Elie Mystal Writes That Dems Should Become the Pro-Porn Party; Taylor Lorenz Cheers

Our own Aaron Walker did some lawsplaining last month as the Supreme Court came down with several decisions. Among them, the court upheld a Texas law requiring stronger age verification for access to pornographic websites. The very last person we want to hear talking about pornography is mad scientist Elie Mystal, but The Nation's justice correspondent is pleaded with the Democrats to become the pro-porn party.

I have an argument for the Democratic Party. It involves actually fighting for free speech, and exposing Republican hypocrisy on the issue. And the way to do that involves fighitng for porn.
My latest about the SCOTUS porn case in @thenation https://t.co/1OJ6svsFhG
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) July 2, 2025

Taylor Lorenz agrees wholeheartedly:

YES PLEASE!!!!!!! I’m screaming to the void about this. So grateful for your piece
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) Jul 2, 2025

Mystal writes:

I have many thoughts on how the Democratic Party might start to win back young men who have abandoned the party for fascism. None of them involve abandoning women’s rights, women’s leadership, or the LGBTQ community. But one of my suggestions is that the Democrats should embrace pornography and other examples of sexiness and smut under the umbrella of free speech.
Democrats must be the party of free speech and artistic expression. That is the liberal position. Republicans have hijacked the free speech issue, but the only free speech conservatives actually believe in is the “freedom” to shout racist and sexist crap online. That argument works on certain types of men—men who think using slurs makes them “edgy” and counterculture. Men who get uncomfortable when they don’t know the right thing to say. Men who don’t know how to talk to women.
…
Now, to be clear, pornography is viewed and enjoyed by all sorts of people, male and female, gay and straight, trans and cis. Indeed, one of the highest, best uses of porn (I can’t believe I just wrote that) is that it helps young people figure out what they’re actually into. Sex-positive porn enjoyers are not a political demographic the Democrats generally have a problem with.
Young, cishetero men who like jerking off to boobs the size of back problems are. They have been led to believe that Republicans are the protectors of free speech in this country. Some of those guys don’t care about free speech: They vote Republican because Republicans support their desire to treat real-life women like the sex objects of their fantasies. There’s nothing that can be done to save these people.

The Democrats already are the pro-porn party. As Mystal writes, "it helps young people figure out what they’re actually into." They have no problem with people marching naked in front of children in so-called Pride parades. They host drag queen brunches on Sunday morning and teach kids how to slip dollar bills into scant clothing.

This is another issue the Democrats are welcome to.

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