After I watched my first Buck Angel porn video – Buckback Mountain – I am struck by how conventional it is in many ways, except for the fact that the main star looks like the Marlboro Man and has a vagina. But other than that, it’s your basic porn script. Boy meet Boy with Vagina, eventually the wumpa, wumpa music starts, they kiss, clothes come off, they exchange BJs, fuck missionary, fuck from behind, come on stomach… and fade to black. I was a little surprised at how aggressive the sex was. Buck likes it rough. So when I meet the self-described “big, scary biker looking guy with the muscles, moustache, beard and, oh yeah, vagina, I always forget about my genitals, it just seems so natural to me” before a recent talk about gender and porn at Toronto’s Come As You Are (comeasyouare.com) I am taken slightly aback by how utterly gentle and charming he is.

How would you describe your work?

I would describe my work as something not in the box. I do something that has never been done in the adult entertainment world and it reaches outside of the adult entertainment world to people who don’t know anything about guys like me, who were born female and had a sex change to become a man.

Why did you choose to keep your vagina after your sex change?

I had sex change top surgery, where they removed my breasts but I chose not to have bottom surgery so I still have a vagina. Lots of people consider me female from the waist down. I don’t. I consider myself wholly as a man. I just opted not to have [penile constructive] surgery because it’s super expensive and not very successful. They can construct a penis that you can maybe pee out of but there is no guarantee I’d be able to achieve full erection or orgasm. So I chose instead to accept the fact that I was going to be a man with a vagina for the rest of my life.

What made you want to get into pornography?

I wanted to show that there were men like me out there and that we’re hot and we’re sexy and we’re not freaks. I didn’t want to see it become a “freak” genre. In the beginning, no one wanted anything to do with me in the adult industry. But they finally realized I had a viable product.

Why is it important for you to be so public and graphic with your body?

It wasn’t like that in the beginning. I love sex but it was very difficult for me in the past to have sex openly with the lights on the way I do now, loving my body, loving all kinds of crazy all-out hardcore sex. I was never like that until I had my sex change. And as I started to do porn, this feeling grew and I really started to feel a huge empowerment that I could be who I wanted to be and nobody could tell me I couldn’t.

Who is buying your product?

Gay men were the first market but it’s changing. In the last year, I’ve seen lots of women buy my product and I’m so excited about this because I think so many women have a hard time finding something that turns them on. Straight men don’t touch my product.

What’s your approach to making porn?

My biggest influence is gay, leather porn. When I’m onscreen, I’m really having sex. I’m not acting. That was really important to me. That it’s real sex, real orgasms. If the performers aren’t attracted to each other, I don’t want to do it. When I have sex, I’m super aggressive. I like hot, sexy, nasty porn. I think it’s a misconception that women don’t want that too. Sex is about letting go. And if you’re thinking about it, you’re not having good sex.

What do you hope your porn accomplishes?

I want to change the way people look at sexuality and gender and just people in general. We are not all the same. Our turn-ons are not all the same and it’s okay to feel different. I would really love to change the way the world thinks about the whole question of “what are you.” Why does everyone have to be gay, straight, bisexual? I don’t consider myself any of the above. I consider myself a sexual person. I’m attracted to people. I know it sounds all new age, but I really feel like that. The whole issue of gender gets people so freaked out.

Is your family supportive?

I had a hard time when I was younger. I got into drugs and alcohol, I tried to commit suicide a couple times. Really I shouldn’t be sitting here. I should be dead. My parents wrote me off and I don’t blame them. Until I got sober and had my sex change. And when I got my sex change, my parents were super supportive and said, “if that’s what you need to do, we’re okay with it.” They were old school I think they had an easier time having a son than a gay daughter. When I won my first Adult Video News award as Transsexual Performer of the Year two years ago, I had to let them know I worked in the adult industry and my dad say, “That is so great, my son is a porn star!” My parents are awesome.

What is the future of porn?

I think the future of porn is more people like me, more independent studios, more amateur – not amateur like everyone is shooting porn in their garage – more in the sense that we are taking it up a notch, taking pride in our stuff and not just pumping it out. Recently, I saw deaf porn, I was so excited, I couldn’t believe it. That’s the future of porn. People who are different, who have disabilities, stuff you never would have seen. And I think what I have done has helped open that up. If you don’t see what you like in porn, you can make it.

For more about Buck, go to buckangel.com