Jeff Stryker

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It is The MostContent ='JJ Lin'> obvious career choice for Karen and Barry MasonContent ='JJ Lin'> , and not one that she could talk to was not open. But for years, the couple ran LA best-known gay porn store, and distributed material for adults in the United States.

outwardly, they were a respectable family. Karen was a journalist well-known Newspapers in Chicago and Cincinnati. Barry worked as a Special EffectsContent ='JJ Lin'> engineer in the film industry, including Star TrekContent ='JJ Lin'> and 2001-a Space OdysseyContent ='JJ Lin'> . They met night at a Jewish singles and their three children went to Sabbath services, prayer meeting and studied hard in school.

Works as an inventor in the mid-1970s, Barry developed a safety device for kidney dialysis machines, But The CompanyContent ='JJ Lin'> he was to sell it, asked for insurance, which he could not afford, and The ProjectContent ='JJ Lin'> suddenly collapsed, The FamilyContent ='JJ Lin'> is in urgent need of cash.

Barry at Work on Star TrekContent ='JJ Lin'> , It was then that Karen discovered Flynt a job ad in the LA Times - for someone to distribute Hustler magazine and other goods produced by porn magnate Larry. And the Freemasons joined the porn industry is.

they proved to be good business people. Within The FirstContent ='JJ Lin'> couple of weeks, and with very little effort, Karen and Barry to 5,000 orders, to received over LA with the car to deliver them. Although Hustler was a straight porn magazine, Flynt soon some fail gay porn publications took over and this was also a part of the masons' portfolio.

A few years later, as the owner of LA most famous gay porn bookstore, book-Circus in West Hollywood, ran into financial difficulties not to fall, they were in a position to accept it. It was 1982 and the shops, the renamed Barry and Karen, Circus of Books , was More ThanContent ='JJ Lin'> just a hardcore porn Shop, it was a refuge and a meeting place for LA's gay community.

The ChildrenContent ='JJ Lin'> , Micah, Rachel, and Josh, were given strict instructions, if you visited The ShopContent ='JJ Lin'> , never to see or touch the products. They were also told to never tell, your friends, The ShopContent ='JJ Lin'> 's name.

"We don't want you to know what we have done. "We are not talking about the Family BusinessContent ='JJ Lin'> - we have a book Shop, and that's what we tell the people,'" says Karen.

But these measures were not entirely successful.

Micah, the oldest child, stumbled across a porn video in the trunk of Karen's car (he was disappointed to find that the Betamax tape would not play on The FamilyContent ='JJ Lin'> VHS machine).

Rachel was actually said, the secret in The FamilyContent ='JJ Lin'> , of friends, at the age of 14 years, if you still had little idea what was going on in porn. She was shocked. Her father, Barry , was very relaxed and loose, But her mother was very religious and moral. Rachel looked at them as ordinary Small BusinessContent ='JJ Lin'> - A FamilyContent ='JJ Lin'> that ran The ShopContent ='JJ Lin'> .

"The idea that explains that you of all people anything counter-culture is The OppositeContent ='JJ Lin'> of who my parents really were, for me, was," Rachel.

"There is a level of contingency in Our FamilyContent ='JJ Lin'> ," Josh. "We were looking for the pursuit of the Perfect FamilyContent ='JJ Lin'> . "

Karen and Barry 's management, Circus of Books is a commercial success, and before long she opened a second store in the Silverlake area of The CityContent ='JJ Lin'> . They also started the production of gay porn videos starring Jeff StrykerContent ='JJ Lin'> (later described as "the Cary GrantContent ='JJ Lin'> of porn"). And in addition to this, they continued, the porn distribution business, which almost led to a disaster.

President Ronald ReaganContent ='JJ Lin'> had to clear his opposition to pornography, referring to it as "a form of environmental pollution". He is ordered to investigate the attorney General, Edwin MeeseContent ='JJ Lin'> , to the industry, the publication of the 2000-page Meese Report in 1986. At the same time new prosecution tactics were introduced, which the stonemasons business Under PressureContent ='JJ Lin'> .

For some time after that, it was to sell only safe for traders to, the material, to the people who knew her. But One Day , an employee made a mistake. A customer called to three films, to be booked to "Joe's video-Shop". The EmployeeContent ='JJ Lin'> entered The InformationContent ='JJ Lin'> in the store database, and shipped to you.

in fact, the customer was the FBI.

The store was robbed, in true Hollywood style. Agents stormed curious with guns, and the free masons were illegal to Transport obscene material across state lines.

The ChildrenContent ='JJ Lin'> did not know it, But Barry has been met prior to a possible five years in prison and heavy fines. It seemed likely, the store would have to close.

has not given up The masons' attorney, though. He argued that they were protected by The FirstContent ='JJ Lin'> Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and stressed the serious impact that this stiff penalty would be on The FamilyContent ='JJ Lin'> .

Finally, Barry came into a confession, and was released without having to go to jail. And the store remained open.

During the Aids epidemic, Karen and Barry were a model employer.

Barry 's employees who were ill or were taken to hospices, with HIV, a deadly disease would visit.

employees who are sick, working with Aids - if they did, they would lose their Health InsuranceContent ='JJ Lin'> . But Karen would allow them to Work on days she felt well enough, and are silent about it would.

"I'll let you come to Work , and paid them money, that was illegal, But there was no reason that they lose who they were. I always have the feeling that the Work is important," she says.

Barry and Karen, the questions outside The WestContent ='JJ Lin'> Hollywood store, Many employees had no family to support them, But their families, please call Karen and Barry , after their children had died, according to information.

in Spite of their long engagement with LA's gay community, conversations about sexuality never came up in the Mason home.

Secretly, however, The MiddleContent ='JJ Lin'> child, Rachel, began To LiveContent ='JJ Lin'> a queer life style, sneak without their parents ' knowledge.

learn more"I went to gay clubs, I had a minors ID, so I could go to drag shows, I was totally excited about all this," she says.

Although it was never officially out of it, Rachel has always had an artistic and rebellious, so it was not a big surprise, if you took a girl to the High SchoolContent ='JJ Lin'> prom.

But Josh, the youngest child, a high achiever who wore on his shoulders, all his mother, the ExpectationsContent ='JJ Lin'> - fight was private with a secret.

"I absorbed most of the Mama ambition for perfection, I wanted to perfect says" Josh.

< p > the night before he was due to go back to college, to much. "I just started to scribble on the Post-it note, 'I'm gay'. I threw the pen and paper on the table. "

Before you do this, he had made preparations to leave the house for fear he would be thrown away. "I was sure I had booked my flight and paid for it, because it was not an impossible idea," he says.

Karen's response was one that will stay with both of them for always.

"I said, 'Are you sure? Why are you doing this? God must punish me!'" Karen told. "I was with someone who was gay, as far as I was concerned, But I was not really prepared to deal with a gay child. "

Karen later realized that her reaction had hurt Josh, But she also found it difficult to talk with him about his sexuality and decided they needed help in dealing with their feelings.

"I need to understand what it was, a parent of someone who was gay," she says.

"I joined this organization called PFLAG (parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). I had to accept with him in order, and [] the parents often have ExpectationsContent ='JJ Lin'> of their children, which is really more on the parents than on The ChildrenContent ='JJ Lin'> .

"it was My Own son, I realized I had had to change some thoughts about gay people. "

Later, both Barry and Karen was to help ambassadors for PFLAG, to understand other people, sexuality, and gender variants of their children.

When The InternetContent ='JJ Lin'> was widely used, to erode around the turn of The CenturyContent ='JJ Lin'> , Circus of Books - a community-driven business, where people would meet, and access to exclusive Content began.

Silverlake branch closed in the Year 2016; The WestContent ='JJ Lin'> Hollywood store closed in February of this Year .

Silverlake shop was closed at The CornerContent ='JJ Lin'> of Sunset BoulevardContent ='JJ Lin'> "At the store, it was unbelievable, the kind of reaction. The people went and just burst into tears. I mean, people went in through The FrontContent ='JJ Lin'> door, and we are only explained to cry," Rachel.

a Lot of experienced customers and former employees mourned the loss of what had once been one of their only safe space - and a part of LA, the gays of the story.

But Karen says that in the end, she was not the kind of employer wanted to be. As business tailed off, couldn't you, the employees, the benefits they had received in The PastContent ='JJ Lin'> .

"I had with these people only for as long as I could, to see that you have enrolled in education programs, or had at least one other part-time job," she says. "And I was fine with the close. "

family, los angeles, pornography, long reads, united states, lgbt

Source of news: bbc.com