RUSSIA: Court Bans Internet Porn

Via the International Business Times:

A Russian court has instructed Roskomnadzor, the country's state-controlled Internet watchdog, to block 136 websites hosting “pornographic material” under the terms of international conventions signed in 1910 and 1923. Vague language in the ruling, first reported by the newspaper Izvestia, means all Internet pornography could soon be illegal in Russia. The ruling comes after a district attorney in Tartarstan's Apastovksy district cited the regulations put in place in the early 20th Century in Czarist Russia and then the USSR, respectively. All of the websites on the list, including some of the most frequently visited in the world, must be blocked within the next three days, Global Voices Online reported. The court banned the illegal distribution of pornography, though it failed to precisely define what “legal distribution” of pornography is, meaning millions of other Russian pornography websites could soon be knocked offline as well.

The list of sites banned so far is here.

There's Leprechaun Porn?

Pornhub sends us the above ranking of St. Patrick's Day search terms. More proof that Rule #34 is true.

Anti-Porn Movement Site: NoFap

Christian news outlet LifeSite today points to the "atheist/agnostic site NoFap" as evidence that "the tide is turning against the porn industry." NoFap, as the name implies, is also an anti-masturbation site. From their main page:

NoFap® hosts challenges in which participants abstain from porn and masturbation. Seize control of your sexuality and turn it into superpowers. Recover from porn-induced sexual dysfunction. Stop objectifying and establish meaningful connections. Improve your interpersonal relationships. Live a more fulfilling life. You’re devoting yourself completely to your significant other instead of random pixilated girls on the internet who you've never met. It’s about enhancing your meaningful relationship, instead of establishing five-minute relationships with virtual girls online.

Apparently, NoFap members engage in one-on-one (ahem) challenges to see who can go the longest without masturbating. And there's a no-edging rule: "Edging is physical stimulation without orgasm. This is masturbation and counts, but it is your call whether it constitutes failure of the challenge. For the vast majority of our users, edging counts as a reset." How many times a day can one reset?

Viral Video Of The Day

Nearly one million views in two days.

(Tipped by JMG reader Daddy Ray)

Google Backs Down On Porn Ban

Via the Guardian:

Google has backtracked on plans to ban sexually explicit images from its blogging platform Blogger, in the face of widespread opposition from users. The company had initially announced a ban on “sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video”, with just a few exceptions for content which offered “a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts”. It planned to enforce the ban from 23 March, when any user with offending material still on their blog would be forced to turn it into a private site. Now, the company has backed down. Jessica Pelegio, a social product support manager at Google, wrote: “We’ve had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities. “So rather than implement this change, we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn.”

(Tipped by JMG reader Eddie)

Google Bans Porn From Blogger

Via CNN Money:

In an announcement that was sent out to bloggers who use the company's blogging website, Google said people will no longer be able to "publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity" on Blogger as of March 23. Google said those Blogger sites that continue to host pornography after March 23 will be made "private." That means the content will be allowed to remain up, but it will only be accessible to the site's owner and the people who the user directly shared the blog with.

Google noted that it isn't completely banning nudity from being shown publicly on Blogger. The site will allow nudity "if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts." But it also puts Google in the position of deciding what is art and what is pornography -- a decision that Instagram and other sites have struggled with. Blogger previously allowed adult content on its sites, but it required users to mark their blogs as "adult." Those Blogger sites came with an "adult content" warning that would appear before a visitor could enter the site.

Two years ago Yahoo made a similar move with Tumblr, but reinstated porn blogs after a social media backlash.

CALIFORNIA: AIDS Group Launches Ballot Measure On Condoms In Porn Mandate

Via press release from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation:

As part of its ongoing campaign to improve and strengthen state law on the use of condoms in adult films produced in California in an effort to reduce the spread of STDs, including HIV, safer sex advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) as well as from FAIR (For Adult Industry Responsibility), the formal campaign committee that will shepherd signature gathering for the ballot initiative process, today submitted the official text of a 2016 California statewide ballot initiative for (proposed) title and summary as a prelude to signature gathering. Plans for the proposed initiative—a statewide California law that will require condom use in all adult films shot anywhere in the state—were previously announced by the group in November. The measure will be formally known as “The California Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act.”

Los Angeles County already requires condom use in all porn productions after voters approved an AHF-backed bill in 2012. Since then local permit applications for porn shoots have declined by 90%.

PENNSYLVANIA: Porn Shop Loses Suit To Stop Harassment From Catholic Group

A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit from a Pennsylvania porn shop, which sought to stop a local Catholic group from protesting outside the store and harassing its customers. The suit is a rare win for Alliance Defending Freedom. Via their press release:

The corporation filed the lawsuit, Routes 202 and 309 Novelties and Gifts v. The King’s Men, with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under a hodgepodge of extraordinary claims, including racketeering, creating a private and public nuisance, and violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The King’s Men reply brief explained to the court that Adult World failed to show any evidence of its exaggerated claims. “The constitutionally protected freedom of people to express their views in public areas has been an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding,” added Senior Counsel Brett Harvey of ADF, which provided funding for defense of The King’s Men. “We are very pleased that this ministry can continue its work and advance its values without the threat of baseless litigation.”

The King's Men, which claims chapters in 14 states, have reportedly picketed the store hundreds of times since 2006 and say that their protests have forced the closure of seven Pennsylvania porn shops. Adult World claims that they sprinkled "holy water" on its grounds and buried "miracle medals" in its landscaping. King's Men is affiliated with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Top Porn Search Terms For 2014

Montreal-based PornHub has compiled their traffic stats for 2014 and created numerous infographics. They report over 78 billion videos views for 2014, which comes out to 11 videos for every person on the planet. The top search term for both the United States and the United Kingdom: lesbian. Hit the link for much more. Alexa ranks PornHub at #73 in its list of the 100 most-popular sites in the world.

CALIFORNIA: Health Officials Issue Alert After HIV Transmission During Porn Shoot

Via the Associated Press:

California public health officials have issued an alert after finding "very strong evidence" that an adult film actor became infected with HIV as a result of unprotected sex on an out-of-state film shoot. The Department of Public Health said Monday that the male actor tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS after engaging in unprotected sex with several other male actors during two separate film shoots. He had tested negative before the shoot. "During the second film shoot, he had symptoms of a viral infection," the alert states. "The actor went to a clinic and had another blood test that showed he had recently become infected with HIV." One actor from the second shoot has since tested positive for HIV. According to the health department, lab results indicate the first actor who tested positive "probably transmitted" HIV to the second.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, backers of a Los Angeles County law that mandates the use of condoms in all porn productions, reacts via press release:

“This is not AHF or supporters of condoms claiming that an HIV transmission occurred on the set of an adult film. This is California’s Department of Public Health and OSHA Occupational Health officials who vetted the performers’ blood samples with the CDC and concluded after genetic sequencing that this HIV infection occurred on set,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF). “For years adult film producers have claimed that performers who have tested HIV-positive while working in the industry did not contract HIV in the industry, but became infected through exposure in their personal lives outside and away from adult film sets. This new case puts truth to the lie that the industry has promoted year-after-year, years that sadly saw several additional performers infected while working in the porn industry.”

The number of permits for porn shoots in Los Angeles County have declined by 90% since the condom law went into effect in 2013. The AHF has vowed to place the issue to a statewide referendum after a bill to widen the Los Angeles County law failed to advance in the California legislature. The AHF has also published numerous ads in the national press denouncing the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive.

LOS ANGELES: Ninth Circuit Court Upholds Law Mandating Condoms In Porn

Via the Associated Press:

A Los Angeles County ordinance requiring actors in pornographic films to use condoms does not violate the porn industry's First Amendment rights of free expression, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The decision from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the industry's contention that having actors use condoms would interfere with a film's fantasy element by subjecting viewers to real-word concerns like pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. For the First Amendment argument to apply, the court ruled, there would have to be a great likelihood that a film's audience would understand that intended message. "Here, we agree with the district court that, whatever unique message plaintiffs might intend to convey by depicting condomless sex, it is unlikely that viewers of adult films will understand that message," said Judge Susan P. Graber, writing for the panel's majority.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation head Michael Weinstein called the ruling a "total vindication." The AHF was the bill's primary backer. A similar bill to implement the rule statewide died last year in a state Senate committee. Weinstein has vowed to place the issue to a public ballot if the bill is not resurrected.

BRITAIN: New Porn Law Protested With "Face-Sitting" Event Outside Parliament

Via Gawker:

A mass facesitting demonstration is taking place outside Parliament in London to protest new U.K. pornography regulations that will hold online porn to the same standards as DVDs: That means no spanking, no bondage, no watersports, no fisting, no squirting, and, of course, no facesitting. Protestors opposed to the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014, led by sex worker Charlotte Rose, staged the facesit-in to coincide with a parliamentary debate on what should be allowed in internet porn. Rose argues the new guidelines are sexist, because the list of banned acts seems to target female pleasure.

They were going to try for a world record of most people sitting on faces at the same time, but Guinness World Records has declined to document the attempt. The new law only applies to British porn sites, fetish videos from abroad will not be blocked. Photos of today's event are at the link.

BarbWire: All Porn Is Gay

"If a man has anal sex with a woman, he is committing a homosexual act on a woman, being that in homosexual acts the rectum is always the substitute for the vagina, so think about that next time you want to degrade your wife, even if she says she enjoys it, that doesn’t make the act less degrading or more right. Pornography, even man-woman porn is homosexual in nature, because it takes sex and degrades it to be about self pleasure for the viewer. Homosexuality is about an attraction towards 'sameness.' And since pornography directs pleasure towards self-arousal, and does so initially even when watched with a partner, it has the same narcissistic element to it. This is difficult to explain and hard for the average person to understand at first, but as you continue your walk towards being more Christ-like, it will begin to make sense. Avoiding pornography is a key element in helping overcoming same sex attraction." - Jason Salomone, writing for Matt Barber's BarbWire.

NYC Firefighter: I've Done Gay Porn

Yesterday the New York Daily News published a breathless "exclusive" report that a recently hired city firefighter has revealed his history in gay porn.

Jonathan Jesensky, 33, starred in at least 10 gay porn films before joining the ranks of New York’s Bravest as a rookie firefighter on Tuesday. Jesensky, who also served in the Marines, ditched his porn career, where he’s known by his X-rated alias, Jonathan West, before he was hired as an FDNY EMT in 2012. On Sunday, an FDNY official said Jesensky came clean about his adult film past before he was hired by the city — and there’s no plan to end his budding civil service career. “The legal department is aware of his work history,” said FDNY spokesman Jim Long. The city’s uniformed forces do not hire people with a serious criminal past for law-enforcement jobs. But the city's strict civil service law — which includes age and fitness requirements — does not bar candidates who have posed nude or starred in X-rated films.

According to the above-linked story, Jesensky claims to be straight and says his porn career was "just a job."

CALIFORNIA: Senate Shelves Bill To Mandate Condom Use In Porn Statewide

In November 2012, Los Angeles County voters approved a bill that mandates the use of condoms in all local porn productions. The bill's passage resulted in a 90% decline in porn production permit applications in the county. Yesterday the California state Senate killed a bill that would have expanded that mandate statewide.

The measure, set aside by the Senate Appropriations Committee today, would have required the filmmakers to produce documentation showing condoms were used if a complaint was filed with the state. The appropriations panel’s decision came the same day that the committee boosted a proposed tax credit for Hollywood studios to $400 million a year, four times the current level, to stem the flight of film and TV production to other states. “It is unfortunate that some legislators don’t believe that protection should include keeping California actors safe while they are at work,” said Assemblyman Isadore Hall, a Los Angeles Democrat and the bill’s sponsor. The U.S. adult film industry produces 4,000 to 11,000 films a year, employing as many as 1,500 workers in Los Angeles, according to a legislative analysis. The films generate $9 billion to $13 billion a year in gross revenue, according to the report.

The bill had the backing of the controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which also vigorously opposes the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive.

FRC Loves New Regnerus Study

New Regnerus Study: Gays Are Sluts

Discredited, debunked, and denounced researcher Mark Regnerus writes at Public Discourse:

Churchgoers who oppose same-sex marriage sense that they are out of step with the rest of the nation about sex and relationships. (The numbers above reinforce that.) And Christians who favor legalizing same-sex marriage often remain embattled with those who oppose it, and yet sense that their own views on sexuality still lag behind those gay and lesbian Christians from whom they’ve have become convinced of the legitimacy of same-sex marriage. That, too, is true. Gay and lesbian Christians, in turn, have much in common with gay and lesbian non-Christians—their social circles often overlap. The sexual norms of the former are not as permissive as those of the latter but are still well above the national average in permissiveness. The latter likely constitutes a reference group for gay and lesbian Christians (together with heterosexual Christians with whom they are in fellowship). Given the rather massive divide in attitudes about sexual and romantic relationships evidenced in the table above, reference group theory—if employed here—would suggest that the current division between these groups of churchgoing Christians will remain far into the future. Even if a share of American Christians who presently oppose same-sex marriage track in more liberal directions—and it would be shrewd to presume that this will occur—those Christians who already support same-sex marriage are themselves still tracking in that same direction. And, from the looks of it, they have plenty of territory to cover yet.

Hate group leader Brian Brown has already issued a money beg based on the above chart.

Activists trying to force a redefinition of marriage on America have constantly evaded the question, "what is marriage?" Meanwhile, they have insisted that gays and lesbians simply want access to the same sacred institution of marriage and that they don't intend to change anything about that institution. But the survey responses from gay men and lesbians themselves don't support these claims. The institution envisioned by those who want to redefine marriage isn't faithful... it isn't exclusive... it isn't permanent... put bluntly, it isn't marriage. We must stand up for the truth about marriage—now more than ever—before it is "redefined" out of existence! Won't you please consider making a financial investment in the National Organization for Marriage to help us defend marriage and the faith communities that sustain it?

The report documents that gays and lesbians have a very different view of the core values of marriage that we hold, and that have been at the heart of biblical marriage since the beginning. For example, over 80% of non-Christian gays and lesbians believe no strings attached sex is OK. Nearly 80% of them say viewing pornography is OK. Three-quarters say pre-marital cohabitation is a good idea. And an astonishing 37% say that marital infidelity is sometimes a good thing. This study should sound an alarm and serve as a wake-up call to those who want to remain silent in the face of the movement to redefine marriage, because that movement seems to correlate with a push to abandon traditional sexual morality altogether.

As we all know, the anti-gay hate industry has jumped from argument to argument in their opposition to same-sex marriage. Now that the latest claims that gays are terrible parents have been widely debunked, their next ploy appears to be proclaiming that gays are porn-crazy sluts.

LOS ANGELES: Porn Shoot Permits Drop 90% After Condom Use Mandate

In November 2012, Los Angeles County voters approved a bill that mandates the use of condoms in all porn video shoots. The Associated Press reports today that local applications for porn filming permits dropped by more than 90% last year. But that doesn't mean that condom-less filming isn't still taking place.

So where are those hundreds of films available for instant download on the Internet coming from? Many are still coming from right here, say industry officials, acknowledging that when Los Angeles County voters cracked down on filmmakers in November 2012 with an ordinance requiring that actors use condoms, quite a few filmmakers went underground. "A lot are simply shooting in out-of-the-way places where they won't be caught," says Mark Kernes, senior editor at Adult Video News, which tracks industry trends. "Normally it's in people's homes who are willing to rent them out for a day. Sometimes it's out in the woods. There are vacation cabins far away from anything that you can shoot a movie at."

Others have traveled outside of Los Angeles County, either to neighboring counties or sometimes even out of state. Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an industry advocacy group, said she knows of a handful that have moved to Las Vegas, although none want to be mentioned by name for fear of bringing condom activists after them. Although a few porn producers do require that actors use condoms, the majority do not, saying fans have made it clear they don't want to see them. Wherever the filmmakers are working now, only 20 have applied for permits so far this year, according to Film LA, which issues them. Last year 40 adult filmmakers took out permits, compared with 485 in 2012, the last year before the ordinance took effect.

RELATED: The Los Angeles County ordinance was spearheaded by the combative and controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Today the AHF issued a press release declaring that it has filed an OSHA complaint against a San Francisco-based porn company that is filming in Nevada.

“Under the guise of his various Kink and Kink.com, adult film businesses and brands, owner Peter Acworth, thinks he and his companies can simply ignore the Federal OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard with regard to required condom use in his adult film productions shot in Nevada. This new complaint in Nevada is based on the simple fact that they cannot hide from federal law there, or anywhere in the U.S.,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “When we first proposed the Los Angeles City bill, the industry said they’d film in other L.A. cities. When we proposed Measure B for L.A. County, the industry said they’d film in other counties. And when we proposed AB 1576, the industry said they’d film outside of California. Here, Mr. Acworth will no doubt find out that both Nevada and Federal OSHA statutes apply as well. Are workers in Nevada any less entitled to protection from harm than those in California?”

ALSO RELATED: This week the AHF sued the city of San Francisco for blocking its plans to open a pharmacy in the Castro. According to the AHF, local AIDS activists are behind the denial because they are furious with the AHF for opposing the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive.

"At the behest of San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, The City rammed through, at lightning speed, an interim zoning law specifically targeting AIDS Healthcare Foundation," claimed Laura Boudreau, chief of operations for AHF. "The clear and sole purpose of that action was to discourage the organization from relocating and opening a nonprofit safety-net clinic and pharmacy in the Castro." But City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey called the civil rights violation charge "absurd." "AHF is asking the court to find a constitutional right to build whatever it wants wherever it wants, and that's just not something courts have allowed," Dorsey said.

Boudreau claims the motivation for The City's actions came from the foundation's position on PrEP -- an HIV treatment drug which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others have advocated for as a preventative tool, but which the group opposes as a widespread HIV prevention tool, arguing its efficacy is debatable. While a local HIV activist said the AHF's position on HIV prevention is not popular among many in San Francisco, he and Wiener point out that the main issue with the group, which has 33 locations nationwide, is that it operates a chain. The city's formula retail rules define chain stores as any with 11 or more locations. "AHF tried to game our formula retail law by tweaking its name and then claiming it wasn't actually formula retail," Wiener said. "Under AHF's approach, any chain store could come into San Francisco, tweak its name, and claim that it isn't formula retail."

Russia Loves Buttsecks

Via the Moscow Times:

Anti-gay laws or not, Russians are statistically the most ardent consumers of anal sex pornography, according to a study by popular porn site PornHub.com. The survey is based on traffic for the Canada-based PornHub, which currently ranks 75th on the list of the world's most popular websites, according to the Alexa.com Internet analysis site. PornHub did not give any solid figures, saying only that "proportionally speaking, PornHub gets more requests for anal sex from Russia than any other country." Russia edged out the U.S., Canada, Britain and China on anal-related searches, according to the study, first published last week. PornHub also compared the U.S. with countries it had military conflicts with, and found that America also lost out in terms of anal-related queries to Afghanistan, Iraq and World War II foes Germany and Italy. But Japan, Vietnam and both Koreas were less keen on anal sex than the U.S., the study said.

The story notes that PornHub does not contain Russian-language content.

New Condom Idea: The Galactic Cap

Via the LA Weekly:

Condoms are a need, not a want. So why not make them as minimal as possible? Brands have tried with the ultra-thin this and the super-sensitive that. But, so far, your options are to place an obvious barrier between you and your lover ... or not. Condoms are a huge issue in adult video, which is fighting mandatory prophylactic rules because, the industry says, consumers don't want to see them. It turns out that an L.A. area inventor just might have a solution: Charles Powell's Galactic Cap is a prophylactic device that goes only on the very tip of the penis. It sounds like a challenge to the laws of physics, but Powell says it works. It's a two-piece product that uses a U-shaped base comprised of a polyurethane adhesive film and a cap that sticks to that film. The base can be put on hours or even days before sex, and it allows users to urinate or even shower.

The condom is yet to be approved by the FDA.

(Tipped by JMG reader Bill)