TheSword.com is a gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 news and lifestyle website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

 that has won multiple awards for its coverage of the gay adult industry

Gay pornography

Gay pornography is the representation of sexual intercourse between men with the primary goal of sexual arousal in its audience. There is also a tradition, and continuing considerable output, of lesbian pornography....

. It is based in San Francisco. A large portion of The Sword's coverage is dedicated to covering the lives of gay porn stars in a tabloid fashion. The Sword is owned by gay adult site NakedSword.com and is edited by Michael Stabile

Michael Stabile

Michael Stabile III is an American journalist and documentary filmmaker best known for his work in and about the pornography industry. In 2004, he and Jack Shamama co-created the gay pornographic soap opera Wet Palms for which they won a GayVN Award for Best Screenplay...

.

The Sword has pioneered tabloid coverage of the gay adult industry through its access to adult stars. The site received plaudits from safer sex advocates after a Sword survey the revealed that 30% of working gay porn stars were HIV positive. It has also campaigned for causes including the decriminalization of prostitution and the rights of the transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

ed. In 2009, The Sword gained national recognition from the Huffington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

 after it reported on the state of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

's decision not to train employees of adult websites. The Sword currently provides gay news to sites including GayToday.com, JustUsBoys.com, and AVN Online Magazine.

In February 2009, The Sword won Best Erotic E-Zine at the 2009 Cybersocket Awards in West Hollywood.