Opinion: Gay porn star temporarily banned from Facebook for all the wrong reasons

So this week, I came across a story in the news this week about Jesse Jackman, a gay porn-star, who was temporarily banned from Facebook for posting a picture of himself kissing his husband, which was deleted immediately Tuesday.

This grabbed my attention because I didn’t even know you could get kicked off of Facebook. Granted he was suspended for 12 hours, there was nothing wrong with what he posted. I’ve seen the photo and aside from two burly men making out, I don’t see what was strange about it.

According to Jackman’s Twitter post, his picture got 2,612 likes, 124 shares, 241 comments and one death threat, until subsequently being taken down. Following the event, he complained about the incident on twitter, which has attracted even more hurtful comments, messages and more death threats. Although he also got more support and started a #facebookkissoff campaign against Facebook.

This outrage, I’m sure, has had more coverage than a regular gay couple because Jackman has sex with men for a living. Something I’ve touched base on before, I will now expand a bit more, is that sex workers, such as pornstars, strippers or erotic models, are productive member of societies as much as we are. They buy groceries, they pay their taxes and they stand in line at the DMV and yes, have meaningful, romantic relationships with their spouses.

But of course, these people sending him hate-mail and hurtful comments attacked him beyond his career but more on his sexual preference. Being a gay pornstar shouldn’t stop you from enjoying social media, no matter what you do. Jackman was acting within the terms and agreements of Facebook and was doing nothing wrong.

Sometimes I feel like the homosexual community is going through more or less the interracial community was during the post-slavery, pre-civil rights era of American history. Sometimes, I feel that gays can’t show their love without it being oversexualized like it shouldn’t be allowed to be in public like a black man whistling at a white woman. Jackman has been told to kill himself and to stop breathing “our heterosexual air” as told by one of the messages he received. Homophobics not only fight to deny them rights of marriage but the right of societal integration with the rest of society. A similar notion popular about blacks and that they should all go back to Africa and leave America so it can be the all-white utopia it never was.

Facebook has apologized for the “mistake” and said lifted the block. But Facebook has been notorious for these “errors” for censoring gay public displays of affection, as a Huffington Post article mentioned multiple instances of gay censorship. One example was of a drawing of a gay couple, fully clothed kissing, which never violated the site’s statements of rights and responsibilities.

I don’t know how or who Facebook’s moderators decide whether or not these pictures are offensive. But there should be a clearer consensus on what is against the site’s rules and regulations instead of just the moderators’ personal beliefs.