North Carolina has been in the news recently with the passage of House Bill 2 (HB2), the “Charlotte bathroom bill” (or more officially, the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act), which has, among other things, overturned local ordinances and protections for LGBT citizens in North Carolina and further banned any local legislatures inside the state from enacting such protections again.
In response to what is seen as discriminatory legislation, many businesses have committed to limiting their business in the state. Paypal announced it has cancelled plans to expand into North Carolina, and other businesses have pledged to limit investment in states with similar legislation. On Friday, Bruce Springsteen announced he would be cancelling an upcoming show in North Carolina because of the new law, with Bryan Adams following up by cancelling an upcoming show scheduled to take place in Mississippi.
Today, XHamster added to the fray by announcing via Twitter that they would be blacking out ISP addresses from North Carolina. XHamster.com has been inaccessible from North Carolina since 12:30 p.m. EST today.
EXCLUSIVE! XHamster Is Blacking Out Access For North Carolina Because Of Anti-LGBT Law!https://t.co/8BacrYvfSt pic.twitter.com/hbUhgQBmzW
— xHamster (@xhamstercom) April 11, 2016
According to Perez Hilton’s “exclusive” on the story:
“We are appalled by the recent events that have transpired in North Carolina. We have spent the last 50 years fighting for equality for everyone and these laws are discriminatory which XHamster.com does not tolerate. As of today, access to XHamster.com is blacked out in the state of North Carolina until further notice. 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.”
Mike Kulich, a spokesperson for XHamster, told the Huffington Post:
“Back in March, we had 400,000 hits for the term ‘Transsexual’ from North Carolina alone,” he said. “People from that state searched ‘Gay’ 319,907 times,” he added.
Kulich said the website plans to replace the black screen currently seen by North Carolina porn buffs with a petition demanding the repeal of the law.
“Hopefully, it will get as many signatures as the ‘transsexual’ searches,” he said.
Then Kulich added:
“I think that porn has the power to do what Bruce Springsteen can’t,” he said.
