I’ve been sprinkling negative commentary on all of the major parties for the better part of the past few months with no end in sight, so I figured that I would offer one bright spot in coverage for the Republican Party which I have covered more critically post-Trump dinner with Nick Fuentes. Various Republican states have been pushing a series of laws that have actually been net positives and received negative attention or negative coverage despite being positive developments. I’ll offer two specific examples coming from Virginia and the other coming from many Republican states generally: codifying same-sex marriage and cracking down on adult websites.
Starting off with the codification of same-sex marriage in Virginia, this bill was admittedly started by state legislative Democrats but lacked the pressure to force Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) to sign the bill into law. Keep in mind, the state GOP still has such figures such as Bob Good whose anti-LGBT crusade includes wanting same-sex marriage removed nationally and removing HIV/AIDS funding from the entirety of the congressional budget, so there was backlash to be had from evangelicals if he passed the law. Nevertheless, he passed the law despite some who would’ve argued that his crackdown on the Loudoun County bathroom situation in 2021 might have been indicative of anti-gay sentiment. Anyone who has seen Youngkin’s governing style would know that to be a farce since he started the state’s first LGBT advisory board as a Republican no less, but codifying same sex marriage likely keeps the issue from becoming a problem for the party and keeps his possible 2028 ambitions alive with suburban moderates.
The elephant in the room however has been the age verification laws that have been crucial in preventing access to adult websites for minors in Republican states. Among other provisions, proof of identification is usually required which is then certified which then allows access to the websites, something that has raised the ire of libertarian-leaning privacy proponents. Another argument could be that taxing the use of those websites per transaction would be a more effective and accountable way to keep the correct users on the website and also allow for closer monitoring of who is actually using the website since there is a money trail that can be tracked to the card/account, but that is a policy debate for another day. The main point is that state legislators in Republican states appear to be taking the security of young people seriously where lax provisions by those websites have been noted many times before,
The other important component of the discussion is that the website Pornhub has reportedly shut down services in Texas in addition to many other states in response to the laws in protest of the laws complaining that the age verification laws are an ineffective way of keeping young people off of such sites. This comes after the adult website was forced to remove an entire back catalog of videos that featured either non-consensual or child abuse videos that immediately earned the website ire making the decision of the website to leave Republican states over the laws look worse rather than better. While there are privacy concerns over if the collection of age verification tools such as licenses will be mismanaged by government agencies owing to bureaucratic incompetence, one cannot blame the GOP state legislatures for acting on such legislation when websites like Pornhub are found with exploitation videos that cause such an uproar with concerned parents. Adult materials are not human rights in the same way that free speech is guaranteed as they are considered a product, and some products are age-restricted to ensure that the correct audiences are using them.
Overall, these two developments have been positive developments for the GOP on the policy front despite some of the more negative coverage coming from state legislatures that I have sometimes had to cover owing to my effort to be fair. With that in mind, I will keep everyone updated about future policy updates coming out of the states.
Sources: Pornhub Pulls Out of Texas as Age-Verification Law Leads Users to Seek Workarounds (yahoo.com)
Youngkin acts on 84 bills: Marriage equality signed, election data sharing vetoed (msn.com)
Donald Trump’s HIV-fighting program is under threat in the GOP House – POLITICO
LGBTQ+ Advisory Board (virginia.gov)
Pornhub removes a majority of its videos after investigation reveals child abuse | CNN Business
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