Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by David Volodzko
“In the spring of 1873, the U.S. postal inspector, a prudish Christian named Anthony Comstock, arrived in Washington carrying a box of dildos. There were also dirty books, naughty pictures, French playing cards, abortion pamphlets, ‘intermediate tegumentary coverings’ (condoms), and enough sexually explicit material to scandalize Congress into trying to legislate the Devil out of Americans. Comstock called the collection his ‘Chamber of Horrors’ and went around showing it to lawmakers like a traveling freak show. The performance worked. On March 3, President Ulysses S. Grant signed what became known as the Comstock Act, one of the most sweeping censorship laws in American history. … For the next four decades, Comstock stalked publishers, raided bookstores, and helped criminalize public discussion of sex in the United States.” (05/27/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/how-anthony-comstock-became-americas-most-powerful-censor