WWW- I’m a porn star,” Buck Angel boasts.

He admits reaching that success wasn’t as simple as he’d originally expected. “I thought I was just going to be making some hot porn,” Angel recalls wistfully. “But it turns out I’m changing the face of porn and creating a whole new genre.”

The bald, tattooed leatherman who likes to puff on a signature cigar, isn’t just blowing smoke. He is the first and, apparently, only transgender man to make a name for himself in the world of adult entertainment. And he’s proud of it. In fact, not only is Angel proud of who he is and what he does, he is even proud of what he has.

“I am a man with a pussy,” Angel declares bluntly. “I would say I am sexual. I am attracted to a variety of people – rather than only to genitals – so what’s between their legs doesn’t really matter to me. I enjoy sex with all kinds of people.”

Open to anything, Angel’s diverse tastes are represented in the triple-X images on Transsexual-man.com, which shows Angel participating in sexual situations (including oral sex, vaginal and anal penetration, fisting, and s/m games); multiple partners (men, women and transgender); and orientations (straight, bi, queer). Angel runs this members-only subscription site, where he posts exclusive erotic materials like video clips, photo galleries, stories, and live webcam shows.

Before he began starring in skin flicks, Angel first worked behind the scenes.

“I had been working in the porn industry behind the camera for many years,” Angel explains. “[I was] making fetish videos and working with transsexual women on their websites. That was when I realized there was no one doing any transsexual man porn. So I started transexual-man.com – and that evolved into making videos.”

As the star of four DVDs – sporting clever titles like More Bang For Your Buck and Buck’s Beaver – Angel resents that his films have often been shelved in the fetish section of adult video stores (or even under the ‘yikes’ category), but he accepts that as the price he pays as a sexual pioneer.

“It does bother me. But when you are a pioneer these are some of the things you have to deal with in the beginning just to be able to get your stuff out there. I used to be with a company [that] said I could make way more money if I went for the freak show market, but I wasn’t interested. I am now with Avalon Enterprises and they have much more respect for my work.”

Readily admitting that his work is not for everyone, Angel says: “You cannot please the whole world . . . if you are not into porn that’s okay, just stop taking what I am doing personally.”

Angel says he’d just like his detractors to recognize the value of his work. “It’s more than porn,” Angel argues. “I’ve been making the whole world aware of me and my work – which is opening so many more doors in the future for guys like me.”

While many transmen are uncomfortable with or even ashamed of having a vagina, Angel proclaims, “I love it!” Having had top surgery and a small penis-like clitoris (as a result of taking testosterone), Angel proudly markets himself as a ‘dude with a pussy,’ and doesn’t shy away having vaginal intercourse on camera.

“We are taught that to be a man you need a cock, and I totally disagree.” Angel says. “I feel every bit like a man and so I am comfortable enough to show what I’ve got.”

Viewing Angel’s shaved head, handlebar mustache, muscular physique and many tattoos including “pervert” inked across his broad shoulders, it is hard to think of him as anything but a man – albeit a queer one – even when his vagina is clearly in view.

Angel argues that he has a few advantages to bio-men in the porn industry. “I don’t have to worry whether or not I can get a hard on. Believe me, I’ve learned after being in the porn world, that’s a big deal!”

Angel (http://buckangel.com) remains lighthearted while discussing his work and sexuality, but turns serious at the mention of Hurricane Katrina. “It is a terrible tragedy,” Angel says of the destruction of New Orleans – the city he has made his home for years. “Every day I’m here it’s just so depressing.”

In fact, Angel says that the natural disaster and the political climate are driving him away – not only from his beloved Big Easy, but also from the United States as a whole. “I’m not comfortable here,” Angel laments.

“Before Katrina I bought a home in the Yucatan in Mexico,” Angel says. “I’ve just sold my property here in New Orleans and I’m planning on moving there full time. I’ll [still] travel to the states every month or two to shoot my movies. [But] I can’t live in the US anymore – [not] while this guy Bush is ruining our country and trying to destroy the porn world.”