Justice

A Major Porn Website Just Blasted North Carolina's Anti-LGBT Law in the Best Way

April 11th 2016

In North Carolina, cities and counties are banned from passing laws protecting the rights of LGBT people, according to a controversial new law there.

But as of Monday afternoon, the legislation is already hurting many, many more where it counts: access to online porn.

As of 12:30 p.m. EDT, XHamster.com, a popular porn website, has banned users in North Carolina, the Huffington Post reports. The site is leaving anyone with a North Carolina IP address high and dry with a pornless screen.

"We have spent the last 50 years fighting for equality for everyone and these laws discriminatory which XHamster.com does not tolerate," XHamster.com spokesman Mike Kulich said in a statement to PerezHilton.com.

"Judging by the stats of what you North Carolinians watch, we feel this punishment is a severe one. We will not standby and pump revenue into a system that promotes this type of garbage. We respect all sexualities and embrace them," he added.

Here's a screenshot posted to Twitter purporting to be the XHamster.com page accessed from a North Carolina computer:

According to XHamster search data, published in a screengrab from the blocked site, North Carolinians both viewed and searched for "gay" and "shemale" porn in droves this year — trends that would appear to run counter to the implications of legislation such as HB2, which has received massive pushback and protest in the wake of its passage.

Porn trend data collected by another popular site, Pornhub.com, appears to show similar trends. According to data published by the site in February, "lesbian" was the most popular search term in the area.

"The search trends are very ironic," Kulich told ATTN: in an email. 

pornPornhub - pornhub.com

"The demographic for trans content is straight white males and they shake their fingers with their left hand and jerk off with their right," Kulich said. 

Kulich told the Huffington Post that the company plans to replace users' black screens with a recall petition.

"Hopefully, it will get as many signatures as the 'transsexual' searches," Kulich said.

HB2, which was described by activists as one of the nation's harshest anti-LGBT laws yet, does several things:

  • Removes municipal non-discrimination protections and prevents LGBT protections ordinances from being passed by cities in the future, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
  • Requires transgender people to use restrooms and locker rooms in schools or government buildings according to their biological sex — not their gender identity.

The bill has drawn the ire of several high profile celebrity voices, as well as top brass at prominent companies, including Facebook, Apple, and Starbucks. The payment site PayPal canceled plans to build an operations center there, shutting down a $3.6 million investment in the state. Over the weekend, Bruce Springsteen canceled a scheduled performance in the state in protest of HB2, saying that the move was the "strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards."

XHamster.com's Kulich, though, said his company's move will likely be more widely felt.

"We are in the top 100 trafficked sites on the web so while we may be a porn site, we have a platform to spread good," he told ATTN:.

"I think that porn has the power to do what Bruce Springsteen can’t," Kulich added to the Huffington Post.

[h/t Huffington Post]

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