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A couple of weeks ago TS performer Brittany St. Jordan went on www.gfy.com and took AVN to task for its treatment of TS performers at AEE, specifically, www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=52690 as well as the genre in general.

AVN put out the following statement: “AVN has long recognized the transsexual niche as an important and lucrative market segment and if there was more to be done to support the community, we wanted to hear directly from the performers how we could recognize their efforts on a bigger stage.

To that end, AVN agreed to present Transsexual Performer of the Year on stage at future awards shows. St. Jordan, Daly and Williams were correct to point out that this award is the most prestigious given by AVN to transsexual performers, and it wasn’t receiving the same visibility as its male and female equivalents.

As for the awards nominations and voting, AVN also agreed to cast its net wider and seek out prominent reviewers and observers of transsexual fare to participate in the process for a more comprehensive review of its performers and movies.

Also, AVN will take steps to make sure that transsexual performers are included as presenters in future awards shows, and that more attention is paid to red carpet interviews with TS performers.

As for the red carpet process, which was called into question, AVN sought to clear up some confusion. Priority access goes to presenters, nominees whose awards will be presented on stage, mainstream celebrities and some other very well-known adult stars, with the rest of the adult community following after that.

Unfortunately, with hundreds of people waiting in line to walk the carpet, inevitably there will be a considerable waiting time for most. This year, the wait was longer than anticipated, and AVN apologizes to all who waited and thanks them for their participation and patience. AVN is looking into streamlining the process for next year to cut down on the wait time. We know it’s aggravating to stand in line for so long—we hear you!—and we’re going to make it more reasonable.”

St. Jordan adds: After a public engagement over the mistreatment of transsexuals (TS) at the annual AVN awards they have made it very clear that it is not ever their intention to discriminate against the TS genre and will be making several changes throughout this year to prove this is true. Some of these are to include more inclusion of TS content and advertisements both in print and online, allowing TS talent to be presenters at the awards show and the big one, allowing the TS Performer of the Year to be on the stage to receive their award.

Now that AVN has made these promises it is up to TS talent and producers to be more interactive with AVN in order to give them enough content to promote, review and nominate this year. I do hope that TS studios will have several booths at the AVN expo next year so that fans can come and see their favorite stars all in one place. We have made this huge step in the right direction and I would hate to see it diminished by a little bruised ego from events in the past. This is our chance to show AVN and the rest of the adult industry just how big the TS genre really is so lets not screw it up.