Regardless of who's house it is or what the fine print in the contract says, this is not the same thing as people appearing on a talk show or radio show, or even commenting online on someone else's article.
Patreon's entire set-up and business model revolves around the idea of freeing artists from the restrictive control of doing their work as employees of a larger company that would tell them what to do and what not to do. The whole point is for individuals to work independently and be compensated directly by their fans, so that they can do the art they want to do and express themselves freely. That's Patreon's whole sales pitch.
Allowing themselves to be kowtowed by faux-moralist credit card companies and then pass that oppression on to their clients flies in the face of the entire concept, and it's shitty of them to choose to give in to these demands rather than find another way to process payments. There's a bunch of options out there these days, and clearly other people like SubscribeStar have found a way to avoid it. So, even if Patreon "has the right" to do it, it's still fucking bullshit.
There's another thing also, and this might get a little uncomfortable or too real for some, but it is what it is. They (the larger "they") are not just doing this to prevent abuse. That has actually been statistically proven to be backwards, so if anything they are contributing to abuse. They've made it obvious in many ways that they don't actually care about protecting children (which is technically a separate issue from incest anyway, but they always conflate them). It's part of the grander plan to force Americans to live according the laws of a specific subset of a specific religion. Case in point, I myself am a Christian, but I don't believe god gives any more of a rat's ass about incest than he does shellfish, pork, or mixed fabrics.
They're doing it because they are aware that there are actually a lot of consenting adults engaging in incestuous relationships that are simply forced to keep it a secret. These are people that are trying their best to get changes made to laws (which is supposed to be a key part of America's structure of government) to allow them to live their lives how they choose without getting themselves arrested in the process. This is a battle that has been going on behind the scenes for a while now, and it has only recently started making it into some rare headlines here and there, but it's the next thing coming in America's culture of warring for rights. This is going to become a bigger issue within the next few decades at the latest, I'm sure of it.
They're not hurting anybody. They're not infringing upon anyone else's rights. The only reason incest is illegal in the first place is because there are people trying to take away our freedom of religion by default, by forcing their beliefs on the public through abuse of power. The credit card companies are either among those or trying to "look clean" to those people, because they think that's the best plan for their bottom line. I'm not even sure they're right about that at this point. On the rare articles I see about it, the majority of the comments are essentially, "who gives a shit, let them do what they want." Patreon is going along with it because they don't feel like putting up a fight.
As a result of it all, artists are suffering imposition on their expression, adults are having their rights oppressed, and children are more likely to be abused. All in the name of power, control, and money. So, yeah, whether Patreon is within the rights of their contract to do it, it's still bullshit.
P.S.:
Just for the record, I've never had a daughter or a sister, and I wouldn't touch my mother with a ten meter cattle-prod (we DON'T get along anymore). I just don't like hypocrisy and fascism.
