SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—Just about everyone in the right-wing/censorship world has crowed about Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in April signing the "porn is a public health crisis" resolution promulgated by state Sen. Todd Weiler—but others outside of Utah are less than thrilled by the move, not the least of whom is Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.
The day after the resolution was signed, Flynt declared that he would send copies of Hustler to each of Utah's 104 legislators, not to mention Gov. Herbert himself, to show them that porn was "no danger to the public, only to the repressed," according to The Daily Mail (U.K.), and now he's done it—garnering the predictable response.
"I'm not sure what it's designed to accomplish, other than it probably helps my efforts more than it hurts them," Weiler told The Salt-Lake Tribune. "I do think it will rile up some of my colleagues, and not in the way Larry Flynt is hoping."
Although it's rarely mentioned, Flynt also continues to send Hustler to each member of the U.S. Congress, the President and Vice President, and all members of the Supreme Court, in order to remind them, he's said, that the 1969 report by President Lyndon Johnson's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography—a report that was publicly denigrated by Johnson's successor Richard Nixon—found no evidence that explicit materials cause criminal behavior.
"This report has been gathering dust for over 40 years, and Utah is only dragging out this issue now to satisfy religious zealots," Flynt remarked.
Utah Rep. Kay Christofferson claims to have put the package in the trash unopened, saying, "I think it's a pretty ineffective method of convincing us that we made the wrong choice on our vote. If anything, it makes me realize how desperate they are in trying to protect their turf."
On the other hand, Rep. Jake Anderegg was upset that LFP's fulfillment company had sent the magazine, in its opaque envelope, to his home "where our families and kids can see it," though Evan Roosevelt, spokesman for the Flynt Management Group, responded that, "Our intention was not to send it to anybody's home, but rather to send it to their office.
"Utah, in our eyes and Larry's eyes, is only dragging this out to satisfy religious zealots in the state," Roosevelt added, "so we wanted to remind everyone that this is not a crisis, but a political opportunity for legislators."
In other Utah porn news, former Assistant U.S. Attorney and Salt Lake City resident Chris Sevier has filed a lawsuit challenging a state ordinance that allows internet service providers to charge extra for installing porn filters on users' internet feeds, on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds.
"It punishes people of faith that don't want to be exposed to this content by making them have to go out to have the filter have to be installed," Sevier said, arguing in his lawsuit that such filters should come pre-installed as suggested by the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case, Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union.
The somewhat disjointed suit papers, which can be read here, are a hoot, especially the part that accuses, in all caps, "PAT TRUMAN AND DAWN HAWKINS AT THE NCOSE ARE SEETHING FRAUDS WHO ENGAGE IN MISDIRECTION TO INCREASE DONATIONS BY FLOATING SHAME SOLUTIONS TO PORNOGRAPHY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING AT THE EXPENSE OF CONSTITUTIONAL ONES DUE TO AN EGOISM THAT MAKES THEIR ORGANIZATION A THREAT TO THE PUBLIC'S HEALTH."
What can we say but, "Good luck, Chris!"
