As anticipated, folks have some things to say about Dark Alley’s upcoming religious rumpy-pumpy, Passio (link). Let’s start with the gay porn sites, shall we? They might be a bit more open-minded.

Numerous sites picked up the press release and trailer to run for their sex-hungry readers. QueerMeNow (link), JRL Charts (link), and Porn Confidential (link) are some of these.

Others had a bit more to say. GaySexBlog (link) : “Saying you’re the son of God can get you into the coolest clubs, I’m sure!”

Vidio View (link) : “Speaking of controversy, as we always do, looks like New York’s Dark Alley Media could have one on their hands with the upcoming release of their Passio. [Director] von Fistenberg adds… “Since my name is also Matthias, this movie is a gospel – a Passio. A version of the story according to me.” Always about “me.”

Chronicles of Pornia (link) : “As much as I believe in the freedom of expression and often rally against censorship, I have to say that I’m not sure exactly how I feel about Dark Alley Media’s upcoming Passio tale, depicting a gay version of Jesus Christ’s story. I’m not a religious person at all and while I do believe that some things are sacred I also feel that individuals should be allowed to share their own interpretations in order to spark real dialogue.”

Mainstream blogs, gay and otherwise, also sniffed out the story, to a variety of responses. Joe.My.God (link) wrote, in a piece called Jesus Christ Superstud, “Sacrilege makes me happier than just about anything in the world. I guess that makes me a bad person.”

Movie news site FilmStew (link) said the following: “Passio is not a typo. It’s the name of a porn film that is set to raise the dander of every right-leaning pundit this side of Nazareth. This is going to make Kathy Griffin’s Creative Emmy Awards comments seem like milquetoast, at least to those who make a habit of protesting such things.”

Author Matthew Rettenmund (creator of gay hustler-romance tale Boy Culture) expresses his distaste loud and clear on his BoyCulture blog (link) : “I could never be embarrassed to be gay based on the idiotic actions, low class or tacky tastes of another gay person – but this is about as close as it gets, barring criminal activity: a gay porn flick based on The Passion of the Christ called Passio. The creator (no pun intended) has some choice and rather grand quotes about his work of art jack-off flick and its comparability to the Sistine Chapel.”

God knows why, but the story even turned up on a fan site dedicated to diminutive musical genius Prince (link).

Columnist Dan Savage posted the item on his SLOG blog (link) and garnered these comments: “Turn the other cheek, Jesus! TURN IT!” “Suffer the little children, cum onto me.” “I’m already making a list (checking it twice) of lucky people who will be receiving this, undoubtedly the Best Christmas Present Ever.” Dan also went to the trouble of collecting all the other Last Supper parodies done by popular culture (link): “Okay for the Simpsons, the Red Sox, HBO’s mobsters, supermodels, dogs, knitters, Lego, and on and on. Not okay for the kinksters and queers.”

But GayPornBlog manages to tie it all together nicely. They first mentioned Passio back when it was only half-finished (link), earning comments like the following: “I doubt Dark Alley has some grand statement to make. But it is possible to do a sincere hard-core New Testament themed gay flick. Bondage and a spiritual quest… that would make quite a flick. I think it would actually better serve the gay community to have religious themed porn.”

Now, GPB are reporting a new hysterical right-wing reaction, but not to Passio – at least not yet. Folsom Street Fair (taking place in San Francisco this weekend, September 28–30, link) designed a poster featuring porn stars, drag queens, leather studs and dominatrices in a Last Supper-like tableau (link).

Naturally, the Concerned Women for America were not overly chuffed as you can read here (link) : “‘Gay’ activists disingenuously call Christians ‘haters’ and ‘homophobes’ for honoring the Bible, but then lash out in this hateful manner toward the very people they accuse. In their version of The Last Supper, Christ, Who gave His life for our sins, is despicably replaced by sin itself as the object of worship.’

As GPB goes on to point out, if they foam at the mouth like this over a simple event poster, imagine what will happen when they check out Passio: