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Kelly Meyerhofer on Joe Gow and the Adult Entertainment Boom

UW-La Crosse got national attention late last year, after the Board of Regents discovered that former Chancellor Joe Gow was posting adult content online. He was promptly fired. An estimated 2 million people across the country produce and post adult content – often at the risk of being exposed and losing their day jobs. That’s according to a new article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Kelly Meyerhofer, a higher education reporter with the Journal Sentinel, wrote that article. She tells WORT News Producer Faye Parks that, though moonlighting is common, protections for adult content creators are few and far between. Image courtesy: Kai Schreiber via Flickr.

Broadcast on:: 18 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

All right. I have Kelly Meyer-Hofer on the line. Thank you for joining me. Thanks for inviting me. So, Kelly, you're a higher education reporter for the journal Sentinel, but now you're covering pornography, namely folks who moonlight making adult content in addition to their day jobs. What inspired you to investigate this topic? Yeah, it's a little weird. I admit it's not something I expected to be writing about when I started covering higher education in 2018. But this story sort of came about when I got some random email from a professor who said that they were just like Joe Gao and that they did this in their part-time as a hobby, and they wanted to sort of shadow the stigma around it and said a lot of people are interested in this. So, of course, you mentioned Joe Gao, the former chancellor of UW-Lacross, who was ousted from the job after his adult content surfaced online. I understand he's now in the middle of hearings after La Crosse's faculty committee recommended revoking his tenure as well. So, just a brief check in on that case. How's that going and what are the next steps? Yeah, this has been kind of a month-long saga now. It started in late December of last year when he was fired at the chancellor. There's also been a sort of a separate case. He has retained his faculty, tenured faculty appointment, as a communications professor at UW-Lacross. And this summer, a faculty committee there heard his case in a hours-long public meeting, and they recommended that his tenure should be revoked. And now, this week, the case will be moving up to the UW Board of Regents. The Board of Regents Committee hearing is this Friday, and what I've been told is that, like, the decision on whether they're recommending he's fired will not be coming out on Friday. They're going to, like, send their confidential recommendation up to the full board. So, like, you know, there's a hearing this Friday, but we're not going to, like, there's not going to be a headline that says, "Joke has fired," because, first of all, it's just a committee hearing, and then the full board will have to vote on it. And they, it sounds like they are not planning to announce what their recommendation is. And so, what exactly happens if he loses his tenure? Well, he'll be out of a job. I mean, he's been on paid leave, you know, so he's receiving not his chancellor's salary, but a lower, like, faculty salary since he was fired as chancellor. And so, if he's, if they revoke his tenure, he will no longer be a UW lacrosse employee, he will no longer receive his payroll, and he will also lose out on his unused sick leave, which of the UW, like, state employee, you can, if you don't use your sick days, they just sort of accumulate, and then you receive a payout at the end. And his, since he's been at the university for 17 plus years, his is over, like, $300,000 that he would be losing out on. So, moving on to a more national perspective, I understand you recently got in touch with the Free Speech Coalition to learn more about the adult entertainment industry. So, can you tell us a bit about the coalition and then, generally, how they've observed the industry has changed over the last few years? So, the Free Speech Coalition, it's like a trade group that advocates, on behalf of the adult entertainment industry and its workers, it was interesting talking to them, they told me that for decades, the porn industry was made up of just a few thousand people who worked, you know, for big California studios, but the industry has really changed in the past, past few years, you know, in part just because technology makes it easy, anyone can record themselves, you know, and post a video online. But also, COVID-19, you know, people were out of jobs, they were stuck at home and bored, some people started, you know, getting into this as a hobby. But it sounds like even though the industry has gotten bigger, there's still a lot of stigma. So, you also got in touch with a Detroit-based attorney who represents folks in the adult entertainment industry and I understand he actually recommends that his clients prepare for dire consequences if their employers become aware of their online activity. So, can you tell us more about that, just how often does that happen? Well, you know, the attorney that I talked to, he said less than 10% of his clients are exposed, which he said was in part because the clients that are hiring him are, a lot of them are professionals and pretty sophisticated in trying to make sure that their identity remains a secret and he part of his work is helping them, you know, ensure that this part of their life remains hidden. But he does, you know, during those consultations, like, have them, you know, think a lot, think extensively about, you know, you need to prepare for if someone were to out you and how that would affect you financially and reputationally because if you're not prepared for it or if you're not even thinking about it and the risk that's associated with taking on this sort of lifestyle, you know, you probably have no business being in it at all. So, I understand it likely varies from industry to industry, but are there any protections in place for folks who want to post adult content online and also retain their day jobs? I don't think so. I mean, I think, you know, the eternity that I was talking to, he said, educators are sort of the least advantaged because they often have morality clauses in their contracts and just sort of like the court of public opinion is also a big factor and, you know, if they're teaching minors, especially if they're like a K-12 teacher, they have a really uphill battle in trying to ensure that they can keep their job after this comes out. So, I'm curious. You mentioned the morality clauses. Is there a push in higher education specifically to amend those or are they becoming more stringent? Yeah, the attorney, I talked to his name as Corey Silverstein. He said universities, you know, educational institutions are, in most cases, they're actually beefing up those clauses and like some of them are specifically spelling out, you will not engage in adult entertainment. So, I mean, they sort of recognize that this is the thing that is becoming more common where these cases of employees participating in this sort of activity and spelling out that they cannot do this, even if it's on their own time. So, it's in the name, but I'm sure the free speech coalition would argue there are free speech concerns here. Is that something that you discuss with them at all? Yeah, I mean, that's part that's in their name. Yeah, they, I mean, they take a very hard line that they believe that these people are in the industry are like any other worker and they should not be fired for this type of work. And is there any kind of push in terms of law, either federally or on the state level anywhere that would work to advocate for that? I'm not aware of that. I mean, I think the sense I got from in their, in their reporting out this story was that if anything society is sort of moving in their view in the wrong direction and sexuality and pornography are still viewed as very taboo topics, you know, they would like to see a movement in the opposite direction, but I don't think that they're, you know, expecting any sort of law change or anything like that in the near future. The Detroit-based attorney that you spoke with is not representing Joe Gao, but did he share his thoughts on that case at all? Yeah, it was interesting because he told me, you know, when he was sort of explaining how he works with his clients and walks them through preparing for being outed, he gives them real life examples of people that have been outed to help them understand the stakes of what they're getting into. And he has now added in his rotation of real life examples Joe Gao to, to his consultation, but he did take a very clear hard line perspective on his case and said that he believes the university has no right to fire him for this and his conduct is protected within the First Amendment. He was very supportive of Dr. Gao. Did he say whether or not he believes Gao would have a stance to sue if his tenure is revoked? We didn't talk specifically about his case. I mean, he talked more broadly just about these sorts of cases when people are outed and if they sue over that or for wrongful termination. And he said it's often not really a great case. I think he estimated like less than 30% of wrongful termination claims, you know, involving adult content creators are one and even less so when it involves an educator. So, I mean, I think he's probably not looking too favorably at Dr. Gao's case, but I was actually just talking earlier this afternoon with someone else who sort of specializes in free speech law, which is different than this attorney who specializes in the adult entertainment industry. And they seem to think Dr. Gao may have a really good case if he were fired. So, I mean, I think there's some, you know, opinions about whether he would have a case if in one fire. And has Gao expressed interest in suing if there's an unfavorable outcome? Yeah, during the faculty of hearing this summer, he said, you know, this may end up in court, something a comment like that. So, he did suggest that it's definitely a possibility. Thank you again for agreeing to speak with me, Kelly. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for reaching out. That was Kelly Meyerhofer, a higher education reporter with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.