Michigan’s “Anticorruption of Public Morals Act” 

October 1, 2025

Michigan Republican State Rep. Josh Schriver has proposed the “Anticorruption of Public Morals Act” (Bill 4938): a censorship bill that is as draconian as it is absurd. Bill 4938 would prohibit the distribution of all online porn, with limited scientific, medical, and academic exceptions. But Bill 4938 is not only an online porn ban; it also features a provision to ban depictions and discussions of trans people, sexual or not. Distributing content banned by Bill 4938 would constitute a felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000.

The language in this bill is exceedingly broad: it covers any “sex acts” – which are defined to include everything from intercourse to BDSM to “moaning, or sensual voice content” – as well as “any other pornographic material,” i.e., content designed to sexually arouse or gratify. Movies and TV shows with sex scenes, certain video games, and literature with sexual themes would all be banned.

Additionally, Bill 4938, bans any content that “includes a disconnection between biology and gender by an individual of 1 biological sex imitating, depicting, or representing himself or herself to be of the other biological sex by means of a combination of attire, cosmetology, or prosthetics, or as having a reproductive nature contrary to the individual’s biological sex.” In so doing, it seeks to erase the very existence of trans and gender-nonconforming people from the internet. In the words of Elizabeth Nolan Brown, by “writing or posting pictures of themselves, a trans person could face felony charges.”

We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation are horrified at the “Anticorruption of Public Morals Act” – a decidedly immoral, unconscionable attack on our fundamental human rights to sexual freedom and freedom of speech.