Erick Adame has been delivering the news on NY1 for over 15 years and has done a pretty good job with it. Yet, his time at the news network ended when an anonymous person sent photos to Adame’s employer and mother from an adult webcam site he was secretly on. The leaked photos sent to his employer prompted the discussion of revenge porn and the separation of personal and work life.
Adame revealed his termination and the details behind it on his Instagram, writing, “I am taking this opportunity to share my truth rather than let others control the narrative of my life.”
He also clarified, “It was 100% consensual on both of our parts. I wasn’t paid for this, and it was absurd of me to think I could keep this private. Nonetheless, my employer found out, and I was suspended and then terminated.”
Since his firing and post, people on social media have been offering support and sharing their thoughts on the matter. One thing has been made clear: Using nude photos to ruin someone’s career or life is a despicable act of cowardice and extremely traumatizing to consenting adults who are free to do as they please in their personal and private lives.
As any public figure does in these moments, Adame released an apology statement, but many do not think that was necessary — as its being expressed on social media. What Adame was doing on the adult cam website is legal, consensual, and intimate. What the leaker did was revenge porn, a criminal offense in New York state. It is violating and unnecessary.
Twitter users are calling out and tagging NY1, a Spectrum News affiliate, to give Adame his job back. Viewers have voiced their anger that they would use something like this to terminate his position after more than a decade of delivering the weather to locals.
Even actress and former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon weighed in on the matter. “Dear @NY1 — yours is not to judge your employee’s private, consensual sexual activities, but how he reports the weather,” Nixon wrote. “This looks and smells a lot like a civil rights violation, and as an LGBTQ NYer, I am particularly troubled by it.”
It’s not just a matter of revenge porn but also the traumatization it evokes for LGBTQ+ people, given the reality that the sexual expression of these communities has long been demonized and criminalized around the world. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas even recently stated that he thinks it is time to reevaluate the Lawrence v Texas decision after overturning Roe v Wade. Lawrence v Texas is the court decision that formally decriminalized consensual sex between two people of the same gender.
To fire someone because of revenge porn is shameful. To use revenge porn to ruin someone else’s life is repugnant.
Adame is seeking to identify the anonymous sender of the photos and has filed a suit against Unit 4 Media Ltd. to discover the identity of the anonymous leaker.
