A popular porn site is blocking some North Carolinians' access to its material due to the state’s law preventing cities from banning discrimination against the LGBT community.
The porn site, xHamster, tweeted on Monday that it was “blacking out access for North Carolina” because of newly passed House Bill 2, which also dictates which public restrooms transgender men and women can use.
When users with a North Carolina IP address visit the website they will be asked if they support the anti-LGBT law, xHamster Chief Marketing Officer, Alexander D. Hawkins, said in an email. If they choose in the affirmative they will be blocked from the site, he said.
“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.
While some North Carolina lawmakers have argued that the sweeping law defends religious liberty, opponents say the law turns its back on the LGBT population in the state.
And the porn-giant is just the latest organization to penalize the state in the wake of the anti-LGBT bill, which North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory passed into law on March 23.
Last week, PayPal announced it was canceling its planned $3.6 million North Carolina operations center, while Bruce Springsteen canceled a scheduled show, and several state and local governments have banned non-essential employee travel to the state.
Hawkins said the company plans to stand their ground in the “fight for equality.”
“All the fuss about moral values being destroyed by porn is ridiculous when checking the statistics on the porn consumption state-on-state, including North Carolina,” Hawkins said.
The pornographic content provider tweeted a photo showing that searches for gay and transgender content are popular among users in North Carolina.
“The incredible hypocrisy of North Carolina, the land where Homophobia is law,” the company said on Twitter.
According to the company, 50,612 North Carolina searches contained the word ‘gay’ and 48,585 contained the word “shemale,” in 2016.
Hawkins said the company has a simple take on the issue: "Make love and watch porn!"
