By M.Christian
YNOT – According to an article on the Mother Jones site, we in the adult entertainment industry actually have something for which to thank conservative icon and Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich.
I’m serious. Come on, stop laughing. You finished? You sure? Just get it out of your system … I’ll wait. No, giggles do count. Done? Are you sure?
Okay, then.
According to Mother Jones writer Tim Murphy, “The Communications Decency Act of 1996 is not a subject that Newt Gingrich likes to talk about on the campaign trail. For the new GOP front-runner, the episode also marks a notable exception to his record as a social conservative: the time when Gingrich took on his own base to keep the web open for pornography.”
Thank you, Newt, for the financial bounty we have received; hypocrite be thy name.
You see, back in 1995 — when Gingrich was a virginal member of congress — there was much buzz about this new thing called the internet. Much of the buzz centered on rumors calling the World Wide Web nothing more than a steaming cauldron of smut.
Enter the Communications Decency Act, pushed by one Senator Jim Exon (D-Neb.). “Barbarian pornographers are at the gate, and they are using the internet to gain access to the youth of America,” Exon famously said.
Now you see…. All right, you told me you’d finished with the laughter. Jeez, what it is with you people? No, it’s OK. I’ll wait … again.
Done? You positive this time? I don’t want to stop again because you can’t stop giggling like schoolgirls.
So there’s the Communications Decency Act, and then there’s an amendment by Sen. Exon. All in all, the package was a nasty bit of legislation. As Murphy wrote about it, “To fend off the barbarians, Exon introduced an amendment to the Communications Decency Act criminalizing the transmission of ‘indecent’ materials over the internet. In case any stone remained unturned, it went after internet service providers as well: Email or distribute nude photos — or even just type one of the ‘seven words you can’t say on television’ — and you could face a $100,000 fine or up to two years in prison.”
Then, from out of the past came the thundering of hooves, a fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver….
Actually, the thundering came from Georgia … as did the Newt. Our hero saw — quite accurately — that Exon’s amendment was nearly psychotic. So he partnered up with a pair of cohorts to make the net safe for kinky dwarves in bondage.
But the Newt did more than that.
“[The amendment] is clearly a violation of free speech, and it’s a violation of the right of adults to communicate with each other,” Gingrich said at the time. “I don’t agree with it….”
In a subsequent interview with British journalist David Frost, Gingrich elaborated on his position: “I think there you have a perfect right on a non-censorship basis to intervene decisively against somebody who would prey upon children. And that I would support very intensely. It’s very different than trying to censor willing adults.”
Let’s hear it for the conservative icon, this right wing demigod! All hail Gingrich! Praise be the Newt!
And then he put his vote where his mouth was (wow — there’s an image). By working with Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) and Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Gingrich pretty much gutted the amendment. Even though the version that was passed by the Senate got clobbered by the Supreme Court, Gingrich’s “hands off the net” approach stuck.
“Gingrich’s support for a hands-off approach set a precedent,” Murphy noted in his Mother Jones piece. “Under [Gingrich’s] watch, the federal government opted against creating the equivalent of an FCC for the internet, helping it grow into what it is today. According to a report published last year by the IT security company Optenet, 37 percent of the internet consists of porn.”
If ever you should waver in your belief that Gingrich does not have your adult business owner back, just remember, too, that it was his political action committee, American Solutions for Winning the Future, that in 2009 named Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas “Entrepreneur of the Year.” The group even extended its collective sweaty palm and invited Vivas to attend a gala reception at the Capitol Hill Club. (Of course, the invitation later was rescinded and blamed on a vague “clerical error.”)
So, fellow porn-providers, remember the name of Newt Gingrich when it comes time to elect the next President of the United States. He is a man who stands firmly — even tumescently — for all that we, too, believe in.
M.Christian is a YNOT.com contributing editor and an author of literary erotica that blends the spectrum of sexual preferences and desires with horror and science fiction. Got weird sex news you want to share? Email him.
