“The homophobia that gay porn bred within me shaped my understanding of what it meant to be gay,” says Aaron Crowley in his new op-ed.
Crowley, a survivor of the pornography industry and a powerful activist and author, writes about his experience discovering his sexual orientation and how his exposure to pornography corrupted his view of his identity as a gay man.
“When I was nine, pornography became my sex education. Like many gay youths, I watched gay porn because I was curious about my sexual orientation,” he writes.
Despite the belief that LGBT+ youth should be able to view pornography as a way to navigate their sexuality, Crowley argues this idea is extremely harmful because pornography “portrays LGBT+ sex as aggressive, violent, and degrading.”
Crowley says the pornography he viewed warped his view of gay sex and, heartbreakingly, when he was raped several times, he accepted that this was normal because the culture of gay pornography had taught him this was so.
Having been groomed by pornography for years, Crowley agreed when a pornography “talent scout” approached him and solicited him to become a performer in the industry.
After submitting to the fallacy that rape was normal for a gay man, he recalls thinking,“If it’s going to happen to me anyway, I might as well get paid for it.”
Crowley was forced to perform degrading, humiliating, and violent acts on-camera. “I explained on camera that it was ‘fun’ and ‘empowering.’ Then I would go home and attempt suicide,” he said.
Read Aaron Crowley’s Op-ed Here
Crowley is just one of many individuals whose childhood was contaminated by pornography, leaving him vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation. This is why it is vital for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and provide measures that will protect children as the Internet continues to prey on them.
Contact your legislators using the quick action below, asking them to urgently pass KOSA before the legislative session ends!
