a literary journal.

Owen: What did you learn?

Scott: Besides the fact that I'm not a businessman? I met so many great writers. It was also great getting to help people, bringing them out, and letting them know their sex lives were nothing to be ashamed of-that really was the message behind the whole project.

Owen: In Autopornography you say that after discovering lesions on your leg, and before moving to Wisconsin, you lived at the beach one winter and contemplated life. What revelations came to you during that time?

Scott: It didn't take the whole season, it took about 10 minutes and the message was "Do it now." When I saw those lesions and realized what they meant, everything in my life turned upside down. It didn't frighten me as much as it made everything clear. I decided I wanted to live in the country, garden, and write -so that's what I did for several years. Living out that particular goal was wonderful and now I'm just living out another one.

Owen: You also are known as 'The Man With the HIV+ Tattoo.' What led to that decision?

Scott: It's all part of that honesty, of wanting to be as out as possible. That worked on two levels, the public level of wanting absolutely everyone who saw me to know, a political statement if you will of "We are among you."

Owen: Meaning many people don't think they know anyone with HIV?

Scott: Not in Wisconsin, though here in San Francisco that's not an issue. The private aspect was I always had trouble discussing my HIV status with partners and that caused me a lot of stress. A tattoo was an easy way of letting them know without having to go into it.

Owen: Lately you've been in the news as well as a proponent of barebacking.

Scott: Proponent is the wrong word. I'm not advocating anything. I think everyone needs to make up their own mind. For me certain things are an acceptable risk but I'm not about to tell anyone else where they should draw the line. However, I do believe anyone else who is telling us we can't do something is treading over the line.

Owen: As a long-term PWA do you have a personal strategy for survival?

Scott: It's changed. For a long time I was a drug resister and I'm glad I was so this January when I broke down and started I was drug-naive and those drugs were still effective. Now I'm a relatively cooperative patient and do what the doctor tells me, which is a big change. I'm doing well. The lymphoma is a problem, but it's being handled.

Owen: What's the most common question asked of you?

Scott: That makes me laugh. It always used to be "How big is it?" and now I'm asked a lot of different things. It's nice to know I've diversified enough that it's changed.

Owen: Speaking of ... as a veteran of 26 porn films, what was the thrill of making gay adult films, the celebrity, the sex, exhibitionism?

Scott: It was all oddly innocent and joyful for me. The main thrill was just knowing I was out there turning men on on TV screens around the world. That's a thrill as an actor and also as an exhibitionist. I like the idea of people getting off on me and the idea of people getting off period.

Owen: I like that you never used a pseudonym or tried to hide your work in porn.

Scott: I think it's unhealthy to divide yourself into a sexual persona and a regular persona. I didn't want that ever. I never felt that part of my life wasn't worthy of the rest of me.

Owen: Which of your careers brings you the greatest pride-as a playwright, a porn star, a publisher, memoir writer?

Scott: Currently my play is my greatest obsession. However, in a general sense I lump it all together and call myself, to use Annie Sprinkle's term, "a pleasure activist."

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