Boycotting Taco Bell for Pornstar Fired from Drive Thru
When I heard Taco Bell in Newport, Arkansas fired Lonna Wells for doing porn, I was naturally offended. Really? I thought. With everything going on in the world: a festering pandemic that’s killed 425,000 Americans, a decimated economy, massive unemployment, exploding racial and political tensions —‌ a fast food employee who films adult content is what we’re concerned about?
Actually it’s the other way around. Wells has been doing Internet porn since 2017, with two Adult Video News (AVN) award nominations to her credit. She took the Taco Bell job because of a lull in shooting due to the pandemic, as a way to “put food on the table” until things returned to normal.
According the The Daily Beast, a complaint from a “God-fearing Christian” led to a phone call from Lonna’s manager, who informed her, thirty minutes before her shift, that she no longer had a job.
When I hear about God-fearing Christians I get suspicious. Hate and bigotry can masquerade under the guise of religion, especially fundamentalist religion. Some of these so-called Christians support autocratic politicians who incite violence and attempt to overturn Democratic elections. Evangelist preacher Franklin Graham recently compared Donald Trump’s second impeachment to the betrayal of Jesus. If there’s a preacher worthy of a swift kick in the plums it’s him.
Speaking of Trump, he has his own sordid connection to the porn world: his 2006 affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. Making sweet love to the lovely Stormy is the one thing I envy about the bloated bastard. She’s been in my personal rotation for years, ever since I saw her in HBO’s Documentary Pornucopia: Going Down in the Valley.
Trump’s tryst caused a scandal. During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Trump’s then lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Stormy $130,000 in hush money to keep her from disclosing the incident. That landed Cohen a three-year prison sentence for campaign finance violations. Cohen’s since become my hero with his candid and brutal criticism of Trump.
Back to Taco Bell. So they think it’s bad for business to have an adult film actress who’s featured on Pornhub working the drive-thru at one of their restaurants? Have they stopped to consider the flip side? If I lived in Arkansas I would have eaten chalupas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at that Taco Bell. And I bet I’m not the only one. I used to be in love with a bleach-blonde, spiked haired, lesbian bartender who worked at Ruby Tuesdays. I was there three times a week, drinking martinis and making feeble conversation in a doomed attempt to woo her.
In this era of growing social progressivism and LGBTQ rights, why are we still discriminating against sex workers? We should be discriminating against racist cops, financial criminals on Wall Street, and wannabe fascist politicians. I can’t remember the last time a porn actress executed an innocent person in the street, or bilked a granny out of her life savings, or incited a bloody revolt against the US government. Pornstar Aubrey Gold, recently charged with being a principle to the murder of a Florida man, found buried in a shallow grave, is a rare exception.
My editor suggested a Taco Bell boycott. I think it’s a good idea. I used to gorge myself on Taco Bell’s beefy nacho grillers and Mexican pizzas when I weighed 265 pounds. A Mexican pizza packs a whopping 540 calories, a griller, 400. I’d rather stay home and get a workout watching Lonna’s videos. She might be the Jane Fonda of porn. The average masturbation session burns 70 calories. Stretch it out with tantric wanking, and you’ll up that to 200. At my current viewing rate, I’ll be down to 98 pounds by spring.
We need to move past the moral issue with sex work, because in my opinion, there isn’t any. Adult performers deserve the same respect we afford professionals in other fields. The Adult Performance Artists Guild (APAG), a union representing the adult industry, is fighting to end occupational discrimination against sex workers. I support their efforts. You should too.
