Sometimes an editorial cut is a matter of polished, careful discretion.  And sometimes…it smacks of something more substantial.

Mediaite reported this week that Matt Siegel, a freelance writer who wrote for the Advocate, saw his article disappear from the Advocate’s website just over a week after it went live.

The topic of “Business Before Pleasure” was the porn industry, specifically the gay porn industry. Siegel had waded waist-deep into the heavy topic of HIV/AIDS transmission, highlighting work place safety issues (of condom use) and public health at large. When the Advocate editor Ross von Metzke pulled his piece, he pulled Siegel’s previous article as well, and Siegel does not expect to be welcomed back.

Siegel’s article was removed from the Advocate on the same day that the L.A. Times published an article about 16 porn companies who were subjects of complaint for violating workplace safety rules about condom use–a seemingly unattached event, until it comes to light that the Advocate is run by Regent Media which has porn subsidiaries including Freshmen Magazine, Unzipped Magazine, Men Magazine, Club Freshman.com, Friction, Fresh Men, and Men Machine.

Siegel has yet to hear why, exactly, his writing was removed, a fact which casts a dubious shadow on von Metzke’s decision. As he put it, “I can only theorize why it was pulled since it has not been explained to me.” He wasn’t told something was wrong with the writing or that someone had issued complaint.  Instead, he and his article have been swept under the rug, along with a necessary conversation about AIDS risk in the gay porn industry. It’s a questionable incident, at best.

Siegel has asked for the retraction of the piece to be reconsidered because of the importance of the subject matter, but has not received a response. Now, he says, it’s just important that the article gets read:  “This is not just about sex workers/adult entertainment professionals–this expands into a public health issue for all of us.”

To read Siegel’s article, go here.