newsletter
Summer’s been heating up in more ways than one, and boy have things been busy. We’ve won, we’ve lost, we’ve laughed, and we’ve cried. We had some of the highest highs and lowest lows during this rollercoaster of a year, and we’re only half way through it! Changing the system is a game you play by the inch, not the mile. The challenges can be frustrating, but it’s all par for the course. You have to stay in it all the way to win.
And one thing’s certain—while we don’t always succeed in a straight line, our advocacy is working.
Thanks to advocacy and awareness, we don’t have to wait around for Congress’s vote for changes to happen at the administrative level. Reputational risk has long been used as a way to exclude marginalized members of society. Thankfully, some regulators are listening to sense. The Federal Reserve is the latest regulator after the FDIC and OCC to announce changes that help level the playing field for all, no matter their background.
In Congress, the GENUIS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) Act was passed into law, and the FIRM Act, which forbids reputational risk as a reason for financial discrimination, is riding on the wings of bipartisan support, and we’re hopeful that it might make it into law in the upcoming months.
Knowledge is power, because it can change a vote and politicians care a lot about public sentiment, so we depend on readers like you to succeed. With SpankU, you can stay up to date with the latest news and can become a part of our crypto revolution.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to follow us on X.
Sadly, it’s hard to win them all. While we were attending the FSC’s 30-year celebration of board chair Jeffrey Douglas, the Supreme Court’s ruling on FREE SPEECH COALITION, INC., ET AL. v. PAXTON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS came in. In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court voted to keep the age verification laws in place that the FSC was hoping to overturn. Needless to say, this is not good news. In their ruling, the Justices who voted in favor of these age verification laws neglected to mention how they fail to properly protect user privacy.
As for the three who opposed the ruling, you can jump to page 41 to see some very well-argued points, including one from Justice Kagan, who states: “...adults and children do not live in hermetically sealed boxes. In preventing children from gaining access to ‘obscene for children’ speech, States sometimes take measures impeding adults from viewing it too—even though, for adults, it is a constitutionally protected expression.”
What’s more, there are major privacy issues for this ineffective yet restrictive law, and the proof is already in the pudding. When everything from Experian to the government is routinely hacked, forcing companies to keep private user data can be devastating, just ask anyone who used Ashley Madison in 2015.
Thankfully, the news came at a time when advocates were together to commiserate and plan for the next phase of the fight. There will be appeals and challenges, and we’ll be there to make sure attention is where it matters most.
We had the honor and pleasure of hostling adult legend Nina Hartley for a photoshoot and interview. Hartley, who has become only more iconic with every passing year, came to Los Angeles for the FSC’s 30-year celebration and was kind enough to sit down with us and give an amazing interview to help support our next zine, which features art content from the adult community and helps raise money to support the FSC.
It’s not too late to get a copy of our current Zine, the print is a limited run and is selling out fast.
Who’s that baddie with the million-dollar smile? It’s Leilani Li, our June SpankMate, of course. The award-winning trans creator is an inspiration in every measure and will have more than your aspirations rising—if you catch our drift. See what all the well-warranted fuss is about in our exclusive, pink-themed photoshoot with this absolutely stunning babe.
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