By Emma McGowan
It seems that J.P. Morgan Chase just can’t learn its lesson. Only a couple of months after denying female-run condom company Lovability access to their credit card payment services, Kitty Stryker at The Frisky reports the bank has made another move against the adult industry by sending out letters to porn stars informing them that their personal bank accounts will be shut down as of May 11.
This isn’t even the second time Chase has pulled a more-moral-than-thou stance when it comes to storing and processing money from legal adult industry companies. Fast Company reports that Cindy Gallop of MakeLoveNotPorn managed to sneak her way in and get an account, but was told to take her money elsewhere when a senior executive found out she was banking with them.
Cindy is one of the most outspoken entrepreneurs when it comes to the increasingly common refusal of banks and other financial institutions to work with anyone or anything related to sex.
“When you push something like porn into the shadows, underground, you make it a more dangerous place,” she told me. “When you are working in porn, and you have honest, legally earned money that you need to bank somewhere in order to keep a roof over your head, to feed your children, to support your family, and Chase does this to you? They are directly responsible for making the porn industry a worse and more evil place.”
Discrimination against businesses in the adult industry is not something rational adults will stand for in 2014. Let them know what you think of their hypocrisy and consider taking your money elsewhere.
Another entrepreneur who has struggled against the prejudice of the banking industry — and J.P. Morgan Chase in particular — is Colin Hodge of the hookup app DOWN.
“DOWN was turned down by Chase for a business credit card for our company name, which was Bang With Friends, Inc., at the time,” Hodge says. “Given their misguided history in this space, I’m not surprised to hear that they are now canceling accounts of sex-related customers.”
That “misguided history” is only going to continue if we let banks like Chase get away with determining who is worthy of their services and who isn’t. As of press time, Chase representatives haven’t responded to our request for comment on this issue.
In the meantime, we need to make it clear that discrimination against businesses in the adult industry is not something rational adults will stand for in 2014. Let them know what you think of their hypocrisy by tweeting to @jpmorgan and, if you’re a customer, consider taking your money elsewhere.
