BY: SINEAD MULHERN
Apparently the Bible Belt is America’s biggest consumer of gay porn.
This news comes after Pornhub (one of the largest porn sites in the world) released numbers on U.S. viewing habits for each of the states. Their report showed that the states with the highest percentages of gay porn viewers lie in the country’s south. Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia lead the country. Mississippi is actually America’s biggest gay porn consumer— their percentage of gay porn viewers sits at 5.6 percent.
To put that into perspective, Montana has the lowest percentage at 2.6. Those in the Bible Belt even beat out the states where gay marriage is legal. Of those states, the top three leaders in consuming gay porn were Hawaii, New York and California.
For anyone questioning Pornhub’s credibility, consider that the porn site has 35 million daily users.
The shock factor of these statistics is obvious. The conservative Christian (and dare we say intolerant?) values that are predominant in these states seems to clash drastically with the desire to watch gay porn. When considering these numbers, it’s easy to want to make a connection between the two.
A billboard near the centre of Alabama, a state where 4.97% of Pornhub searches are for gay porn.
Keep in mind though that Pornhub did not collect information of users’ political or religious views. So while it may be easy to assume that conservative Bible thumpers are watching gay porn in their spare time, (and likely, many of them are) keep in mind that there are still many people in the south who have queer, homosexual or bisexual orientations.
Because expression of these orientations is snuffed out by the anti-gay culture of these states, likely what is happening is that anyone who identifies as anything other than straight is confined to experiencing their sexuality only with the help of what they put on the computer screen. To be out and proud is just not that feasible of an option because a) how do you find a partner in an area where gay culture is as oppressed as it is and b) how do you walk the streets with that partner when the chances of ridicule and public shaming are intolerably high? To be an LGBTQ member of society in these parts of the U.S. often means staying silent.
What Pornhub’s numbers are showing could potentially be hypocrisy in the Bible Belt. Likely though, it’s pointing to a much larger social issue.
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