CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 12 (UPI) -- An extremely popular pornography website has banned all North Carolina customers in protest of the state's controversial transgender restroom bill known as House Bill 2.
The site, XHamster.com, announced Monday it would blackout any customer with a North Carolina IP address. Customers in the state who try to enter the site are greeted with a message that says, "stop your homophobic insanity" and lists the number of hits "gay" and "shemale" material gets in North Carolina.
"We are appalled by the recent events that have transpired in North Carolina," XHamster.com spokesman Mike Kulich said in a statement. "As of today, access to XHamster.com is blacked out in the state of North Carolina until further notice. Judging by the stats of what you North Carolinians watch, we feel this punishment is a severe one. We will not standby and pump revenue into a system that promotes this type of garbage. We respect all sexualities and embrace them."
Web traffic analytic Alexa ranks the site in the top 100 in the world for traffic.
XHamster's move to deny content is a new approach to boycotts that have proven to be effective in reaction to certain legislation over the years. After House Bill 2, PayPal said it was scrapping its plan to open a global operation center in the state, and Bruce Springsteen canceled a concert.
