Matt Sanchez

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Matt Sanchez

Born	December 1, 1970 (1970-12-01) (age 37)
Nationality	American
Education	Columbia University
Occupation	Writer, journalist, Marine Corps reservist
Website www.Matt-Sanchez.com

Matt Sanchez (born 1 December 1970 in San José, California) is an American writer and journalist, and has served as a Marine reservist.^[1] In March 2007, Sanchez was awarded the first "Jeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award" at the Conservative Political Action Conference.^[2]

The conference received mainstream media attention when Ann Coulter referred to John Edwards as a "faggot."^[2] Shortly afterward, it was revealed that Sanchez had performed in gay pornographic films in the early 1990s as Pierre LaBranche and Rod Majors.^[1]^[3]

As a warblogger, he was involved in the Scott Thomas Beauchamp controversy.^[4]

1 Biography
2 Journalist
- 2.1 A sample report
3 Selected filmography
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Biography

Early life

Sanchez in an interview states that he wrote for travel magazines.^[5]

Adult entertainment

In the early 1990s, Sanchez performed in gay pornographic movies. He first worked under the direction of Kristen Bjorn using the stage name "Pierre LaBranche."^[6] Scenes from his original films have been re-released in compilations. Sanchez stated in an interview with Radar Magazine that it "was just the nature of the business, you shoot a lot of films and they use them forever."^[7]

Marines Corps service

Sanchez in Marine Corps Dress Blue uniform in 2003

In 2003, he joined the United States Marine Corps and was trained as a refrigeration mechanic.^[3]^[1]

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Political activism at Columbia University

In 2005, while a junior at the Columbia University School of General Studies,^[8] Sanchez claimed he was harassed by students during the Fall 2005 "Activities Day" while manning the table for the Columbia Military Society. According to Sanchez, he was approached by members of the International Socialist Organization, an anti-war campus group who told him he was stupid for serving in the military. According to Mark Xue, president of the military society who was at the table with Sanchez, "They were telling him that he was stupid and ignorant, that he was being brainwashed and used for being a minority in the military."^[8] Sanchez made a series of formal complaints to the university, which upon investigation found no grounds for punishing the three accused students.^[8] The accused dispute Sanchez's account of the events. In a Columbia Daily Spectator editorial titled, "The Conservative Witch Hunt," Zach Zill wrote that while he did make clear that he found on-campus military recruitment offensive, he had done so without the use of epithets and derogatory language.^[9] Monique Dols, another of the accused Socialists, stated the complaint was false and "a discrediting campaign against us."^[8]

Sanchez and others in the student group MilVets, an organization for on-campus veterans, had also voiced their frustration at what they perceived to be a lack of regard for veterans on the campus. In February 2006, the university amended its non-discrimination policy to include "military status" as a group to be protected from harassment. According to the University, this was not a policy change, but merely a "semantic clarification," as the words "military status" replaced "disabled or Vietnam era veteran."^[10]

National recognition

On December 4, 2006, Sanchez wrote an opinion piece for the New York Post, titled, "Diversity Double-Talk: Ivy's 'Inclusion' excludes Military,"^[11] which led to his being invited onto various conservative talk shows in January 2007 to discuss the incident.

On March 2, 2007, Sanchez was awarded the Jeanne Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).^{[citation needed]} A featured speaker at the conference, Ann Coulter, made controversial remarks at the event, referring to presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot."^[12]^[13] According to an editorial by Sanchez published by Salon, he was compared online to Rich Merritt, author of Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star, and Jeff Gannon, a conservative journalist who was outed as a gay escort.^[14]^[14]^[15] In the Salon piece, Sanchez noted that "porn is just ... porn," and that he considers his pornographic career an identity outgrown.

On 7 Mar 2007, the Matt Sanchez story appeared on MSNBC's program Countdown with Keith Olbermann.^[16] Michelle Malkin wrote a piece in which she states that Matt "...appeared on Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes."^[17]

Marine Corps inquiries

On March 16, 2007, John Hoellwarth, a staff writer for Military Times Media Group, reported that Sanchez was the subject of a Marine Corps inquiry about his appearances in gay pornographic videos and related allegations.^[1] Of concern was whether "Sanchez had enlisted prior to the end of his film career," "if Reserve Marines were prohibited from doing porn when not in a drilling status," and "how the current 'don't ask, don't tell' policy might apply."^[3]

In an article published April 1, 2007 by the Marine Corps Times, Hoellwarth wrote that the Marine Corps was also investigating reports that Sanchez had "wrongfully solicited funds to support [his] purported deployment to Iraq." According to the article, a Marine investigator accused Sanchez of "coordinating a $300 payment from the UWVC (United War Veterans Council) and $12,000 from U-Haul."^[18] Sanchez told the newspaper that the charges were "demonstrably false," and that he never collected any funds from the listed organizations.^[18]

Journalist

Matt Sanchez reported on the Iraq War as an embedded journalist.^[19] He first accompanied an American military unit that traveled from Kuwait into Iraq, then in July 2007 he joined a unit in Afghanistan.^[20]

Sanchez was revealed as a source associated with criticism of the Scott Beauchamp "Baghdad Diarist" series of writings which appeared in The New Republic.^[21] The story became nationally known when military bloggers (milbloggers) and Weekly Standard editor Michael Goldfarb raised doubt about the validity of the "Baghdad Diarist" accounts.^[22] Michelle Malkin aired a report on the matter on The O'Reilly Factor.^[23]