Porn Stars Blast Trump With a Bold Ad Campaign
The porn industry is railing against conservative attempts to ban pornography, as suggested by the MAGA directive Project 2025.
The adult entertainment industry has launched a campaign intended to warn voters of the risks of a Donald Trump presidential win to the production and distribution of pornographic content.
The “Hands Off My Porn” campaign is taking direct aim at Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for a future Republican presidential administration, and tying some of its more controversial proposals to Trump directly.
As reported by The New York Times, the $100,000 advertising campaign will be carried out largely online, with spots warning about conservative proposals to ban pornography running on pornographic websites.
The ads are intended to warn viewers, particularly younger males — who polls show are more inclined to back Trump — about the ramifications of such a vote.
The online ads will run in the swing states most likely to decide the election’s outcome, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
They will direct watchers to the Hands Off My Porn website, where they can watch testimonials about Project 2025’s threat to the adult film industry.
The “Hands Off My Porn” campaign is largely geared toward straight male audiences and employs straight actors as its spokespeople. Holly Randall, a porn producer and a key person involved in the campaign, has noted that right-wingers frequently assert false tropes, including that pornography is trying to “trick” straight men into identifying as gay or transgender, to amass support for banning porn altogether.
However, several gay adult film actors recently spoke to Pride, a gay pop culture website run by the LGBTQ magazine The Advocate, about their support for the campaign, despite not being involved in it.
Performer Michael Boston called the campaign a “fabulous” idea. “Even if some people might think that’s a small thing to do, I feel like every drop in the bucket counts when it comes to helping voters understand their possible choices,” he told Pride.
Boston believes that the ads could sway voters of any gender identity or sexual orientation, claiming that censoring porn is a free-speech issue.
However, he believes that creating a video clip that efficiently summarizes the risks of Project 2025’s proposals in bite-size content, which could be widely shared on social media, would be a great supplement to the existing campaign.
“It sounds like it’s just a matter of getting as many eyes as possible,” he said. “Especially since we have a matter of weeks before the election.”
Other gay adult performers, including Damien and Dom King, believe the ads may have more resonance among young male voters and that the campaign is correct in attempting to target those voters by placing the ads on sites that regular porn viewers are likely to frequent.
“Messaging is always more effective when it’s delivered in the right context. People who consume adult content are more likely to be receptive to hearing about threats to it when they’re already engaging with the material,” King said, adding, “The upcoming presidential election is critical. Beyond issues like the economy or foreign policy, the future of personal liberties, LGBTQ+ rights, and freedom of expression could be on the line.
“For the adult industry and the LGBTQ+ community, the stakes feel especially high, as a conservative victory could lead to increased restrictions that directly impact livelihoods and individual freedoms.”
It should be noted that Project 2025’s proposal to ban “pornography” is not limited to outlawing the performance of, or the distribution of videos depicting, actual on-camera sex acts — although the right-wing initiative’s foreword by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts does call for the imprisonment of producers and distributors alike, and the shutdown of any telecommunications or technology firms that make porn accessible to the public.
Under Project 2025’s broad definition of what constitutes “pornography,” law enforcement could interpret such a ban in a way that would outlaw depictions — both visual and written — of LGBTQ identity, particularly transgender identity; adult or young adult fiction books that deal with sex, sexuality, or that feature LGBTQ characters; visual depictions of gender-nonconformity, including drag; and even nonfiction books or pamphlets that teach about sexual health or wellness, including birth control and safe sex practices.
As a result, a host of different individuals — including artists, non-pornographic photographers, teachers, librarians, health workers, doctors, or public health advocates — could be prosecuted and jailed for simply sharing or distributing information about such topics.
Liz Plank, a co-founder of Hotties for Harris, told The Hill that she believes Democrats should be speaking more openly about Project 2025’s proposal to criminalize porn, especially when addressing younger male audiences.
“Democrats should be asking young men ‘Do you want the government to look at your search history?'” she said. “They should be asking ‘Do you want to be put in jail for consuming porn?'”
Echoing those concerns, adult performer Lil Buff Bro says that it’s important for the “Hands Off My Porn” campaign to be explicit about how far-reaching and potentially problematic Project 2025’s proposals would be — especially in terms of freedom of expression or individual privacy — if implemented.
“By outlining how these laws would criminalize individuals who store, view, or perform in pornography, it should raise concerns for anyone who uses porn as a regular method of stress relief,” he told Pride. “Masturbation is a normal and healthy activity that many people engage in, providing benefits such as better sleep, improved mood, and stress relief.”
Lil Buff Bro also warns that there are some viewers who may be skeptical that such a ban would actually impact them personally — and those are the people most in need of education about Trump and Project 2025.
“Some might think they can simply watch porn elsewhere or save it on their computer before the law takes effect,” he said. “However, the way this law is described — monitoring everything we watch — suggests it could lead to a more dystopian society, where engaging in private self-pleasure behind closed doors becomes a crime.”
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