At Adult Entertainment Expo, lawyers warn of potential porn crackdown under Trump

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States may usher in an era that strips the hardcore porn industry of its economic livelihood.

That was the tone of the message delivered Thursday to workers in the adult entertainment community by a legal panel at the industry’s annual four-day trade show at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.

Porn workers enjoyed a relative honeymoon under former President Barack Obama, who shut down a Justice Department unit tasked with investigating obscenity. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick to become the next U.S. attorney general, said last week during congressional hearings that he would vigorously prosecute obscenity laws and may revive the task force.

“Tomorrow, things are going to change,” Clyde DeWitt, a Las Vegas-based attorney representing individuals in the adult entertainment industry, warned the audience at the 2017 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo the day before Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.

While some panelists said they didn’t believe that Trump — who gave interviews to Playboy Magazine and owned the Miss Universe Organization for two decades — harbored any ill will toward the porn industry, they fear the people around him do. The Republican Party’s 2016 national platform included an amendment labeling internet porn a public health problem.

“If Trump wants to cruise through four years and leave policy matters to others, the people who are in place to step up are not friends of this industry and are the ones that could bring about the most dire predictions you have heard today,’’ said Reed Lee, a Chicago-based lawyer for J.D. Obenberger and Associates.

The hard-core porn industry could see further setbacks if any members of the U.S. Supreme Court pass away during Trump’s tenure in Washington, several panelists warned. Trump is already seeking a replacement for former Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last year.

“If we lose (Ruth Bader) Ginsburg or one of the other justices and Trump gets to approve two more right-wing conservatives, the Supreme Court will shift entirely to the right,’’ J. Michael Murray, a Cleveland-based lawyer, told the crowd. “And that could be felt in areas of law like the right to freedom of speech when it comes to sexually explicit material.’’

The festive atmosphere at the expo spoke little of the fear heard during the panel conference. Hundreds of popular porn industry movie stars and ‘cam girls’ dressed in skin-tight outfits, lingerie or bikinis posed for photographs and chatted with loyal fans inside the Hard Rock’s noisy convention room.

A cam girl star who goes by her online name of Goldie Fawn said she was unaware of her industry’s fears over the new administration. Like other cam girls at the expo, Goldie felt she wouldn’t be affected by possible new obscenity laws, as she doesn’t show acts of intercourse during her live shows.

But movie stars at the expo did express concern that the Trump administration could follow the example of the United Kingdom in outlawing the filming — but not viewing — of some sexual acts, such as whipping and caning.

“I would say the majority of models are concerned, as we just don’t know what is going to happen,” said an independent Las Vegas-based actress who goes by the stage name Lux Lives. “My job may be in jeopardy.”

The expo attracts over 30,000 fans who come from afar to see their favorite movie stars or cam stars, as well as several thousand business people looking to pick up the latest sex gadgets for their retail stores.

Cam girls, many of whom shoot live from laptops in their bedrooms, are now as popular as porn actresses, said Tim Williams, a spokesman for AVN Media Network, the trade show’s organizer. The over 800 cam girls at the expo outnumbered the movie stars.

“The cam girl thing has really taken off the last few years,” Williams said.

AVN, which hosts an award ceremony on Saturday night to close the expo, added a category for best cam girl in 2014 amid requests from attendees.

Cam girls can earn anywhere from $10,000 a year to half a million, said Eric Wexel, a managing partner at freewebcams.com, one of the largest cam sites. The most successful are those who have mastered social media, not those with the best looks, he said.

AvalynnRose, one of the top cam stars on myfreecams.com, said she was able to buy a home in the Midwest at the age of 23 after just two years of work online. She financed her home with a mortgage and 20 percent down.

And just as cams have changed the porn industry and the expo, the next technology change to upend the market has arrived: virtual reality.

“That is where everything is going,” said AVN’s Williams. “People want to be brought closer to their favorite porn stars, to their fantasies.”

Contact Todd Prince at 702-383-0386 or tprince@reviewjournal.com. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.