‘Any exposure is good exposure’: At porn expo, a Trump-size spotlight on two industry stars (Washington Post)

Read the full article by Frances Stead Sellers at washingtonpost.com

“Any exposure is good exposure,” said Bree Mills, an entrepreneur who launched her own all-female studio, Girlsway, several years ago. Mills said she welcomed mainstream attention to an industry that she says is evolving to produce work that is “no longer something men in trench coats feel they have to hide from their wives.”

A year ago, many in the industry were bracing for a crackdown from the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had promised to “vigorously” uphold adult obscenity laws and said he would consider reviving a special unit to prosecute such cases.

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“This industry is more than a business — it’s a family, a community,” said Eric Paul Leue, who heads pornography’s trade organization, the Free Speech Coalition. Allan Gelbard, a First Amendment expert, warned that the administration might take action against porn to boost support of Trump’s evangelical base.

“You need to assume the obscenity laws will be enforced somewhere, sometime,” said Clyde DeWitt, a longtime legal adviser to the industry.