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Adult Website Blocks North Carolina Users In Protest Over Anti-LGBT Law

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 07:57 PST, Apr 12, 2016

The popular adult website, xHamster, is sticking up for human rights by blocking access to anyone in North Carolina who supports the state’s anti-LGBT law. This move is the latest in several such actions taken over the unpopular bill.

In a tweet sent out Monday, xHamster said it was “blacking out access for North Carolina” over the newly passed anti-LGBT House Bill 2, which forces transgender men and women to use only the restrooms corresponding to their gender at birth.

As reported by Gizmodo, XHamster is one of the world’s largest porn sites and is ranked 91st among websites worldwide. Their report also notes this is not the first time an adult site has become politically active, as both Pornhub and Redtube reportedly protested for net neutrality back in 2014, which had a positive result.

According to the xHamster Chief Marketing Officer, Alexander D. Hawkins, any users attempting to access the website from a North Carolina IP address will be asked if they support the controversial law. Hawkins said if they answer in the affirmative, they will then be blocked from entering the pornography website.

“We blacked out the access to our website because we want to draw the attention of millions of people to patterns of human rights violations,” Hawkins said. And according to Hawkins, the company plans to stand their ground in the “fight for equality.”

The company went on to point out on Twitter the “incredible hypocrisy” of North Carolina, calling the state “the land where Homophobia is law.”

Perez Hilton quotes a statement by Hawkins, which says all the talk about moral values being destroyed by porn is ridiculous, especially when checking the site’s statistics on a state-by-state basis, including North Carolina.

The porn website went on to tweet an image showing that searches for both gay and transgender content on their site are popular among North Carolina users.

As stated by the company, so far in 2016, 50,612 searches emanating from North Carolina users contained the word “gay” while 48,585 had the search keyword “shemale.”

Hawkins did say they are not aiming at banning access to xHamster for North Carolinians forever, but that “democracy must be built through open societies that share information.”

“We managed to draw the attention of millions of people across the globe and we are glad that our voice has been heard across the globe.”

According to Hawkins, xHamster has a simple take on the whole issue, and that is, “Make love and watch porn!”

In related news on The Inquisitr:

The anti-LGBT House Bill 2 has been defended by lawmakers in North Carolina, stating the sweeping law defends religious liberty. However, opponents insist the new law turns against the LGBT population in that state.

The action taken by xHamster is the latest of several to penalize the state of North Carolina in the wake of the anti-LGBT bill, passed into law by Governor Pat McCrory on March 23.

As reported by USA Today last week, on hearing of the new legislation, PayPal announced the cancellation of its planned $3.6 million PayPal operations center for North Carolina.

Reportedly, several local and state governments have now banned non-essential employee travel to North Carolina and as reported by the Inquisitr, Bruce Springsteen canceled a concert in North Carolina in protest against the new law.

According to EW, Billy Ray Cyrus has recently spoken out on Facebook about the anti-LGBT laws in Mississippi and North Carolina, saying he would “feel negligent not to speak up.”

[Photo protest in Charlotte, N.C. via Flickr by James Willamor, cropped & resized/CC BY-SA 2.0]

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