By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
In this barely post-recession economy, name a 13 billion dollar industry not courted, cajoled, and coddled by local government. Here’s one: the porn industry. 55.9 percent of the good citizens of Los Angeles County have passed controversial Measure B, requiring porn actors to wear condoms as they ply their trade. It also requires producers of porn to take a health class and obtain a permit complete with a fee used to hire condom inspectors. (Alert for all of you “health advocates”: Lines are now forming at the LA courthouse to apply for the inspector’s job). Violators of the ordinance would be subject to both civil fines and criminal misdemeanor charges.
Yes on Measure B, sponsored by the Los Angeles Medical Association, has vigorously supported the referendum arguing porn stars have explosively high rates of sexually transmitted diseases. It’s website claims it’s a workplace safety issue. Michael Weinstein, who heads the AIDS Healthcare Foundation argues in a Huffington Post article that the law is needed.
Thousands of performers have been infected with thousands of STDs over the last few years according to the Los Angeles County Public Health Department. That is not a small issue. Porn is the only industry in California where employees are forced to expose themselves to dangerous diseases in order to work. These performers are not disposable.
However, many porn actors have spoken against the measure. “The idea of allowing a government employee to come and examine our genitalia while we’re on set is atrocious,” Amber Lynn, a longtime adult film actress, said at an anti-Measure B rally Sunday in North Hollywood.
And, according to main stream crossover porn star James Deen, the ordinance is discriminatory. “We are much like the homosexual, minority or female populations,” said the actor who stars opposite Lindsay Lohan in mainstream movie, The Canyons. “We are a community of tax-paying and law-abiding voters who are currently being persecuted. But our opinions do matter, and I hope one day we get respect as these previously-stated groups and others have begun to receive,” Deen added.
The porn industry argues the ordinance is unnecessary since it tests its actors for STDs every 14 or 28 days and if the actor doesn’t pass he/she can’t be listed in the industry’s “safe” database. “The adult industry takes this very seriously. This is how we survive as an industry,” said Steve Hirsch, who founded porn production company Vivid Entertainment in 1984 and argues that Measure B is unnecessary. “This is how these performers make a living. We’re talking about their lives.”
Apparently, the public display of sexual protection is a real buzz kill among porn affectinados, so much so, that the industry may be thinking of challenging the law in court on equal protection or First Amendment grounds. The Free Speech Coalition, the adult film industry trade group, has already written a letter to Los Angeles County to say compliance with measure B has “excessive costs,” is unconstitutional and should not fall to local government to decide. The letter said FSC will “challenge this intolerable law in court.”
The industry may have another solution as well – vamoosing. Asks Deen, “Is it worth it to migrate to Las Vegas, which is said to be welcoming with open arms?Florida, and I believe Arizona as well, said something about wanting the billion-dollar industry. That’s going to be a huge hit to Los Angeles.”
Is this a solution in search of a problem? Does the government have a bona fide interest in inspecting actors’ genitalia for health reasons? Or, may the actors decide for themselves what risks they prefer to take in developing their craft free from the government’s probing eye?
What do you think?
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
This will cause the pr0n industry to pull out of LA and move somewhere like Butte County.
Right down the nanny state toilet, Malisha.
In LA, if you want to do porn, you have to buy condoms. In NY, if you want to drink a lot, you have to buy two small drinks instead of one big one. Where is this going?
@Malisha
But in NY we don’t need ‘FEMA’.
In NY we don’t need any help with just about the biggest natural disaster since Katrina because we have Bloomberg and lots of volunteers.
We can’t trust citizens to decide how much they should drink. But when it comes to finding food and fuel, rebuilding shelter, getting the electricity turned back on, we don’t need any government help with that.
We’ve got all that covered with volunteers – even though the volunteers are hungry and cold just like everybody else.
I have a modest proposal: how about if the politicians who make such statements volunteer to help clear rubble, hand out blankets. serve soup and sleep in shelters or in the open till everyone is back in their homes?
The San Diego zoo was having a problem. They had a female gorilla in heat but didn’t want her to breed because the female gorilla had health problems that would make the pregnancy dangerous. So, the gorilla experts, vets, and zoo director had a meeting on what to do. With Jazmine, the female gorilla getting aggressive and violent, something needed to be done. A light bulb went on w/ the expert. She said, “You know Carl the maintenance guy is the only person who can get near Jazmine, they’ve always had a good relationship. Why don’t we have Carl mount her and calm her down.” The group was initially shocked by the suggestion but realized no one had any others. So Carl is called in. They explain to Carl the dilemna w/ Jazmine. Carl expressed concern saying he’s afraid she’s going to hurt herself w/ the violent outburst. The zoo director then makes the proposition. “Carl, she needs to be mounted, for $500 will you do that?” Carl is taken aback. The group continues to explain to Carl this is the only solution. So, Carl thinks a moment and says, “I’ll do it on 3 conditions. Number 1, nobody can know about this, I’ll be ridiculed by everyone.” The zoo director quickly says, “Absolutely..no one but us will know.” Carl then says, “Number 2, I’m not going to kiss Jazmine.” Again the zoo director chimes in, “Of course not Carl, you’ll be behind her anyway, there’s no missionary position in the animal kingdom.” Carl then gives his last condition, “I’m going to need a few days to come up w/ the $500.”
What does it pay to be an inspector? I hope that you don’t have to pay too much.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/porn-condom-law-won-big-in-nonwhite-working-class-areas.html Working class people that could get hurt in the work place voted “yes”. The wealthy Malibu types voted “no”.
SWM, Calling this a “measure” may be Freudian. In some cases it’s a “10 inch measure”!
I see how this measure won. The doctors and the AIDS activists who were behind this were pitted against the Hollywood porn titans that really treat their employees miserably.
Based on the fine citizens of California also voting a tax increase for an out of control state govt., and now this which passed by a very similar %, maybe they only understand “yes.”
Maybe they should pass condoms out in county jails and prisons the rate of STDs has got to be higher there to. You know your elected officials have gone off the deep end when they start putting this stuff on the ballots.
Basically all this law will do is drive the porn industry out of Los Angeles county
MikeS, I’m pleasantly surprised by your take. I know you’re a feminist as much as a man can be. The first generation feminists combined w/ the Jerry Falwell types in wanting porn abolished. My thoughts back then was when 2 groups as disparate as that get together they must be wrong. The 2nd generation feminists embrace porn on the grounds you just stated so well. My question is, what if an actor has a latex allergy?
I too would be interested how the STD rate of p0rn actors compares to that of the general population.
It used to be that in most German states prostitutes had to undergo monthly examinations and blood tests. In 2001 the federal law that authorized that was changed, because the STD rate of prostitutes who are so legal that they care about such regulations is significantly lower than the rate in the general population.
It turns out that sex workers are, well, professionals who try to minimize their risks, and never “think with their small head (or clit)” in the heat of the moment.
“But there are other statements floating around regarding this issue that suggest that the incidence of STD’s among porn workers is very low.”
I’m with BFMike on this. The “thousands” of infected porn workers “over the last few years” sounds suspiciously like a made up statistic. Attacks against “pornography” through the years are often based on “suppositions and threats” to cover what is essentially censorship by those offended. Books of some of the greatest Authors of the Twentieth Century were banned for many years because they frankly described sexuality. James Joyce, Henry Miller and William Burroughs, to name a few. The reasons given was that they might fall into the hands of children and corrupt them. The truth is that for me, in my formative teen years, my reading of them not only expanded my horizons in a literary sense, but served as excellent sex manuals for my budding sexuality.
Pornography in general is a very healthy and human activity. Those who are most vehement against it have always seemed to be the most sexually repressed among us. The standard that has been used through the years has been “redeeming social qualities” is trite and stupid. Without sexuality there is no human race, or to go further humanity itself. Those against it appear to me to be people who are of authoritarian mindsets, wishing to control the acts of others. I a society where people of color are repressed and where the people of little financial means are stuck at the bottom, surely there are more important issues to deal with, especially in L.A..
The problem is that there has been such social opprobrium about pornography that ordinary people are reluctant to speak out in favor of it. Given this I must do so and categorically state that I am pro-pornography and its proliferation. Screw L.A. and move your business to a more welcoming climate.
“Thousands of performers have been infected with thousands of STDs over the last few years according to the Los Angeles County Public Health Department.”
This is all far beyond my expertise so I do not offer an opinion, only questions. But there are other statements floating around regarding this issue that suggest that the incidence of STD’s among porn workers is very low.
Does anyone have any actual statistics regarding the incidence of STD’s among porn workers and is there any way to determine if those cases of STD’s were actually incurred through work rather than other personal activity? And how does the incident rate of STD’s among porn actors compare with similar rates among the general population.
“The idea of allowing a government employee to come and examine our genitalia while we’re on set is atrocious,”
And how’s this different from TSA again???
“Does the government have a bona fide interest in inspecting actors’ genitalia for health reasons?”
I believe the term you are looking for is “bonerfied.”
Tell those actors not to ride on planes. A better measure would be to require porn actors or what we call film porkers to carry an ID like a sex offender adn to register as a porn actor. That way a young gal getting hustled by the porn porker can get a fix on his history or her history. Better yet, make them all get on US Air from New Orleans to Dc and get a cavity search by a perp from the TSA.
You know it does not take much of an investment to make money or set up a set….. I hear tell that some local municipal imports have inadvertently rented space to production sets…. Only to find that they are producing and distributing porn from the site….. Much to the chagrin of the authorities…. They have been required to buy out long term leases…..
Mark, you didn’t say where one would apply for the inspector job…..
“porn actors to wear condoms as they ply their trade”
That’s it for lesbian porn then 🙁
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/320996/condoms-in-porn-proposed-los-angeles-county.pdf
…seems to require condoms for *all* acts of anal or vaginal sex. It doesn’r seem to say where they should be worn.
.
If this is entirely about health – as opposed to a form of harrassment – what about a scene in which someone of any sex is performing oral sex on a female?
They have to wear a condom?
What about dildos? They have to be encased in a condom?
I could go on…. but it’s getting dirty.
If it defined the requirement by sex, what about transgendered?
What about hermaphrodites?