Porn site xHamster bans North Carolina users in protest against anti-LGBT laws
North Carolina's decision to pass House Bill 2 -- which effectively block measures to protect LGBT people -- means that residents of the state are no longer able to access a popular porn site. Just as Bruce Springsteen decided to show his disgust at the new legislation by cancelling a concert in North Carolina, so xHamster has taken the step of blocking North Carolina porn consumers from accessing the site.
North Carolina's new law prevents local governments from passing anti-discrimination rules to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and it is sending ripples of disgust through the equal rights movement. With xHamster's involvement, the fight against the legislation has been taken online, hitting state residents where it hurts in a bid to encourage people to sign a petition against the bill.
xHamster has been inaccessible in North Carolina since Monday, and site spokesman Mike Kulich told the Huffington Post that LGBT search terms were very popular in the state. "Back in March, we had 400,000 hits for the term 'Transsexual' from North Carolina alone. People from that state searched 'Gay' 319,907 times".
In a statement the site said that the headline-grabbing ban was about equality:
We have spent the last 50 years fighting for equality for everyone and these laws are discriminatory which xHamster.com does not tolerate. 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.
Can porn succeed in helping to overturn the discriminatory law? Only time will tell. In the meantime, expect to see a spike in the use of proxy tools in North Carolina...
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