Stripe is a privately held company, still run by its founders Patrick (CEO) and John Collison. While I can't find anything about the two brothers that speaks to their personal stances on sexuality and gender (I have seen a third-hand anecdote about one of them saying they want to outlaw porn, but I haven't been able to verify that) they have received large investments from noted anti-LGBTQ+ asswipes Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. And in March, the FTC found Stripe had illegally de-banked law-abiding citizens over their poltiical and religious views. That this change is being 'forced' on Kickstarter --particularly that it's happening now -- seems very much like a vindictive approach to anyone who they don't like.
"Erotic" has no meaning. "Spicy" has no meaning. Censoring your work has no meaning. Because at the end of the day, they just don't... they don't want us to exist. Like, that's the bottom line. The most effective way to erase queer creators and sex positive people off the internet is to remove all of the ways for us to actually make a living. Just to deplatform us. De-bank us. That's the best way -- the most effecient way -- to get rid of us.This is part of a broad cultural war to exterminate every group of people the 1% don't like. I don't doubt that if they could figure out a way to ban people of color without actually saying "people of color," they absolutely would. Hell, even this 'adult' content ban seems more focused against women than men with considerably more phrasing in refrence to female genetlia than male. They want the world to be only populated with cis-gender, hetero white people, full stop. They don't want to even consider gay people exist. They don't want to even consider Black people exist. They don't want anyone whose very existence challenges their exceptionally narrow world-view to exist.
And the problem is that, because Stripe holds the keys to the money, Kickstarter has only two options at the moment. Either comply with their demands to eliminate 'adult' content, or shut down entirely until they can find and set up a new payment processor. OnlyFans did eventually find a new payment processor, but they had to keep a 'non-adult' ban in effect until they did. I suppose at this point, that's the absolute best anyone can expect out of Kickstarter. But that would only last until/unless that new payment processor decides they don't like 'adult' content either.
So what can you do?
Well, if you're a creator, you'll likely have to find an 'adult'-friendly payment processor. I'm told the Free Speech Coalition is in the process of setting up a credit union explicitly for this purpose. Although it ostensibly won't be ready until 2027, they have some preliminary information and a form to sign up for updates in the meantime. For creators specifically in the US, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is asking people share their debanking experiences via public comments on bank licensing filings (PDF). For readers and people who just generally want to support creators, I'd recommend reaching out to Kickstarter and telling them exactly what you think of this. Their Contact Us form is here.
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