October 10, 2008 --
ONE of the "bundlers" who has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the Barack Obama presidential campaign is Terrence Bean, who once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America.
Bean, the first gay on Sen. Obama's National Finance Committee, is the sole trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation, which owned Falcon Studios, Jock Studios and Mustang Studios, the producers of about $10 million worth of all-male pornography a year.
Chuck Holmes, who founded Falcon in 1972, died of AIDS in 2000. San Francisco's new gay and lesbian community center was named after Holmes two years later, thanks to a $1 million donation from his estate.
The naming of the building for Holmes was controversial because Falcon Studios profits from the sale of "barebacking" videos, featuring anal sex without condoms. Falcon insists that the videos were made before AIDS hit in the early 1980s and that the studio is in the forefront of promoting safe sex.
Bean, a real-estate developer based in Oregon, was the CEO of Conwest Resources, the holding company that owned Falcon, before Holmes died. The company was sold in 2004 but, now called 3 Media, continues to pay off a note to the foundation.
In 2002, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongowski returned a $15,000 contribution from Conwest
to avoid the "taint" of the porn connection. Bean told Page Six yesterday, "I asked the company to donate, and they did. To avoid the appearance of anything, he [Kulongowski] returned it."
Bean also said, "I never had anything to do with running the company . . . Chuck became a friend of mine, and I got him interested in philanthropy."
An Obama spokesman told Page Six: "Mr. Bean does not own the company [Falcon]. He is a regular contributor to state and federal candidates, including Republican Senator Gordon Smith and Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe, and has even donated to the Log Cabin Republicans - who endorsed John McCain."