Nov 12
Nov. 6 Insta Post from Iranian-Born Gay Adult Film Star Sparks Backlash
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 4 MIN.
A gay porn star who immigrated to the United States from Iran shocked and angered fans when he posted a congratulatory message to president-elect Donald Trump.
Instinct Magazine reported that the day after the election, Arad Winwin shared a graphic on his Instagram page that came from right-wing account The Daily Patriot.
The graphic was emblazoned with the message, "Congrats to 47th President Donald J. Trump," Instinct added.
Winwin, who had not posted at Instagram for nearly a year and a half, captioned the graphic with: "all the best and MEGA CONGRATULATIONS TO our president MR @realdonaldtrump 🇺🇸"
"Make America 🇺🇸 great and affordable and safe AGAIN," the porn star added, before signing off with, "LOVE IS LOVE . We all together in this ."
The messages he got in response were anything but celebratory.
"You came here as a refugee," one person pointed out in the comments, "and now that you're a citizen, you've closed the door behind you, and have made it harder for those to follow the same path as you."
"You were lucky that you came here during an administration that was much more empathetic to people like you."
Another took note of the hardcore antiporn stance of Project 2025, the 900+ page instruction manual created by The Heritage Foundation that outlines how Trump's second term could gut the federal government, strip away protections for LGBTQ+ Americans and other marginalized people, and criminalize porn performers like himself.
Trump made anti-transgender messaging a central part of his campaign, and promised to kick off "mass deportations" that would remove millions of immigrants from the United States.
"When your rights are stripped," the post queried, "when they start the mass deportation of immigrants what will you do and what will you say then."
"Honestly I hope nothing negative happens to you but you voted for it."
"Lmao you'd be the first deported," another agreed, while a third chortled, "He's coming for you next lol".
Others were even more blunt.
"Wow really guy? He hates everything about you," one person posted in response. "You're gay, a sex worker and you're brown. You should be ashamed of this post".
The reaction wasn't only a matter of words, with thousands of Instagram followers dropping Winwin.
"From October 29 to November 11, Winwin lost 15,390 followers on Instagram according to SocialBlade," Instinct detailed.
The writeup recalled that Winwin had deserted the Iranian military at age 22 and was under arrest, being detained in Turkey, and facing death by hanging when he applied for a program through the UN that eventually enabled him to settle in the U.S.
"Starting out as a go-go boy, he became a familiar face working as a 'Trophy Boy' for Andrew Christian's underwear company," Instinct narrated, "then moving into gay porn appearing in videos for CockyBoys, Falcon Studios, Naked Sword, Nasty Daddy and many more."
Winwin was not the only gay porn star to express support for Trump and set off a firestorm of criticism. Just prior to the election, Devin Franco threw himself into a public embrace of MAGA ideology with a comment of "100% agree!" to a tweet in which "a gay guy who's left the Left" declared that "today's Democrat Party.... [has] become a war-hungry censorship machine, cynically using identity politics and media manipulation to divide us - and lawfare to eliminate its political opponents."
Winwin expressed similar sentiments regarding the gay community that took him to task, telling Instinct, "If this is lgbt and democrat and gay community and all I DONT WANF [sic] BE PART OF IT...Maybe that's why everyday lgbt community getting more haters and non accepting bc of this...LGBT community become like sheep community...LGBT DONT give a fuck about anything else beside them self."
Winwin claimed to Instinct that he was planning to offer similar congratulations to Vice President Kamala Harris if she had won the election.
"But, it's worth noting that leading up to Election Day, Winwin had shared several Instagram stories expressing his explicit support for Donald Trump and criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris," Instinct documented, sharing screencaps of posts that called Harris "full of shit" and asking, "Let's play a math game.....How does Indian + Jamaican = African American?"
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.