Larry Flynt

[[File:Larry_Flynt_2009.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Larry Flynt in 2009.]]{{media}}{{Sources needed}}
'''Larry Flynt''' {{lived|November 1, 1942|February 10, 2021}} grew up in the backwoods of [[Kentucky]], went into business in [[Ohio]] with a chain of strip bars, and parlayed the promotional newsletter for those strip bars into ''Hustler'' magazine, which prints some raunchy stuff some would characterize as [[pr0n]], such as depicting [[Santa Claus]] posed in a lewd and shameful manner.

The story probably would have ended there, were it not for some self-styled [[religious right]] crusaders trying to clean up Cincinnati of the [[moral panic|porn menace]], led by Charles Keating (later better known for his criminal banking scandal).  Trying to make an example out of ''Hustler'' they convinced the city of Cincinnati to press charges against Larry Flynt in 1976 for "pandering obscenity", and "organized crime". 

Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for saner folks, they fucked with the wrong guy and ''Hustler'' is still going strong today.

He was shot in 1978 by white supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin, leaving him permanently wheelchair-bound. The motive? An interracial photo shoot in ''Hustler''. Franklin committed several other murders and was [[death penalty|sentenced to death]], which Flynt opposed.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24579849 Larry Flynt: Don't execute man who shot me]</ref>

==At the movies==
The court case and the founding of the infamous magazine was dramatised in a very idealised, [[Hollywood values|Hollywood]]-like manner in the 1996 flick ''The People vs. Larry Flynt'', where he was touted as a defender of free speech.  As is usual with docudramas, the movie took a few liberties with the actual story (implying, for example, that he only had one wife, that ''Hustler'' was based in Cincinnati, and depicting a different attorney present at the Georgia assassination attempt than the one actually there; Althea Flynt was actually his fourth wife and the magazine was based in Columbus).

==Born again! Or not.==
Flynt went through a brief "[[born again]] [[Christian]]" experience himself, under the influence of [[Ruth Carter Stapleton]] (a [[faith healing]] evangelist and the sister of [[Jimmy Carter]]).  Because of his born-again experience Flynt was under pressure from evangelists like [[Pat Robertson]] during that time to shut down ''Hustler'', but Flynt thought he could reform the magazine with a positive portrayal of sexuality (showing married couples in photo spreads instead of single women, for example), and he dodged the issue of him continuing to run the magazine by temporarily turning the magazine over to Paul Krassner as publisher. As a result, several issues of ''Hustler'' in 1978 were an amusing and bizarre attempt at mixing pornography, Christianity, and under Krassner's watch, counterculture politics. Krassner started things off with the infamous "meat grinder issue" with a quote from Flynt, "We will no longer hang women up like pieces of meat."<ref>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Looking+Backward%3A+A+Critical+Appraisal+of+Communitarian+Thought.-a014695200 Looking Backward]</ref><ref>[http://www.oddee.com/item_97035.aspx 12 Most Controversial Magazine Covers]</ref> Joseph Paul Franklin, a [[white supremacist]] serial killer, upset over interracial photo spreads, attempted to assassinate Flynt in [[Georgia]] in 1978.  This left him paralyzed from the waist down, and he soon renounced Christianity and relocated from Columbus, Ohio to [[California]].

==Subsequent activities==
Flynt would become a thorn in the side of hypocritical politicians and religious right fanatics everywhere, [[pwn]]ing them with amusing regularity. During the attempted prosecution of automaker John DeLorean on [[cocaine]] charges, Flynt released a leaked video of [[FBI]] agents entrapping DeLorean, with the result that DeLorean was cleared of all charges, while Flynt went to prison for contempt of court. He then took [[Jerry Falwell]] all the way to the [[Supreme Court]] and won over a free speech case involving a satirical liquor advertisement/interview in which Falwell confessed to having lost his [[virginity]] to his mother in an outhouse.<ref>https://vinepair.com/articles/how-a-fake-campari-ad-led-to-one-of-americas-most-famous-supreme-court-cases/</ref> Falwell apparently thought that people would actually think that he had shagged his mother (or at least that's the excuse he used to get the case into court), despite the fact that the advert was clearly marked as a parody at the bottom of the page. Thankfully, the Supreme Court decided that the fake interview could not "reasonably be understood as describing actual facts about [Falwell] or actual events in which [he] participated",<ref>law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/falwell/sctfalwellvflynt.html</ref> and came down on the side of the [[First Amendment]].

During the attempted impeachment of [[William Jefferson Clinton]], Flynt offered a reward for evidence of hypocrisy by other politicians, especially [[Republican Party|Republicans]] who were involved in the Clinton impeachment fiasco. This bore fruit in 1998, when Flynt brought down the new Republican speaker of the House, [[Bob Livingston]], by exposing his [[adultery|extramarital affairs]]. 

The city of Cincinnati, however, never got the message, and attempted to prosecute Larry Flynt twice, in 1998 and 2003, both times for "pandering obscenity".

His daughter, Tonya Flynt-Vega, is a [[Christianity|Christian]] anti-pornography activist<ref>[http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1997-01-13/news/9701120386_1_larry-flynt-vega-jacksonville TONYA FLYNT-VEGA VS. LARRY FLYNT: DAUGHTER IS ANTI-PORN CRUSADER]</ref> and claims that Flynt abused her as a child.<ref>http://articles.philly.com/1996-05-25/entertainment/25625324_1_larry-flynt-tonya-flynt-vega-film</ref> His fourth wife, Althea (the one depicted in the film) was diagnosed with [[AIDS]] in 1983 and died in 1987 from drowning due to a [[drug]] overdose.

Flynt had also been suing people for copyright violations, which perhaps accounts for ''Hustler'''s inclusion as a target in "Operation Payback."<ref>[http://www.slyck.com/story2092_New_Flow_of_BitTorrent_Lawsuits_from_Hustler New Flow of BitTorrent Lawsuits from Hustler</ref><ref>{{wpa|Operation Payback}}</ref>

==External links==
*[http://www.larryflynt.com Official website]

==References==
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[[Category:Ohio]]
[[Category:Porn]]
[[Category:Publishers]]
[[Category:Purity culture]]

Categories: Ohio, Porn, Publishers, Purity culture