Pornography consumption has become pathologized by a class of so-called experts fighting "porn addiction," who rely on faulty evidence or who conflate the legal adult entertainment industry with being supposedly tied to human trafficking. And Utah is at the center of a so-called "industry" built around such beliefs.

Last year, City Weekly published a two-article series on the constitutionality of Utah's age-verification bounty law, SB287, which was successfully championed in general session by Rep. Susan Pulsipher, R-South Jordan, and Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross.

SB287 prompted opposition, which led adult industry firms to slug it out with The Beehive State in federal district court and the Tenth Circuit in Denver.

While the Utah case was ultimately killed on technical grounds, similar age-verification legislation adopted in Texas is now the subject of another adult entertainment industry lawsuit challenging its constitutionality and whether age-gating laws targeting adult content websites violate the First Amendment.

The case involving Texas was accepted for review by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court, with civil liberties advocates across the political spectrum urging the nine justices to uphold the First Amendment rights of legal online porn users.

There are many forces behind the uptick in anti-porn laws in the U.S., and some of the more influential are based here in Utah. And many of these forces—which present themselves as "anti-porn" or "anti-trafficking" groups—are linked directly or indirectly to each other. Utah-based charities Fight the New Drug and the Malouf Foundation both at varying degrees have hands to play in the enterprise laid out above.

To begin, City Weekly inquiries yielded evidence of apparent connections to Tim Ballard, former CEO and founder of Operation Underground Railroad (OUR)—now called OUR Rescue—and the so-called "rescue operations" on which Angel Studios' motion picture Sound of Freedom is based. Ballard is implicated in many civil and criminal cases, including allegations of being a sexual abuser with ties to the rich and powerful of conservative Utah.

Ballard founded OUR to counter sex trafficking by engaging in vigilante-style, extrajudicial incursions into foreign countries—primarily in Latin America—to "save people." Now, he is being sued in federal district court by some of his victims, who allege that Ballard and his associates, Matt Cooper and Michael Porenta, actually engaged in human trafficking themselves.

Natasha Helfer is an AASECT-certified sex therapist based in Salt Lake City. She is also the founder of the Mormon Mental Health Association, a secular association of mental health professionals who specialize in treating Mormon clients. She was excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2021.

"With issues as severe as sex trafficking, these types of organizations—even if well-meaning—can perpetuate stereotypes, myths, and lies that end up hurting victims more than helping them," Helfer said.

Fight the New Drug (FTND) and the Malouf Foundation have previously coordinated with or appeared at events and anti-porn functions alongside Ballard and OUR. And both participated in anti-trafficking efforts tied to the office of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.

It was through connections like these AG efforts that suggested much deeper ties to individuals such as Clay Olsen, co-founder of Fight the New Drug, and Sam Malouf, a co-founder of the Malouf Foundation. Both organizations recently reorganized into a new combined charity group—with the Elizabeth Smart Foundation—called the Phase Alliance.

FTND presented itself as an evidence-based, non-denominational and secular anti-porn group. That's a hard sell. Olsen, Ballard and AG Reyes jointly participated on panels and gave talks at the World Congress of Families IX gathering, which took place in October 2015 in Salt Lake City. Ballard and Olsen appeared at a panel seminar entitled "Pornography and Sex Trafficking." Both Olsen and Ballard also appeared alongside Reyes in a panel for this event titled "Sexual Exploitation." During that panel, Dawn Hawkins of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) served as moderator.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) classifies the organizer of World Congress of Families events—the Rockford, Illinois-based International Organization for the Family (IOF)—as a far-right hate group.

"Tim Ballard has spoken at some of the same third-party events as our co-founder Clay Olsen," confirmed Schae Richards, communications and marketing manager for the Phase Alliance, in an email to City Weekly. "Attorney General Sean Reyes was a board member of Fight the New Drug before his time in office. He has not filled that role for over 10 years."

The Ballard Connection
Olsen openly shared the stage with individuals such as Reyes (a former FTND board member), Tim Ballard (a friend of Reyes' who reportedly brought the attorney general along on OUR "rescue operations") and Dawn Hawkins (an anti-porn advocate with ties to other hate groups identified by SPLC). He did so at an event hosted by an alleged hate group caught advocating for anti-LGBTQ+ laws in countries such as the Russian Federation.

Richards denied that Fight the New Drug had formally worked with OUR, but did not specifically address the organization's direct involvement with anti-trafficking advocacy organized by Reyes in his official capacity as Utah's attorney general.

A cursory search of the Utah Attorney General's Office website yields various press releases and blog posts touting Reyes' successes in fighting human trafficking and supporting anti-pornography measures. The blog posts feature accolades for several local organizations and law enforcement agencies active in campaigning against trafficking—namely all of the groups in the Phase Alliance (e.g., FTND and the Malouf Foundation) and OUR.

Through an open records request, City Weekly asked for documentation outlining how groups such as OUR, FTND, and the Malouf Foundation had collaborated with Reyes on anti-trafficking and anti-pornography efforts. The Utah Attorney General's Office initially delayed cooperating with the request before subsequently denying it in early November, claiming that no such records exist.

These groups "are often founded by people who lack a background in robust ethics, which leads to the horrific types of exploitation we've seen in cases like Tim Ballard and OUR," said Helfer.

Ballard's connections to the Malouf Foundation are much deeper. Richards, of the Phase Alliance, confirmed that Sam and Kacie Malouf, through their namesake foundation, directly supported OUR. They supported after-care programs for people "rescued" by Ballard.

Richards said that OUR and the Maloufs haven't collaborated officially since 2018.

"As our work evolved at the Malouf Foundation, we [have] shifted our focus to confront sexual exploitation through education, healing and advocacy—moving away from the rescue initiatives of OUR," Richards explained.

News reports dating back years laud the Maloufs—and Sam Malouf specifically—for his work to counter human trafficking by collaborating with Ballard and OUR. A report by the Cache Valley Daily published in October 2017 features Sam Malouf explaining the extent of the relationship he had with Ballard and OUR. Malouf said his companies, which manufacture home goods and bedding, were "shipping mattresses and different bedding products to some of their [OUR] after-care centers and safe houses they work [within] different parts of the world."

He then went on to explain how they expanded the relationship at the time and actively participated in fundraising efforts for OUR by hosting events and, through the Malouf Foundation, provided bedding to the after-care settings operated by Ballard's charity.

Additionally, the reporter for the Daily explained how Sam Malouf loaned out "facilities and expertise" to OUR, referring to a "well-staffed imagery team that consists of photographers, videographers and production people" and noting that Malouf creatives produced "documentary components, training videos, [and] documenting legislature and governmental interactions in Peru."

The actual Malouf Companies, by Sam Malouf's admission, supported OUR by providing shipping fulfillment for people who purchased products like t-shirts and stickers. Press releases and news reports by furniture and home goods outlets also tout these groups' deep affiliation and integration. A report in February 2018 by Business of Home recollected the Malouf Foundation raising money alongside Tim Ballard and actress Kathy Ireland in Las Vegas.

Despite the Phase Alliance's claims, a simple fact remains—the alliance's sub-groups operate as one larger, interconnected organization to achieve its goals. Based on such an assessment, as a single organization, the non-profit Phase Alliance, in previous iterations of the charity, worked with Tim Ballard. It aided, per Richards' comments to City Weekly, the "rescue initiatives of OUR."

Those "rescue initiatives" have been characterized as unethical, traumatizing for survivors and possibly illegal.

Profit and Sensationalism
Tara Burns, a sex workers' rights advocate and author of a book called Sex Work Policy, described how groups like those in the Phase Alliance approach anti-trafficking advocacy.

Burns said FTND, the Malouf Foundation and others mentioned in this report are "Christian nationalist groups" who are "obsessed with taking away our livelihood and making felons out of us."

Burns said these groups misrepresent trafficking statistics and pair those numbers with cherry-picked stories to implicate sex workers and trafficking survivors as traffickers.

"[We] see them doing just like the government and using sensationalist ... stories of trafficking to raise money, and then using extremely broad definitions of 'sex trafficking' to include all sex work," she said.

Nicole Gililland told City Weekly something similar. Gililland was formerly a porn performer and sex worker who made national news when she sued her community college in Oregon for discriminating against her by forcing her out of a competitive nursing program due to her work history. She won.

Gililland now works as a sex workers' rights activist and criticized Ballard for what she sees as a pattern of targeting children from impoverished backgrounds for financial gain.

"I'm from Utah," she said. "You would have to be naive enough to not follow the money or still support such a questionable man after anti-trafficking experts have spoken on the matter."

In a similar vein, FTND—via the Phase Alliance banner—regularly circulates pseudoscientific claims about pornography addiction. A further indication of ideological alignment and FTND's reliance on quackery can be found in its platforming of the NoFap movement and individuals like the late Gary Wilson.

At the time of this report, men around the world are embarking to refrain from viewing porn or masturbating in recognition of "No Nut November." No Nut November started as an internet meme but took on a new life. A man named Alexander Rhodes founded NoFap LLC—a private company based in Pittsburgh, Penn.—to serve as a "self-help" group for people who struggle with pornography addiction.

The term "NoFap" was popularized on Reddit through the r/NoFap subreddit. On this forum, redditors—predominantly men aged from early teens to well into adult years—support other members by touting a concept called "rebooting," which was popularized by Gary Wilson.

Before his death and long after it, Wilson's mark on the world was that he founded Your Brain on Porn (.com) and wrote a book of the same name. Wilson proposed that pornography is as addictive as illicit drugs and could go on to alter a human's brain chemistry. He also said that men can develop erectile dysfunction from watching too much porn, which is false.

"Rebooting" is a practice to refrain from watching porn, masturbating and orgasming. A so-called self-treatment for "porn addiction," Wilson's theory is regarded as pseudoscience by mainstream medicine and psychology.

But FTND has posted several articles about Rhodes, Wilson and "rebooting," despite claiming to be doing its work based on "evidence." Both men are regarded as highly litigious, often threatening legal action against academic sex researchers and journalists who scrutinize their claims.

It is Rhodes, in particular, who has been much more visible in courtrooms and by threatening news publications that even hint at NoFap LLC, the company he founded, as a platform for extremist misogyny common among far-right ideologies, including some religious groups allied to Christian nationalism. Rhodes is even locked in a years-long legal battle against his mother, Althea Azeff, a lawyer by training and former journalist, per federal court documents.

"[NoFap] is already linked to misogyny in that the entire concept hinges on the idea that men are the ideal and need to retain an essential masculinity through retaining their semen," Eleanor Janega told City Weekly in an email. Janega is a London-based medievalist who studies the intersections of gender and sexuality and previously criticized the concepts behind "rebooting."

Janega added: "This is further complicated by the fact that the majority of people who complain of 'porn addiction' usually come from hyper-religious backgrounds. These individuals, because of the intense guilt they feel about their sexuality, are likely to announce that they suffer from 'porn addiction' even if they only very infrequently view pornography and masturbate."

Extreme Misogyny
NoFap LLC maintains that it disavows extremist ideologies, including antisemitism. But growing bodies of academic research and journalistic investigations have linked sentiments found in the broader "rebooting" and "NoFap" movements to those perpetuated by far-right extremists like the Proud Boys.

No Nut November in 2018 saw the circulation of antisemitic conspiracies claiming that the world's porn companies are controlled by a cabal of Jewish elites who want the death of the white race. NoFap disavowed the hatred, but that lingering specter remains.

Kristoff Kerl, a historian who has studied far-right extremism and antisemitism, added context.

"With the rise of internet pornography the concept of porn addiction increasingly gained ground in anti-porn narratives," Kerl said. "In antisemitic anti-porn discourses, pornography is now fantasized to be a weapon of psychological warfare used by Jews to keep white men docile and prevent them from fighting against the alleged social dominance of Jews."

This logic espoused by antisemites in anti-porn discourse is observed as not consistent with NoFap branding, despite its still problematic messaging about porn addiction.

"The official NoFap brand puts a considerable amount of effort into distancing itself from partisan initiatives and from association with the right, with Christianity, or with anti-feminist sentiments," explained Scott Burnett, assistant professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University. "The mainstream version, in my view, presents problematic constructions of masculinity—of femininity too, but I think masculinity is the real issue."

Considering the degree of hyper-religiosity and masculinity in Utah, linking movements like NoFap to FTND while arguing that watching porn is tantamount to sex trafficking is analogous.

Helfer added that "none of the organizations you are investigating have taken the time to adequately educate themselves, nor have they involved experts in the field of accredited sex therapy."

Porn isn't illegal, either. When regulated like it is in the United States, the adult entertainment industry, in general, hardly meets the standard of a shadowy cabal of criminal trafficking rings.

The adult content that users can view on platforms like Pornhub—provided those people have VPNs if logging on from devices in Utah—is legal to view, and is protected by the First Amendment. Unfortunately, the damage is done when people and organizations like the ones discussed in this report actively conflate legal activity with illegal activity.

The adult entertainment industry has seen unethical behavior and criminal actors among its ranks (name an industry that hasn't). But the reality is that the overwhelming majority of individuals and companies that make a living in the adult entertainment industry do so willingly, safely and legally. That isn't human trafficking; that is running a business or having a job.

Pair the anti-trafficking rhetoric with anti-pornography advocacy, experts warn, and the result is a unified front of organizations that—directly and indirectly—are comfortable limiting consensual sexual expression and exploiting survivors.

Ricci Joy Levy, the chief executive officer and president of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, said that while the intentions of many anti-trafficking groups are commendable, it can be harmful to conflate legal pornography with illegal activities.

"It risks misdirecting resources and attention away from genuine trafficking cases and can undermine the rights and safety of consensual sex workers," Levy said. "Additionally, the use of deliberately inflammatory rhetoric about pornography can exacerbate these issues by creating moral panic rather than fostering informed dialogue."

Michael Dean McGrady, Jr. is an investigative legal journalist and essayist focusing on the adult entertainment industry. He writes from Missouri.