LA to require condoms at porn shoots
The Los Angeles City Council voted yesterday to introduce a rule that condoms must be worn during pornographic video shoots in the city.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest AIDS organisation in the world, had been fighting a battle in Los Angeles for the new regulation.
Rather than put the issue to a ballot, city council leaders voted 9-1 in favour of banning gay and straight ‘bareback’ video shoots in its environs.
Councilman Paul Koretz told the New York Times: “The issue itself is so common sense and intuitive, why put the city through the costs and ordeal when the outcome is really preordained?”
“This is a no-brainer of an issue. It’s not going to cost us very much to enforce — we won’t spend any more money enforcing this than we do any other law. And in this case, if you don’t follow the law, it will be on film.”
Michael Weinstein, the President of AHF, which provides services to more than 150,000 people worldwide, described it as “a great day for the performers and safer sex in our society”.
In a statement he said: “This is the first legislative body to take up the issue, and the near-unanimous support is very gratifying. When push comes to shove, people know this was the right thing to do.”
The only dissenting vote, by Mitchell Englander, was apparently cast for economic rather than ideological reasons.
In October 2010, 24-year-old porn actor Derrick Burts contracted HIV after working on gay and straight adult film sets. He has since called for condoms to be made compulsory across the industry.
According to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Los Angeles public health statistics say that workers in the adult film industry are ten times more likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease than the general public.
Up to 25 cases of HIV are said to have been found in adult film actors since 2004.
The organisation was formed in Los Angeles in 1987 as the AIDS Hospice Foundation, with the mission to “fight for the living, and care for the dying”.
Though viewed as a public health issue by many, others consider the rule an imposition.
Diane Duke, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Coalition, a trade group for the pornography business, said: “Clearly this is about the government overreaching and intruding into consenting adults’ decisions.
“Our standards and protocols are extremely effective and are working. They are taking something they know nothing about and imposing their morality on our industry.”
Weinstein said: “They cannot just pick up their stakes and move to another state. They’d hardly be welcomed in West Virginia or Utah or Mississippi, or even a place like Nevada, where legal prostitution is highly regulated and condoms are required. And we will follow them wherever they go.”
The AIDS Health Foundation is reportedly considering a similar move in the city of San Francisco, though attempts to convince state legislators to come on board have reportedly failed.
The ordinance will come into effect in 90 days and be enforced by police spot checks, the cost of which will be borne by pornographers.
