Statement by Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of NCOSE
Washington, DC – The Dallas City Council voted Wednesday afternoon to ban Exxxotica, a pornography expo, from returning to the city-owned downtown convention center. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation applauds the Dallas City Council, and Mayor Rawlings, for an enlightened decision against a sexually exploitive industry.
“Exxxotica, and the porn industry at large, will not be happy with the Dallas City Council the same way the East India Company was not happy with anti-slavery advocates,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “Despite threats of lawsuits, Mayor Rawlings and the Dallas City Council recognized that sometimes doing the right thing means having to confront unjust industries. The Exxxotica event would have promoted hard-core pornography and torture sex, despite the fact that it is sexually exploitive and linked to increases in sexual violence, sexual dependencies, and decreases in brain matter. It was a responsible and wise decision to ban this event from the convention center.”
“This is not the only case of government officials raising awareness about the harms of pornography,” Hawkins continued. “We also see Utah state legislators calling for pornography to be labeled a public health crisis. The neurological, psychological, and sociological harms of pornography documented in research are finally being addressed at a governmental level.”
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