EVERYBODY'S GOT A STORY " TOM KATT "
"I DIDN'T HIT ROCK BOTTOM and I didn’t turn to a particular church,” says David Papaleo, better known to us as the big-muscled porn star “Tom Katt”.

“I just started praying. I asked God to help me with what my life was becoming.”

God told him his life “wasn’t correct,” the big man tells the Dallas Voice, a gay and lesbian community paper. And so the former Falcon posterboy, former “bisexual,” former steroid bunny became not only a born-again evangelical, with aspirations toward the pulpit, but a born-again heterosexual, as well.

Exclusively heterosexual, if we are to believe the newly corrected Papaleo, right, who admits, with admirable frankness, to having had more boyfriends in his life than girlfriends:

“I felt I had to stay away from women because, hello, I was doing gay porn; no woman was going to have anything to do with me.” (An assertion the Dallas Voice let pass without comment but that we find odd — and somewhat unobservant in light of the current data on the overwhelming number of woman turned on by man-on-man porn.)

“It just didn’t click,” he says of his many boyfriends. “It can’t just be a physical thing. And I never really found that I could have an emotional-spiritual connection with another guy.”

Of course, having an intimate connection with anyone is hard when your primary relationship is a needle full of wacky juice jammed into your arm. “I made a lot, and spent a lot,” the former porn star concedes. “I thought I was having the time of my life. But I started partying with my money — constantly altering my mood with chemicals to convince myself I was having a good time.”

This, of course, didn’t work — it never does. “Deep down, I was miserable,” he says.

And then along came Jesus. “I remember being on a porn set, and the guys all laughing at me because I was reading the Bible.” Long story short: Papaleo got married to a Georgia woman three months ago, relocated to Florida and enrolled in a seminary.

“What I found is that so many people — including myself at one time — believe those crazy so-called Christians who say if you’re gay or bi, God doesn’t want you. That’s a big piece of crap.” In a bold move, Papaleo promises to feature, rather than hide, his glory days as a porn star when he becomes a preacher.

“There’s nothing at all wrong with sex,” he says. “God made sex, too… I believe that sex is the strongest physical expression of love for another person. But porn is not an expression of love — it’s empty and cold.” [An assertion Nightcharm debates in the commentary that follows.]

Papaleo will also speak in favor of gay-marriage. “The Bible says don’t go against what is natural — it means going against what’s natural for yourself. If you are naturally heterosexual and you’re having sex with men, well, first, you’re treating that guy unfairly.”

And consequently, following this rationale, gay sex is only unnatural for straight men and straight women. We doubt Sean Cody, Chi Chi LaRue and all those girl-on-girl porn producers will be genuflecting at this church any time soon.

As Tom Katt, Papaleo appeared on floats in gay parades — celebrations that were heckled by contingents of Christian fundamentalists, holding signs that featured the words Hell and Sin being consumed by flames. The Dallas Voice wonders if Papaleo will make that his mission — to refute the hate-mongers waving Bibles. A good question, and the Dallas Voice seemed satisfied by the former porn star’s rather generic answer:

“So many people are shunned or feel like they’ve been pushed away from God — that God doesn’t want anything to do with them. I want to tell as many people as I can that that is an absolute lie. God made everyone. He loves you the way you are.”