(LifeSiteNews) — Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback on Thursday called the grassroots pornography and prostitution platform OnlyFans a “mortal sin for producer and consumer alike.”
Fishback, a self-described “Christ first, America first patriot,” responded last week to Mark Mitchell of Rasmussen Reports’ disclosure that “The only major U.S. Church body that has expressly referenced OnlyFans by name is the U.S. Catholic bishops (USCCB), who did so in order to condemn it.”
OnlyFans is a mortal sin, for producer and consumer alike. As Governor, I’ll institute a 50% sin tax on it, not out of contempt, but out of love for those trapped in its vicious cycle, those who sell themselves and those who buy. OnlyFans, specifically, and porn, generally,… https://t.co/nFyN90977R
— James Fishback (@j_fishback) April 30, 2026
“OnlyFans is a mortal sin, for producer and consumer alike. As Governor, I’ll institute a 50% sin tax on it, not out of contempt, but out of love for those trapped in its vicious cycle, those who sell themselves and those who buy,” Fishback wrote.
“OnlyFans, specifically, and porn, generally, destroys relationships, careers, and friendships on both sides of the screen,” he continued. “We can call out sin all we want. But if we do nothing to stop it, we don’t really mean it.”
Fishback first proposed an OnlyFans “sin tax” in January when he said that if elected governor he would use all of the revenue from a state OnlyFans Tax to “increase public school teacher pay and improve school lunches.”
“My message to the owners of OnlyFans is get the hell out of our state,” Fishback said at the time. “I hope you get bankrupt. Don’t you dare come to my state and try to exploit and abuse young women. My message to the men buying this content: stop! My message to the women who are being exploited — stop.”
The gubernatorial candidate triggered backlash from OnlyFans porn content creators in Florida, including one young woman who has made over $100 million from her self-produced porn.
As LifeSite contributor Jonathon Van Maren has pointed out, OnlyFans is massively popular. As of 2026, the platform has over 4.6 million “creators” globally (not all of them pornographic), and over 305 million “fan accounts,” amounting to approximately the population of the U.S.
The platform has an estimated annual revenue of over $6.6 billion. Industry watchers and journalists frequently refer to OnlyFans as “the future of porn.”
Fishback’s assertion that pornography is destructive to relationships is backed by mounting research.
A University of Central Florida study has found that people in committed relationships who view pornographic materials are more likely to cheat on their partners than those who don’t, even after controlling for initial cheating behavior before porn use.
Other research has found that porn users are more open to marital infidelity, the leading cause of divorce in the United States. Independent of these findings, porn use has been found to significantly increase the chances of divorce.
Especially disturbing, porn use has been linked to an increase in sex crimes by children, according to groups such as the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has also reported that pornography is inspiring a wave of sex crimes among minors. The charity shared in September that they had witnessed “a 30% increase in under-18s contacting them and a 26% rise in adults contacting them because they were concerned about the behavior of a young person.”
