User:Bluemarine/Sandbox

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Main article: Matt Sanchez

Matt Sanchez
Image:SanchezColumbia.jpg Matt Sanchez on College Walk at Columbia University, 2006
Born	December 1, 1970 (1970-12-01) (age 37) San Jose, California, USA
Occupation	author, activist, Marine blogger
Website http://www.matt-sanchez.com

Matthew Sanchez (born 1 December 1970) is an American Marine reservist, activist and author, a senior at Columbia University. During the 1990s he was a performer in adult films under such names as Pierre LaBranche and Rod Majors.^[1]^[2]^[3] He first achieved public notoriety in early 2007, when it was revealed that he had made formal complaints of harassment at Columbia University against other students, who he said in 2005 had called him a "baby killer" for being in the military. He appeared on several television talk shows about the incident, and in March 2007 was awarded the first ever Jeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award. At the award ceremony, one of the attendees, conservative columnist Ann Coulter, drew negative attention by referring to presidential candidate John Edwards with a homophobic slur.^[4] In the ensuing controversy, it became public knowledge that Sanchez himself had been a performer in homosexual adult films in the early 1990s. The story became popular in the blogosphere, with rumors and speculation circulating about the details of Sanchez's past.

1 Biography
2 Adult film career
3 Columbia University
4 Political activism
5 Culture Wars
6 Marine Corps inquiry
7 Current status
8 Selected works
- 8.1 Articles by Sanchez
- 8.2 Adult films
9 Notes
10 External links

[edit] Biography

Sanchez, who describes himself as being of Puerto Rican heritage,^[5] was born and raised in San Jose, California, graduating from Independence High School in 1988. After high school, he traveled to Europe, where he taught English at academias, an informal language center for students.^[6] He lived in Quebec in the 1990s, working in the adult entertainment industry both there and in Los Angeles, after which he moved to Germany. In 2003, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve under an eight-year enlistment, and was trained as a refrigeration mechanic.^[3]^[2]

[edit] Adult film career

In the 1990s, Sanchez worked as a performer in adult films which were primarily targeted towards the gay and bisexual market,^[7]^[8] starring in videos for Catalina Video, Bijou Video, and Falcon Entertainment. He appeared in Call of the Wild (1992) and Montreal Men (1992) as "Pierre LaBranche,"^[8] and Idol Country (released in 1994), as "Rod Majors." Other films included the 1991-1992 Man to Men and Jawbreaker.^[2] The films in which he appeared had original releases no later than 1995;^[7] however, scenes from some films have been re-released as part of compilations. The compilation Touched by an Anal was released in 1997;^[1] a more recent release was in 2006, Mansex Meltdown.^[9] Sanchez stated in an interview with Radar Magazine that it "was just the nature of the business, you shoot a lot of films and they use them forever."^[10] Though he has appeared in gay porn films, Sanchez insists that he is not gay, and has had no homosexual contact since joining the Corps in 2003.^[2]

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[edit] Columbia University

Sanchez returned to college in his mid-30s, starting at New York University in 2004, and then in 2005 transferring to Columbia University, studying in the School of General Studies.^[11]

[edit] Political activism

Sanchez was known on the Columbia University campus for his pro-military stance. He claims that in 2005, while he was a junior at the university, he underwent harassment from the International Socialist Organization (ISO), a leftist student group. Sanchez has stated while he was visiting the Hamilton Society table, during the Fall 2005 "Activities Day," he was approached by members of the International Socialist Organization, an anti-war campus group. Sanchez said Monique Dols[1], Zach Zill and Jason Birch called him various epithets such as "baby-killer," and also accused him of being a "stupid" for enlisting as a minority. He made formal complaints to the university, Columbia insisted they investigated, but could not reveal the results of the investigation due to student confidentiality.^[11] This same group was later responsible for the Columbia University Minute Men Project incident.[2]

Sanchez and others in the student group MilVets, an organization for on-campus veterans, had also voiced their frustration at what they perceived to be a lack of regard for veterans on the campus. In part, this led to the university amending its non-discrimination policy to include "military status" as a group to be protected from harassment in February 2006.^[12]

On December 4, 2006 Sanchez wrote an opinion piece for the New York Post, titled "Double-Talk Ivy's 'Inclusion' excludes military" and this led to him being invited onto various cable discussion shows in January 2007, such as Fox News' Hannity & Colmes^[13] and The O'Reilly Factor,^[5] to talk about the harassment incident. Sanchez also received support from conservative leaders such as Michelle Malkin, Kevin McCullough and Newt Gingrich.^[4]

On March 2, 2007, Sanchez was awarded the Jeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award for his work fighting discrimination against military and veterans, at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).^[4] A featured speaker at the conference, Ann Coulter, made some controversial remarks at the event, indirectly referring to presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot."^[14] This sparked public attention and controversy, during which Sanchez's earlier career as a star in adult films was brought to light. The story received a great deal of attention in the blogosphere, notably among homosexual bloggers, some of whom, according to Sanchez in a radio interview, have even posted his social security number online and harrassed him. [3]

[edit] Culture Wars

As a conservative who was formerly an adult film star, Sanchez has become a conflicting personality of the culture wars.

[edit] Marine Corps inquiry

On March 13, 2007, John Hoellwarth, a staff writer for the Army Times, reported that Sanchez was the subject of an inquiry about his past. On April 1, 2007, in an article for the Marine Corps Times, Hoellwarth reported that Sanchez was also being investigated by the Marine Corps for fraudulently soliciting funds from two organizations, the United War Veteran's Council and U-Haul, in order to fund a deployment to Iraq which he never actually made. Sanchez has denied the charges, calling them "demonstrably false".^[15]

[edit] Current status

As of May 2007, Sanchez is continuing to study at Columbia University. He also states that he recently became a partner in an unidentified public relations and marketing firm.^[16]