L.A. voters approve measure requiring condoms in porn

by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

A Los Angeles County initiative requiring porn performers to wear condoms while working has passed with almost 56% of the vote. The final count was announced just after noon on November 7.

Titled Measure B, the law was proposed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has tried for years to get the porn industry to implement basic health and safety measures voluntarily to protect its employees.

The initiative seeks to mandate condoms through a permitting process for porn production companies throughout most of the county. The cities of Pasadena, Long Beach, and Vernon, which have their own health departments, would be exempt.

'This is what democracy looks like - we took this to county government and they didn't act, so we took it directly to the voters, and they spoke conclusively,' AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein said.

The organization says California officials tell them privately that condoms are in fact required by state workplace safety regulations, but the state lacks the resources to enforce the rule.

The City of Los Angeles has a similar rule for on-location shoots that seek city permits, but has yet to figure out how to enforce it.

CONDOMS A TURN-OFF?
Porn producers, and an industry trade group called the Free Speech Coalition, argued that consumers don't want and won't buy condom porn, and that enforcement would push the multi-billion-dollar business underground and out of Los Angeles' 'Porn Valley.'

Diane Duke, chief executive for the Free Speech Coalition, told Los Angeles County supervisors in a letter on Wednesday that the law is unconstitutional and that the question of condoms falls under state jurisdiction, not local government.

'Therefore, we will file suit and challenge this intolerable law in court,' Duke said in the letter.

LEAVING L.A.?
She also said adult filmmakers have been approached to move elsewhere.

'In the upcoming weeks and months, we will provide a road map for adult production to move its over-a-billion-dollar industry and its accompanying 10,000 jobs to these welcoming communities,' she added.

Industry spokespeople claim that porn producers already have an STD testing protocol in place, but the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has cited a number of HIV cases dating back as far as 2004 and a recent syphilis case as evidence that the industry's monthly testing protocol for performers does not work.

The porn industry also claimed that Measure B would empower bigger government without the means for enforcement.

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