2020 Provided Some Rough Reminders for Adult Industry

By any measure, 2020 was a hell of a year. A global pandemic, exacerbated by widespread political and social turmoil, kept us all on our toes, to say the least.

Along the way, those of us in the adult entertainment industry were reminded of many truths about the world around us. Much of it was neither pleasant nor encouraging to recall, but there were glimpses of positivity mixed in with our anxiety, frustration and despair. Below is a small sampling of these reminders, a list that is far from comprehensive, because a truly comprehensive list of 2020’s awful lessons and unsolicited reminders would take me until the middle of 2021 to compose.

Many people still strongly disapprove of adult entertainment and would like to see those of us who create it placed behind bars. An early reminder of this fact came in the form of a letter sent to Attorney General William Barr by a handful of U.S. Representatives in December, 2019. In the letter, the senders (which included Mark Meadows, now President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff) urged Barr to “declare the prosecution of obscene pornography a criminal justice priority.”

Of course, no obscenity prosecutions ever manifested in 2020, despite this lobbying and despite Trump’s 2016 campaign pledge to “uphold the rule of law” with respect to obscenity. A far more consequential reminder of the distaste many people have for adult entertainment (or perhaps more accurately, their distaste for what they imagine the adult industry to be, a hotbed of “human trafficking”) was the recent column by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.

Whether you attribute what followed the publication of Kristof’s piece entirely to his column, or see it as part of a broader campaign that has finally born fruit for the likes of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, this latest chapter of the “War on Porn” (or, if you prefer, “War on Sex Work”) clearly demonstrates that governments aren’t the only – or even necessarily the primary – threat to the adult industry.

The world can be a cruel and heartless place. Here, I’m tempted to simply write “See: COVID-19” and leave it at that.

Nothing else I’ve seen in 50+ years of living has compared to the comprehensively hideous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Massive numbers of deaths, untold numbers of people who will face health complications for years to come stemming from serious-but-not-fatal cases of COVID-19, economic devastation resulting from the “lockdowns” imposed to slow the virus’ spread, the politicization of public health and medicine… the list is endless. Everywhere you look, the impacts of COVID-19 have spread significantly further than the virus itself.

When measured against over 1.5 million deaths worldwide, some of what the pandemic has imposed on the adult industry, specifically, might seem trivial by comparison. But every cancelled event, every postponed shoot, every missed utility payment, every moment of private despair, is incredibly significant to the individuals involved – and it all adds up. The world is hurting deeply right now, and the adult entertainment industry is far from immune to the pain.

The adult industry can respond to cruelty and heartlessness with kindness and generosity. For all the criticism of the adult industry (some of it well deserved) as a place rife with exploitation, greed and monomaniacal self-interest, the adult industry has a way of showing its heart when the chips are down that makes it easy to take pride in being part of his weird, wonderful space.

In addition to reminding us that the world can be a cruel and heartless place, 2020 and COVID-19 also served to remind us that the adult industry can be a force for good in the world, a source of meaningful generosity and impactful activism.

From donating PPE to hospitals, to serving as de facto therapists to cam customers, to seeking ways to help each other make ends meet while content production was on hold, the adult industry has more than done its part to combat the despair associated with the pandemic.

Politicians will always treat us poorly, but the court will occasionally surprise the adult industry by exhibiting fairness. While the adult industry remains a reliable scapegoat for elected officials and media pundits to kick around, every so often the court proves willing to treat us fairly. When the terms of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program were published, the adult industry was alarmed to find that the rules appeared to prohibit the SBA from loaning money to adult entertainment businesses.

As you can see in the article linked above, adult industry attorneys were immediately skeptical that the SBA’s prohibition on lending to adult entertainment businesses would survive court scrutiny. As it turned out, their skepticism was well placed, as federal courts in Wisconsin and Michigan held that if Congress wanted to exclude adult businesses from the Paycheck Protection Program, Congress would have said so explicitly in the legislation that created the PPP, not relied on a questionable reading of an existing provision in the SBA’s lending rules.

A great many people misunderstand and/or misrepresent Section 230, which remains in real peril of being gutted or repealed. If it seems like I write about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act a lot, or that I’m worried about it being undermined by Congress, it’s because I do and I am.

The reason I’m concerned about this is that the “need” to repeal or replace Section 230 is one of the few things on which Democrats and Republicans in the federal government agree. To be clear, they want to gut this important, internet-enabling statute for different reasons, but they do appear united in their desire to significantly amend it or do away with it entirely.

Congress churns out a lot of bad ideas, every year. As I write this, the adult industry is up in arms (with good reason) over a new proposal floating around in the Senate – the “Stop Internet Sexual Exploitation Act” (“SISEA”).

By now, you’ve probably read plenty of tweets, articles and blog posts about SISEA and the ruinous effects it would have if it were signed into law and survived court scrutiny. The good news is, that “and” in there is a significant caveat, because as written, this bill has about as much chance surviving court scrutiny as I do of winning the next Ironman Triathlon after spending the last 30 years preparing for it by sitting on the couch and eating way too much cheese.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so dismissive about SISEA and its prospects to become enforceable law. After all, while I have some legal education and a decent working knowledge of the history of First Amendment jurisprudence, I’m no lawyer and I’ve never argued a case in front of any court, let alone a federal one. What I have done, though, is track countless bills as they make their way through the process of becoming law – a process which most of them never complete.

Many terrible ideas percolate up from our elected officials, every year. An alarming percentage of those terrible ideas actually makes it as far as a subcommittee vote, where a great many of them die a quiet death, accompanied by nary a chest-thumping press release or self-congratulatory tweet. Hopefully, as 2021 unfolds, SISEA will become just another reminder that Congress considers and tosses out a lot more bad ideas than it actually foists upon us.

ALL YEARS END, EVENTUALLY. Given the nature of 2020, this will likely be the most welcome reminder on this list.

2020 photo by cottonbro from Pexels