Hot Children in the City

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” said one recent post by $eeking Generou$. “I'm a young professional, recently laid-off, and really would love to keep living in Manhattan. I am looking for ONE, very very very discreet man who’s attracted to the notion of taking care of a guy from an economic standpoint.”

This is just one of the gay personals on Craigslist that recently turned up during a simple search on the Manhattan “men seeking men” personals section on Craigslist last week. It was one of over 300 posts advertising sex-for-money, despite reaching an agreement with 40 state attorney generals in Nov. 2008 which stated that Craigslist would closely monitor the erotic services available online.

“While violent crime is exceedingly rare on Craigslist, with only a handful of cases known out of billions of face-to-face human interactions facilitated through the site, sadly, there is a risk whenever meeting a stranger for the first time,” said Craigslist co-founder Jim Buckmaster, who also condemned illegal use of the site.

However, the risks are still there. On March 24, 2009, radio journalist George Weber was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment, his ankles bound with duct tape and his body stabbed 50 times. Two days later, a 16-year-old boy who had agreed to have a sex romp with Weber in exchange for money, confessed to his murder.

But Weber’s murder did not stop countless men from posting their ads on Craigslist, including the man who posted $eeking Generou$: Gavin Davenport, 26, who asked to use an alias for privacy issues.

On the outside, Davenport appears to be your typical businessman. He is dressed from top to bottom in Ralph Lauren as he saunters into his $3,000 per month apartment, in one of the Chelsea’s trendiest buildings. He just got home and needs some relaxation after a job interview, so he slips off his Gucci loafers and plops down on the couch. After responding to a few messages on his iPhone, he turns his attention to his brand new 50-inch plasma TV.

“Initially I answered an ad on Craigslist for male escorts and masseurs,” said Davenport. “I met with a guy named Max, who became my pimp, and he gave me a beeper and told me that I was too accept $300 in cash; I would take $115 and he would take $85.”

“My first client rejected me but then they started liking me, and I found a few regulars,” added Davenport. “I remember one guy who had this thing about armpit hair. It was crucial that I kept my arms up, hands behind head, so that he could see my armpit hair while he blew me.”

Davenport claims that he felt uncomfortable at first, but since he enjoyed sex and making money, he soon eased into his role as a male prostitute.

“No, I am not surprised that men have turned to prostitution as a means of replacing lost income,” said Simon Bowmaker, a professor at N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business, who’s book “Economics Uncut” features a chapter on the economics of prostitution. “Of course, one can argue that several other factors that need to be taken into account when considering the decision to become a prostitute, but in recent years, there has been evidence of well-educated people entering the prostitution profession and talking openly about their experiences.”

“This perhaps suggests a softening of attitudes towards commercial sex,” added Bowmaker. “For some, then, the decision of men to offer sexual services during a recession is not a shocking one.”

Despite his Ivy League background, Davenport said he felt no shame in turning to prostitution to help him make it through the recession. While he admits disliking some of his clients, he said for the most part, he found their company intellectually stimulating.

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet many different men, in many different fields,” he said. “Bankers, lawyers, doctors, men in the arts.”

P.R. was one of Davenport’s early clients. (Like other clients who were interviewed, he would not allow his full names to be published, but agreed to use his initials.) He is married and has three children, who live in Fairfield, Conn. Without fail, he is home every weekend to see them, but from Monday to Thursday, he lives in his apartment near his office in the Financial District, where he works as a lawyer. And when he is in New York, he sees Davenport anywhere from two to four times a week, sometimes paying $300 for an hour or $1,500 for an overnight visit.

“My wife knows about my lifestyle, but a divorce is out of the question for the sake of our children,” he said. “She and I live in a don’t ask, don’t tell world.

“And frankly, I am not ashamed of the fact that I hire a prostitute to service my needs,” he added. “I pay for my wife, and she is just as much as prostitute as Gavin.

“Year after year, she only continues to put on this charade everyday because she knows that she will be taken care of if she does,” said P.R. “Who pays for her big house? Her new Mercedes? Her country club membership? Her Barney’s charge card? I do. A prostitute, just as much as Gavin.”

Davenport is just one of the city’s male prostitutes. Out of seven men interviewed, five of them were Caucasian, one was Hispanic, and one was African-American. Two identified themselves as homosexuals, while five identified them as heterosexuals. Only one man – Davenport, a homosexual – identified himself as strictly interested in male sexual partners. While the remaining six said they would involve themselves with the highest bidder, either men or women. All seven were in perfect physical shape. All seven were well dressed. Five of them were under 28 years old, while the remaining two were under 35. And six of them agreed that they had not regrets.

Only one of the seven men regretted his decision.

Ricardo Alvarez, 31, has been a full-time erotic massage and escort for the past 10 months, and receives almost 70 percent of his clients from his ads on Craigslist. Alvarez said that he first started advertising on Craigslist after his 17-year-old sister moved in with him while she was attending a summer program for high school students at N.Y.U.

“I thought it would be okay because I was working and making decent money,” he said. “But I didn’t have enough, and I could never let me sister go hungry.”

Initially, Alvarez started by allowing gay men to perform oral sex on him in return for cash. But as he became accustomed to having extra cash, he started offering more and more of his body, and even began offering erotic massages and full-scale escort services. Despite his frequent sexual encounters with other men, he still identifies himself as a heterosexual.

Alvarez’s need to refer to himself as straight is not unusual, according to Michael Kimmel, a leading researcher and writer on men and masculinity in the world today.

“There is a dramatic difference between male and female prostitution," said Kimmel. “Females protect their femininity by not allowing their customers to kiss them, while males will be the inserter, and not the inserted in order to protect their masculinity. What I am trying to say, is the male prostitutes will do the fucking.”

“For years, young male hustlers, who have been having sex with older gay men, identified themselves as heterosexual and would have wives or girlfriends,” added Kimmel. “Because in their eyes, they were in charge, they had not lost their masculinity.”

While Alvarez admitted that he has started performing oral sex in order to make more money, he said that he does not intend “to bottom” during anal sex, despite the fact that one man offered him $800 to give a try.

“My ass is off limits,” said Alvarez. “I’ve never let a guy have it, and I still bring in anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 per week.”

Despite his steady income, his time as a prostitute has not always been a happy one.

“Weber wasn’t the only man who liked kinky violence, some guys like to get rough, and sometimes they take their anger and frustration out on you,” said Alvarez. “I’ve never been beaten up, but I have needed a few stitches.”

In Feb. 2008, a client told Alvarez that he enjoyed biting. Initially Alvarez thought nothing of it since quite a few of his clients enjoyed using their teeth. He said his client started biting harder, and ended up biting Alvarez’s nipple so hard that he needed to go to the emergency room.

“I was in so much pain and I was bleeding, but I kept going,” he said as he lifted his shirt to reveal the scars. “But I desperately needed the money.”

Alvarez never reported the violence. He said he was afraid that the police would ask too many questions. But despite the fact that prostitution is illegal in New York, it appears that little is being done to prevent its spread.

The chief police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that in 2008, there were 1,650 female and 233 male prostitution arrests citywide. Browne also confirmed that the NYPD shut down its Vice Squad operations on Craigslist because a new commanding officer of the squad thought it was “a waste of resources,” despite being highly successful in targeting sex-for-money ads, which led to arrests throughout New York City.

Davenport and Alvarez have eluded the police so far, but both agree that the fear of arrest and exposure is constantly lurking in the back of their minds.

“Getting arrested scares me,” said Davenport. “But I’m terrified that one day my friends and family will figure out what I’ve been doing.

“If they ever learned what I’ve been doing, I honestly don’t know what I would do,” he added.