Sunset throught a gate

Project 2025 (Part 2)

Last time we left off with some of the basic information outlining what Project 2025 is and how it will affect you and the porn you love. Just to recap, it’s to be made completely illegal, content creators would be imprisoned, internet service providers who allow it should be closed, and teachers who say anything about gay folks or non-binary gender identities will be fired and have to register as sex offenders. Plenty of us love handcuffs, but we’re just trying to entertain you and make you cum a few times if we’re doing it right. We want to steal your heart, but we’re definitely not criminals. That’s what would come down on us as sex workers specifically, but the language in the manifesto also makes it clear that we’re only the beta test marginalized group to be deemed unacceptable. Peppered into new laws in heavily conservative-leaning states that will be used as a precedent for national laws are descriptions of what should be considered pornography and, therefore, criminal. Any descriptions of non-heterosexual relationships? That’s porn. Stating that transgendered people exist? That’s also porn. It boils down to the legal erasure and criminalization of the entire LGBTQ community.

Here’s an example of a proposed law that would be used as the framework to get federal laws passed based on precedent, Oklahoma Senate Bill 1967, pages 2 and 3. 

Obscene material” means and includes any representation, performance, depiction or description of sexual conduct, whether in any form or on any medium, including still photographs, undeveloped photographs, motion pictures, undeveloped film, videotape, optical, magnetic or solid-state storage, CD or DVD, or a purely photographic product or a reproduction of such product in any book, pamphlet, magazine, or other publication or electronic or photo-optical format, if said items contain the following elements:

a. depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct which are patently offensive as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards,

b. taken as a whole, have as the dominant theme an appeal to prurient interest in sex as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards, and

c. a reasonable person would find the material or performance taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific purposes or value.

The wording in laws like these is purposefully vague and up for interpretation. But it’s not going to be public debate when it’s time to say what counts as literature and what becomes obscene. Rules are going to be dictated by conservative Christian beliefs, and the people who would be alienated and persecuted will have no say in the matter.

This all sounds like some nightmare parody of The Handmaid’s Tale, but if you put it all into context, you can see that it’s all very real and very close to actually happening. Culture wars all over the country are leading to mountains of books being banned in school libraries for having LGBTQ characters and teachers losing their jobs for having a pride flag in their classroom. Combine that with the new age verification laws popping up in conservative states; you have to upload your ID to a database to view something that the same people creating the laws want to see criminalized. It shouldn’t be too hard to imagine that after they come for the sex workers and the trans folks, burn all of the offensive books, and shut down your favorite sites; there will be people asking some scary questions to everyone whose information is stored there.

It sucks that people are always coming at us, and individually we can’t do much about it. But by staying informed and doing our best to educate others, we can use our platforms to push things in the right direction. You don’t have to get political to show people how these things will affect them directly. Just encourage them to see for themselves and decide what matters to them when it’s time to cast their ballots.

You can register to vote at https://vote.gov

See the whole Project 2025 manuscript on their site https://Project2025.org

Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.

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