From ‘James Bonk’ blue movie actor to senior Lib Dem gay rights officer

IN 2001, aged 19, Chris Cooke capitalised on his good looks and impressive physique by becoming an actor in gay porn films. He was known as a ‘Twink’ in gay circles, and profited from a boom in the porn industry fuelled by the internet. He made films for a Londonbased firm specialising in their production and distribution. His career highlights included movies with titles such as SpyBoy, in which he played the lead role of James Bonk, and Fallen Angels. During this time he was based in Berlin but after almost a decade making films, he moved back to the UK and set up home in Nottingham. It was there he turned his life around as he took on an access course at Derby College before starting a BSc in Nursing at the University of Nottingham last year. But he was also keen that his worldly experience be put to some use and joined the Liberal Democrats’ Sex Work Policy Group in September 2015. The following year he was chosen as chair of the party’s LGBT+ campaign wing but internal arguments, many driven by disagreement over Tim Farron’s leadership, meant that by April of this year he had been replaced.

His devotion to the Liberal Democrats had begun to wane by February when he announced on Facebook that he had left the Sex Work Policy Group.

As a local activist in Bramcote near Nottingham, he could be prickly. Teased for lacking local knowledge on an online forum, he responded by posting: ‘As someone who spends 40 hours a week on clinical placements in the NHS, and another 25 hours a week doing university work around that, I don’t always have the time I would like to spend in my local community.

‘My commitments meant I had to give up the voluntary work I performed with Terrence Higgins and with an outreach project in London providing respite care for the carers of elderly people suffering with HIV. These are the sacrifices we make for vocation.’