Most years, waking on on January 1st typically entails us second guessing the resolutions we made, just two nights prior. We lay in bed, look at the time, hear the temperature outside and decide to hit the snooze and throw the covers over our heads. For a great many residents in Florida, this morning, they woke up to more than just second guessing their resolutions.
For Florida’s residents, waking up that New Years Day brought more than just the normal regrets overly hastily and alcohol influenced resolutions. January 1st marked the start of Florida’s new bill HB3. On the surface, this bill seems innocuous and set to help protect children from online threats of bullying or worse. It is when you get into the specifics of this bill that things start to get a hazy shade of murky.
Join me today as I discuss Porn Bans, Privacy, and Pride: How Censorship Laws are Leaving LGBTQ communities exposed.
What are porn bans?
Before we go spiraling down the rabbit hole, let me clarify a point. What is happening in roughly 13 states, right now, isnt an outright ban but what it is is censorship in all of its ugly truth. Let’s look specifically at Florida’s HB3.
Florida’s HB3
”Online Protections for Minors; Requiring social media platforms to prohibit certain minors from creating new accounts; requiring social media platforms to terminate certain accounts and provide additional options for termination of such accounts; providing conditions under which social media platforms are required to prohibit certain minors from entering into contracts to become account holders; authorizing the Department of Legal Affairs to bring actions under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act for knowing or reckless violations; authorizing the department to issue and enforce civil investigative demands under certain circumstances, etc.”
At first pass, this bill simply looks like it is trying to limit underage people from accessing sites that could be potentially damaging to them. We all know that cyber bullying is rampant and destructive to our youth. Where this bill starts to get tricky is that it requires a government issued ID to access these sites, and others. Three points in this bill’s summary cause a knee jerk reaction or should:
- Allow users to upload content or view the content or activity of other users.
- Employ algorithms that analyze user data or information on users to select content for users.
- Have certain addictive features.
These three key points are also vital for most websites that cater content to its users. But they also take it a step further with the use of specific phrases like “Have certain addictive features.” The government, for years, has been conducting studies and trying to use the belief that porn is addictive and destructive to people, especially minors. The belief is that if we can keep our kids away from dangerous situations then we can protect them until they can make their own adult and informed decisions. Funny, this bill does nothing to discuss the reduction of the ability for almost anyone to buy a weapon and for it to be used in some for of mass shooting.
In the lead up to the election, we learned that President-elect Donald Trump has deep ties to the group that authored Project 2025 (also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project), the Heritage Foundation. In the, roughly, 900 page document, there are plans outlined for criminalizing pornography. This group fully believes that porn should be banned in the United States, producers and distributors should be sent to prison, and any tech company that circulates it should be shut down… immediately.
Well, good by Google, X, Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, andf the list goes on. That could also mean targeting app stores on Apple and Android phones, as they are tech companies. In effect, a group of people who have absolutely no business making decisions for every American citizen has outlined ways that they want to take freedoms away from you.
Blocking measures
You are probably sitting there wondering how these states are going to enforce these bans. That is a great question and one that comes with an equally scary answer. In the case of Florida, any entity that is hosting and spreading any of these, deemed illegal, material, must verify the age of the person requesting it by using either standard or anonymous age verification processes to show that they are of the proper age to access this material. Sure, this sounds okay, in context, as an adult, I have the right to look at that material, as long as I provide the necessary documentation to prove my identity to the designated authorities.
Who do we upload this information to, what has to be seen on this information, and what is done with it once it is verified?
These are the questions we need to be asking. The state is putting the burden on those sites to verify the identity of those accessing this information, but they are not the ones verifying it. The easy part here is that if you have to upload an ID for verification, the site itself becomes responsible for the verification. However, if they opt to use a third party for it, there is a wrinkle.
”if an anonymous age verification method is used, the verification must be conducted by a nongovernmental, independent third party organized under the laws of a state of the U.S. Any information used to verify age must be deleted once the age is verified.”
The words independent third party originated under the laws of a state of the U.S. should cause you a little bit of anxiety. This is an organization created and approved by the state implementing the restrictions. Sure, there is the added part that any and all information used to verify must be deleted, but there is no proviso here that states what information can be gleaned from this documentation and to what ends can it be used.
To think that the state government wouldnt add this information to some kind of registry, to prove they used appropriate verification methods, would be a massive overlook. Think about it, your viewing history could be tied to that information.
Joe Smith
age: 35
Residence: somewhere Florida
Verification process: State ID
Sites used: Pornhub, Instagram, XHamster, stockroom.com
Viewing habits: gay porn, S&M, twinks getting railed, etc
Suddenly, we have a file of information about a person that can be used for targeting them. This person could be seen as gay, bi, trans, or anything else the government deems counter culture or bad.
States with porn bans in 2025
At present, here are the list of states that have laws that are actively restricting access to porn:
- Florida – HB3 (effective date 1/25, agre verification for all deemed adult sites and fines up $50k for non compliance)
- Kentucky – HB278 (effective date 7/24)
- Indiana – SB17 (effective date 8/24)
- Idaho – H498 (effective date 7/24)
- Kansas – SB394 (effective date 7/24)
- Nebraska – LB1092 (effective date 7/24)
- North Carolina – HB8 (effective date 1/24)
- Montana – SB544 (effective date 1/24)
- Mississippi – SB2346 (effective date 7/23)
- Virginia – SB1515 (effective date 7/23)
- Arkansas – SB66 (effective date 7/23)
- Texas – HB181 (effective date 9/23)
- Utah – SB287 (effective date 5/23)
- Tennessee – (effective date approx 1/25)
- South Carolina – (effective date approx 1/25)
- Georgia – (effective date approx 7/25)
Each state has its ability to decide how they want to enforce these laws and you can bet, over time and as technology changes, so will their means of verification. At present, each of these states has a geo-block set, by Pornhub and its subsidiaries so that no one in these states can access their sites. Instead, they receive a message from them to contact their state representatives for additional information.
We already discussed a couple means of verification, state ID and third party verification software, but there are other ways that many people, including the porn sites, would like to add. One of which would be biometrics and other advanced technologies. Pornhub, for example, has stated that they would be more receptive to using device authentication for this proof, over IDs or third party sources.
Every day, we read about a new site that, we once trusted, becomes a target of a data breach. If there is going to be some third party repository of information used for verifying someone’s access to a website or if the website in question is going to be housing this information are we going to impose tighter security protocols for the internet like many other countries use? If not, we are creating huge honey pots of information for nefarious agents to target and utilize for any and all means.
Porn ban problems
Inherently, there are always issues when it comes to any topic surrounding pornography. First and foremost, we have to remember that at this very time, the Supreme Court of the United States has never definitely ruled on what pornography is or is not, instead, they opted for a loophole around it by describing obscenity. Why go that route? Simple, there are no issues around defining what can be deemed as obscene. Well, its not exactly so simple because even obscenity was never fully described. In 1873, Anthony Comstock petitioned Congreve to pass a federal law that would criminalize the distribution of “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” material through the mail or by common carriers. This law was, at first, put into action to suppress information about sex and abortion. due to the vagueness of the descriptor, the government found ways to use the Comstock law to target anything they deemed “obscene.”
Privacy concerns with porn ban law
Government regulation of online adult content has sparked a fervor of talk around how to verify someone’s age before entering a questionable site or service. Most states simply state that it will require either a Government issued ID or a third party entity to verify the person’s age and legitimacy. The privacy concerns around this are astronomical, in nature. There doesnt seem to be much in the way of oversite as to who these third parties are, if they have been vetted, and how they will collect and possibly store the information. Then there is the real issue of uploading your driver’s license over the internet. Who can access that information and use it for any means necessary?
Many porn sites, like Pornhub and its subsidiaries, have put warning videos on their site, in these states. Many users will see a video of adult film star Cherie DeVille discussing public policy. DeVille outlines that new state policies are forcing them to collect photographic IDs, on each and every visit, of its users. Pornhub has stated their issues with this kind of collection and instead of following state mandates, they have simply blocked residents of those states from accessing their content. Truly, it is one of the only ways sites like Pornhub can stay safe, one violation of this mandate could cause a $50,000 dollar fine to the infractor. From there, their message states that if you are opposed to this, then you need to contact your state officials.
How porn band affect LGBTQ+ communities
In 2021, we all watched as one of the largest sites for fan driven content announced that they would no longer host sexually explicit material. For many, this just seems like another part of the immense history of online censorship targeting LGBTQ people. These bans do not focus on videos or pictures, in a great many places it has forced censorship of terms that are very specific to LGBTQ culture, stating that they have adult content leanings. Terms like “bisexual” have been deemed obscene. In 2021, we saw famed app TikTok shadowbanning terms like “intersex” and “lesbian” for the same reasons.
LGBTQ youth often do not have any place to turn for sexual education. In most states, across our country, schools do not include any form of sexual health education that would discuss topics important to LGBTQ people. That leaves the internet as about the only place many of us can turn to find any kind of information, helpful or otherwise. Not to mention, what do laws like that have in store for the hordes of creatives that make LGBTQ content, like us here at GayintheCLE.
We live in a very problematic time when people in authority deem LGBTQ people as automatically associated with pornography and obscenity simply for nothing nothing more than surviving. As LGBTQ people, we need to be advocating against internet restrictions whenever we see bills like this coming. We need to ensure that we’re electing officials that actually have our best interests in mind and not cowtailing to lobbyists. It is our duty to fight online censorship and speak up for, no demand, our rights. No one else is going to.
Dystopian realness
Shows like Squid Games and A Handmaid’s Tale are more representative of our current state of affairs than we often like to admit. The truth is far closer to those shows. Currently, our government is ran by Republicans for the next four years, at least. The President is bent on targeting anyone or anything he views as a threat or told is a threat. States are being led by leaders who tout personal beliefs as the only way to live and worse. These same bad actors have convinced large swaths of America that their views are inline with the average person and they are fighting to become the country we were meant to be. Instead, what they should be saying is that they are hell bent on creating the world that they choose to rule over and have its citizens falling in step with those beliefs. We have to be the ones to push for change and lead the fight for our personal freedoms.
Are you concerned that your state may soon take up this ban on adult related content? Maybe you currently live in one of those states, how have you found ways around it? How do you feel about these legislations? Do you think our government is capable of making the best possible choices for its people? And do they have the ability to be able to decide, without any bias, what obscene actually is? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you again for being a part of GayintheCLE. We will continue to write about topics relevant to LGBTQ people until they shut us down.
Additional reading and credits
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/project-2025-porn-ban-lgbtq-transgender-rcna161562
Gay in the CLE 