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Comment by mystraline | Hacker News Reader

> While I'd prefer that my porn history remain private

Thats a problem as well. Right now, you're 'safe'. But having that data available attached to you can also be dangerous to you in the future.

For example, the current wave of trans-hate can easily show you as a sympathizer. That can be criminalized quite easily, given 1/4 of the country hates trans people existing.

Being gay is right now not a crime in the USA, but it has been. And many regressive countries, predominantly Muslim, also have strong punishments for gay actions. Again, this material could easily be proof of a "deviant lifestyle" and legal punishments.

No, if I consume porn, I download from Piratebay, or hop on VPN and not login. And given I live in a state that Pornhub banned due to onerous age verification/identity tying, the whatif above could easily become true. Ive read Project2025 and saw those exact plans.

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> many regressive countries, predominantly Muslim, also have strong punishments for gay actions.

For accuracy it's worth stating this is only a recent occurrence.

Right now:

Nations with anti-LGBT laws: 50% Muslim, 44% Christian (2024)

  Half (33) of the world’s 66 countries that have anti-LGBT laws are nations where a majority of the citizens are Muslims.

  By comparison, 29 Christian-majority countries account for 44 percent of the countries that still have anti-LGBT laws on their books.

~ https://76crimes.com/2024/02/11/nations-with-anti-lgbt-laws-...

However this "predominantly Muslim" twist in the numbers is recent:

  In recent years, the number of Christian-majority nations with anti-homosexuality laws has shrunk, both through court rulings (Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda in 2022; Trinidad in 2018; Belize in 2016) and through legislative action (Cook Islands in 2023, Singapore in 2022, Angola and Botswana in 2019, Seychelles and Nauru in 2016, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Palau in 2014).

~ (quote from above source)

Uganda, with an 82% Christian population is famously severe in it's punishments for gay and queer sexual activity.

With the support and funding of US conservative Christians:

US religious right at center of anti-LGBTQ+ message pushed around the world

~ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/09/us-religious-r...

> Nations with anti-LGBT laws: 50% Muslim, 44% Christian (2024)

This statistic makes the exact opposite of the point you're trying to make, though.

Going through this table[0], and provided I didn't make any dumb mistakes with my JS, there's 122 Christian majority countries, but only 54 countries are Muslim majority. So 33 out 54 Muslim majority countries have anti-gay laws, compared to only 29 out of 122 Christian majority countries with such laws. (The more interesting comparison would perhaps be counting number of people rather than countries, though, and it still says nothing of the severity of said laws).

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religions_by_country#2020_Pew_...

> 1/4 of the country hates trans people existing

I'll need to dig up a reference but I've seen multiple sources cite that that 1/4 watches a disproportionately high amount of trans porn. The top most commenter is spot on about how much harm our prudishness is doing to us all.

> watches a disproportionately high amount of trans porn

That doesn't mean they don't hate trans people. Most porn shows women yet it's a hotbed of misogyny.

Yes, bigotry against a group and sexual fetishization of the same group (and, frequently, constructing a narrative in which such fetishization is deviant but the fault of the group targeted and not the fetishizers, wuch that the fetish further justified the bigotry) frequently go together. You see this with racism of all forms, you see it with transphobia, and most commonly but perhaps least frequently commented on as a manifestation of the same effect, you see it with misogyny. And that's very much mot an exhaustive list.

That can be criminalized quite easily

How exactly could trans sympathy be "criminalized"?

Laws against the "promotion of homosexuality" are how public support and education are suppressed, and could easily extend to transsexuality if that's not included already.

Have you ever heard of the US FBI and its head, Pam Bondi? Here's how she did it:

https://www.advocate.com/politics/pam-bondi-trans-equality-b...

Declare “trans” a terrorist organization.

You can't just declare an identity a terrorist organization.

I mean, that makes as much sense as declaring an idea like antifascism a terrorist organization, which is clearly impossible.

Years ago I got into/started a fight in a city.

After the fight, the brawl was blamed on the other participants, all of whom were wearing emo clothing. Black shirts, band logos, jeans.

The local police went as far as enacting a local anti gang ordnace, identified the emo wear as gang colours, and with 2 hours notice, advised that those colours were not allowed in the city for 48 hours. The security guard who helped break things up was chatting to me about it, laughing at it like it was a common consequence.

A local taxi company was cleaning up, as they accepted each emo kid, in groups of 1 - 4 and took them home to the suburbs. 20 taxis lined up, picking up kids.

Probably my first political WOW moment. I had never seen ~120 people pay for the consequences of the actions of a few.

True to their word, was 48 hours or more until I spotted them in the city again.

Governments can make any law they wish, cops tend to enforce any law they wish. Courts and appeals take time. There is nothing preventing that same city from declaring pride flags or trans icons as gang symbols.

This wasnt even in the US.

Same shit could happen anywhere, Trump could declare them terrorists identified by their symbols and tattoos, he could enforce inspections of their social media at airport checkpoints. Considering what was legal and enforced in the US in its history there's really nothing off the table going forward for persecuting anyone.

Or fentanyl a WMD.

What's great about Wikipedia... There's an article for EVERYTHING!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_for_homosex...

Not sure how passing a law that makes homosexuality punishable by death,

1: would be easy

2: would apply to sympathizers

3: would be possible

It's been done before

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