Coloring Inside + Outside The Lines

From "Make-It-Or-Break-It" To "Making It Work"

First, let me wish you a Happy New Year’s, dears!

If your neighborhood is anything like mine, 2025 started with bangs, booms, and things that go bump in the night. In my hood, New Year’s Eve is celebrated with fireworks, gunfire, and house parties galore.

I try not to be a party pooper, but I’m going to need a nap today.

I don’t know about you, but the first day of a new year always stirs up a mix of excitement and nerves for me. So much possibility. So much pressure.

2024 was my “make-it-or-break-it” year.
2025 is my “make it work” year.

After one too many quixotic battles with billionaire corporations—looking right at you, YouTube—I’ve decided to work on becoming less reactive and more responsive.

Going forward, I’m only fighting truly “good”—and winnable—fights.

One fight I’m choosing to step away from is the credit card industry’s war on nudity.

Some folks are already disappointed by my decision to turn down the heat on my NSFW videos. But given the very real possibility of losing my livelihood over a few appendages—most of us have and/or can see freely elsewhere on the internet—I’m going to do everything in my power to protect myself, my work, and the community we’re building together.

Contrary to what some feel or think, my videos are about much more than just “nude dudes.” Yes, I love the male form as much as any gay guy. I’m endlessly fascinated by its beauty, complexity, and unapologetic vulnerability.

But let’s face it—what makes some people bitch and clutch their pearls also makes credit card companies glitch and refuse to do business with them.

And for those who have asked, no, I’m not opening an OnlyFans or JustForFans. After considering both, I’ve decided I’m more than happy here on Substack. (Btw, Substack is not the issue here. The platform itself allows nudity and erotica, but not porn.)

As much as I love coloring outside the lines, I’ve learned (the hard way) that staying monetized often means playing by the rules. After six months of waging war with YouTube’s arbitrary, subjective, and overzealous “community guidelines”—seriously, wtf does “sexually gratifying” even mean?!—I’m waving the white flag.

My creative time and energy are better spent pushing boundaries, not breaking rules.

Long story short: I hate censorship, but I hate bankruptcy more.

This year, I’m focusing on something radical: The Joy Of Making It Work.

The joy of creating. The joy of connecting.
The joy of celebrating creativity, history, masculinity, and more.

Here’s to coloring outside the lines when it feels right. And coloring inside them when necessary. Here’s to picking battles wisely, celebrating wins, and letting the losses be stepping stones, not stepping into quicksand.

And if some people can’t see past the lack of “nude dudes”?
Well, there’s not much I can do about that.

I’ll be here, queer, and sharing found footage, photos, and stories, dear.

Thanks to everyone who sticks with me on this journey!
Clint

---

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• Internet Censorship (Wikipedia)

• A Year of Censorship: Social Media Crackdown (Al Jazeerza English) 📺

• Restrictions On The Risqué: Censorship & Sexual Freedom In 2024 (Woodhull Freedom Foundation) 📺

• Gumroad No Longer Allows Most NSFW Art, Leaving Adult Creators Panicked (TechCrunch)

---

ON THIS DAY = JANUARY 1

BIRTHDAYS = HIGHLIGHTS

• 1735 = Paul Revere = American silversmith and engraver

• 1752 = Betsy Ross = American seamstress

• 1864 = Alfred Stieglitz = American photographer and curator

• 1879 = E. M. Forster = English writer 🌈

• 1919 = J. D. Salinger = American soldier and author

• 1930 = Ty Hardin = American actor

• 1933 = James Hormel = American philanthropist and diplomate 🌈

• 1933 = Joe Orton = English playwright 🌈

• 1954 = Martine Rothblatt = American lawyer, author, and entrepreneur 🌈

EVENTS = HIGHLIGHTS

• 45 BC = The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Republic, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.

• 1818 = Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (anonymously) publishes the pioneering work of science fiction, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, in London.

• 1962 = Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first US state to decriminalize homosexuality.

• 1965 = San Francisco police arrest gay and lesbian party-goers at a fund-raising ball for the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, held at California Hall.

• 1967 = In the first hour of the new year, a raid occurs at the Black Cat Tavern on Sunset Blvd in Silverlake. Several hundred people demonstrate and picket outside the bar, fueling the formation of gay rights groups in California.

---

PHOTO + QUOTE OF THE DAY

“To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.”
E. M. Forster

NEW + FEATURED

COLLIDEPRESS.COM = ON SUBSTACK
Blog + Newsletter + NSFW
Pioneers + Pride + SFW + Shop

COLLIDE PRESS = LINKS + MORE
Ko-Fi + Linktree + Shop + YouTube
Amazon + Bluesky + Threadless + Tumblr