Travel Confessions of a Queer Adult Film Star

When you think of occupations that travel a lot, a number of job titles come to mind. Salespeople, flight attendants, or even CEOs might pop into your head first. But for adult film stars, traveling can be a way of life.

We spoke to gay adult entertainer Silver Steele recently, just after his whirlwind trip to Denver, Cleveland and Australia. Steele, a native Houstonian, lives in the city with his partner of more than 11 years. He has a degree in biology but works full time in the energy sector.

Steele says that in the year that he's been doing adult entertainment, his domestic travel has exponentially increased because of the need to film on location, where the studios are.

"I have taken enough flights to become Platinum with United and am currently at more than 80,000 miles this year. This year alone I've flown to the U.K., Norway, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Cancun, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Springs, Cleveland, Denver, San Diego, and Las Vegas," he said. "The domestic travel is all for my adult entertainment career and the international travel is for my full-time job. Each trip is anywhere from a weekend haul to around two weeks."

According to Steele, where he travels is completely dictated by the business. The studios and event hosts are the ones planning their events or scenes, and the model either needs to be available for it-or they'll find someone else. However, if he tells a studio he will be in town during a particular time, they will often try to make a scene happen.

Most of this travel is about getting in, filming what you need to, and going home. However, live appearances are a different thing, he explained.

"For instance, take Southern Decadence in New Orleans on Labor Day weekend. I had a live show there at a bar with star Dolf Dietrich. That involved appearances, numerous selfies, a meet-and-greet session with giveaways, and interviews for local gay publications. Of course, then there was the actual live show," he said.

"Sometimes though, the trip serves a dual purpose, like my upcoming trip to Vegas in January 2019. I will be filming, plus I'll be performing live at Hustlaball, which is a big event with meet-and-greets, etc. But the filming just happens to be in the same city, though the two events are unrelated," Steele continued.

So, for this frequent traveler, what are his pet peeves? For airlines, Steele explained that he's 6'3", so in the rare event that he's not flying Economy Plus or better, it's how tight the space is between rows of seats. And with one airline specifically, it's the cost of their WiFi, he said.

Steele generally has good experiences with hotels, and he claims to be a low maintenance guest.

"But I get irked if they have inconveniently placed outlets, or even an insufficient number of outlets. I also don't like when they have strict visitor policies (this is more common in Central and South America for safety). A boy likes to have his fun!" he said.

Other travel issues he weighed in on:

-One thing that can absolutely ruin the experience of a city for him is poor infrastructure. "If the traffic makes it difficult to get around town, I lose my mind."

-He's a city guy at heart. "I don't enjoy leaving the city proper, usually. I don't care about hiking, or lakes, or any of that. I want to be where the hustle and bustle is, and I like to explore on my own. And I do my sightseeing very quickly"

Steele added, "I was in Sydney for five hours on a layover. I took the train to the opera house, got my selfie, and headed straight back to the airport. When I'm in any one area for an extended period of time, what I look for is where are the 'adult' private parties, where are the gay bars, where are the saunas/bathhouses, where are the good restaurants, and who's interested in filming at my hotel?"

-Steele says that internationally it's gotten to the point where he doesn't even want to say where he's from, and it's tiring. "People just want to discuss Trump and our political situation," he said.

-He's proud of who he is when traveling, both as a gay man and as an adult performer. "I'm totally out when traveling. From my graphic tank tops to the rest of my snug clothes and spiky blond hair, even Helen Keller knows I'm gay," he joked.

"Generally speaking, when someone asks what I'm traveling to their particular city for, I usually reply 'modeling'-if they want to dig a little further and ask what kind of modeling, I'm very upfront about what I do. I wouldn't do it if I were embarrassed by it."

-The place that most surprised him was Thailand. "People always talk about it like it's some sort of paradise, and I'd always been [perplexed]-but until you go there, you won't quite understand. I've never seen a country where the entire destination is so service-oriented (except airport security) and you can get everything you want for so much cheaper than in the U.S."

-He's rarely recognized when traveling. "No one comes up to me and says, 'Oh my God, Silver Steele?!' in person," he said. "But on the apps? Totally different story. Everywhere I go now, my Grindr and Scruff light up with nice messages from fans saying they love my work, which is kind of surreal considering I've only been at this for less than a year. There's no telling when my 15 minutes will be up, but from right now, I'm enjoying riding the wave and making my fans happy."

---

For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.

Topics From This Article to Explore