eBays sex ban wipes out an important storefront for queer collectors

Carta Monir, an author, publisher, and pornographer, maintains an amateur archive of vintage queer erotica: zines, comics, porn mags, classified ads, and other ephemera. “I think it’s really valuable to preserve and read these artifacts,” she says, “like people speaking to you from the perspective of the way that their community was at the time.” One of her favorite marketplaces for finding these materials is eBay, where she can consistently find a variety of old erotica for fairly cheap.

But starting today, Monir’s access to these materials is significantly reduced. eBay announced last month that it would be removing the “Adult Only” category on June 15th. Under the new policy, sellers aren’t allowed to list “items containing nudity and...

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