The mayor of the Australian city of Toowoomba has added his support to a growing movement behind a campaign to discourage the consumption of pornography in the city limits, claiming that porn “kills true love.”
Toowoomba, in southern Queensland, is striving to become “a city free from porn,” with a local church group City Women leading the charge.
At a public rally held by mayor Paul Antonio earlier this week, 300 people, the majority of whom were male, took the vow led by the mayor, repeating after him: “I won’t view porn and I will help create a city free from porn.”
Speaking to the Huffington Post, Letitia Shelton, the chief executive of City Women Toowoomba, said that watching pornography was linked to violence against women.
“A city free from porn sounds very ambitious and unlikely,” she said. “But look at the anti-smoking campaign, there has been a huge reduction in smoking. You’ll never stop it, but you can show people the impacts it has on your life.
“We’ve been working with the mayor and other city leaders throughout this year, looking at the link between porn and domestic violence. Domestic violence is a huge thing in our nation, you have to look at what is driving that.”
Shelton asserts that one of the major issues is how women are portrayed in pornographic images, claiming that “88% of porn displays violence against women, such as choking or gagging.”
Toowoomba’s mayor spoke at the pledge rally, asking the town’s citizens to “acknowledge that viewing pornography promotes exploitation of women and violence against women and damages families.”
