(AFP) – Donald Trump may have become involved with a porn star, but if elected president, he could try shutting down the entire industry, adult film stars are warning in a push to get young men to vote against the Republican next month. The #HandsOffMyPorn campaign has spent $200,000 so far on ads to run on adult websites, warning viewers that prominent allies of Trump want to ban pornography and lock up the stars who bring it to vivid, graphic life. And they want Americans to fight back at the ballot box.
“If you care about adult entertainment, if you consume or create adult entertainment, you gotta vote November 5,” porn actress Siouxsie Q told AFP. “There’s no two ways about it.” The initiative comes in response to Project 2025, a blueprint for reshaping the federal government should Trump, the Republican nominee, win the election. Page five of the 900-page tome’s foreword states: “Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.”
Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025. But dozens of his allies and former administration members co-wrote the document, and Democrats have argued that many of its policies match his own positions. The #HandsOffMyPorn campaign is aimed primarily at men, who are four times more likely to report watching porn than women, according to the Institute for Family Studies. Just weeks before the extremely close U.S. election between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, pollsters report a giant gender division among voters.
Trump enjoys a strong lead among male voters, regularly taking his machismo-drenched pitch to young men on right-wing podcasts. Now, #HandsOffMyPorn’s “public service announcements” are being played to users in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia, often just before they watch adult videos. Stars like Siouxsie Q appear and say: “Hey, I know you’re busy. I know you’re doing something. Hold on. If you want to keep doing this, you really need to vote on November 5… Enjoy!”
Harris is not in any way affiliated with the #HandsOffMyPorn campaign, which is paid for by the independent Artists United for Change committee, noted Siouxsie Q. “Hopefully, secretly, she likes what we’re doing,” she added.
– ‘Lightning rod’ –
Crackdowns on pornography are nothing new for the United States. But Holly Randall, a 26-year veteran of the adult industry, said she has never seen such a potentially devastating threat to the sector. That even includes when her parents, who worked in porn during Ronald Reagan’s crackdown in the 1980s, had to film hardcore scenes in secret.
“I’ve seen these attacks come and go…. Project 2025 is the most explicit iteration of wanting to completely outlaw porn,” she said. “Absolutely, I am worried about imprisonment,” added Siouxsie Q, who made her name performing in feminist, queer, and bondage films before moving on to producing. Porn stars also warn that the consequences could extend far beyond even their wildly popular industry. According to Siouxsie Q, pornography is the “canary in the coal mine” for the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. She pointed also to Republican-led banning of sex education books from school libraries.
And Randall said adult entertainment is a “lightning rod” for wider issues such as trans rights, same-sex marriage, and even reproductive rights. “It’s always the easiest thing to attack because it represents people’s uncertainty and fear about the changing morals of sexuality and of gender fluidity,” she said.
– ‘Outlawed’ –
Trump has repeatedly claimed he has nothing to do with Project 2025. However, a New York Times investigation this week found “well over half” of the document’s authors had been in Trump’s previous administration or on his campaign or transition teams. Randall noted the irony of Trump—convicted for fraud over “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels—becoming embroiled in the movement, even if she suspects he personally “doesn’t actually care whether or not it’s outlawed.”
“But it’s the people around him, like (Trump running mate) J.D. Vance, these ultra-right-wing conservatives, who want to ban porn,” she said. Vance wrote the foreword to an upcoming book by Kevin D. Roberts—the author of the Project 2025 section that calls for a ban on porn. “I think Trump will easily step aside and allow that to happen,” said Randall.
– Andrew MARSZAL
© 2024 AFP
