The death of porn star August Ames, who was being targeted by a hate mob for not having sex with “crossover” actors (male porn stars who participate in both straight and gay porn), was confirmed by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s office today. Her friends suspected that she committed suicide due to the bullying on Twitter. Sources told the Blast that Ames suffered from long-term depression and that the incident may have contributed to her decision to take her own life.
Per the International Business Times, The Ventura County, Ca. Health Care Agency confirmed Ames, whose legal name was Mercedes Grabowski, died Wednesday evening of a suicide. “Mercedes Grabowski died of asphyxia due to hanging. Manner is suicide.”
Omg,I can’t believe she’s dead. You people should have known better than to berate her over her personal thoughts! Shame on all you for beating it into the ground. Online harassment is a real thing & it claimed another life. Someone who I liked & would have even called a friend!
— Anikka Albrite™️ (@AnikkaAlbrite) December 6, 2017
I stood up for @AugustAmesxxx during this drama to the very fucking end. Nobody deserves that level of harassment & I fucking hate every piece of shit that took part in basically taking her life. She was so fucking sweet & not one of you ever deserved her.
— 🍕🌮 Noelle Easton ONLYFANS (@NoelleEaston) December 6, 2017
Background
On December 3, Ames, who has over 280 movie credits to her name, tweeted her personal decision not to shoot with male porn actors who’ve shot gay porn, and a warning to another performer.
“Whichever (lady) performer is replacing me for @EroticaXNews, you’re shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let cha know,” [sic] she wrote on Twitter. “BS is all I can say. Do agents really not care about who they’re representing? #ladirect I do my homework for my body.”
The 23-year-old porn star was referring to the higher instances of sexually transmitted diseases in gay porn actors, which is a constant danger for porn performers. The Daily Beast reported in 2016 that the porn industry has done a poor job of protecting its stars from contracting HIV.
Following Ames’ tweet, the performer was bombarded with accusations of homophobia by a number of other adult industry actors. Many in the replies regurgitated the common myth that male porn stars have to get into the industry by performing gay sex roles. Some of her online abusers even encouraged her to kill herself.
Following the outrage, Ames responded with an apology, and clarified that she was not homophobic.
“Sorry, it was just my opinion. My body, my rules. Honestly I’m sorry if I offended anyone,” she wrote. “Plus I didn’t say any names… but I will stop talking so no more damage is done lol.”
She clarified that she was not homophobic.
“Most girls don’t shoot with guys who have shot gay porn, for safety,” Ames wrote. “That’s just how it is with me. I’m not putting my body at risk, I don’t know what they do in their private lives.”
She added that she herself was attracted to women. “Not wanting to have sex with gay men is not homophobic; they don’t want to have sex with me either,” she wrote.
Fellow porn actress Noelle Easton supported Ames, stating that gay porn stars do not follow the same HIV and health testing protocols as their counterparts in the mainstream porn industry.
“Gay performers wear condoms meaning they never have to get tested unless a specific company makes them,” Easton wrote.
Scary isn't it? It's not being homophobic trust me, it's just unsafe to fuck someone untested even with a condom and then go back and fuck people in a tested pool because it can spread stds in the straight performer pool
— 🍕🌮 Noelle Easton ONLYFANS (@NoelleEaston) December 3, 2017
It's because she does not know what they do in their private life, so tested or not, that test could be tainted already from their private life. She and I both have turned down plenty of performers because even if they have a clean test we do not trust their private lives
— 🍕🌮 Noelle Easton ONLYFANS (@NoelleEaston) December 4, 2017
