Some condoms. Probably about to be used (or not) by porn stars. Photocredit: robertelyov http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertelyov/5159802320/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Pornstars in Los Angeles will have to wear condoms in films that take place within its city limits, as the City Council approves a new mandate, which will be signed into law within 90 days. The $1 billion industry will be significantly affected. The legislation was pressed for, reported The New York Times, by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. So far, the issue has not been pressed statewide, as it was considered too difficult to monitor. Legislation currently requires actors to wear condoms – but the state can only respond to complaints about non-use. The only person who didn’t vote for the mandate was Councilman Mitchell Englander – who represents San Fernando Valley, where, unsurprisingly, most porn films (about 90 per cent, according to The Guardian), are made. He said that the council shouldn’t be throwing money at an issue like this when it was completely broke.
The rules will allow the Los Angeles Police Department to “perform spot checks on any set.” Porn studios will also have to foot the bill for enforcement themselves. But rest “assured”, said Gawker. The rules only apply to “shoots in LA, so the whole rest of the world is open to all your filthy sexy needs.”
Commentators are firmly divided: some argue that porn should be self-regulating; others that everything possible must be done to prevent the spread of sexual disease.
“When push comes to shove, people know this was the right thing to do,” said Michael Weinstein, the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Stay out of our business! The Guardian quoted Diane Duke, the chief executive of the Free Speech Coalition, which is a trade group for the pornography business, said that the government was clearly “overreaching” and poking its nose into the decisions of consenting adults.
The industry’s already been hit. Those poor sex workers: The Guardian took the line that the porn community feared that, already having been hit by “piracy and the economy”, that this insistence on condom usage will “drive many jobs out of the region.” The industry, pointed out the paper, has been self-regulating itself for years – stars have to do a sexual health test every month; and proof of negative results must be shown before sex can take place.
It does need more regulation. Darren James, himself a porn star, was quoted on The Guardian as saying that the industry does need more regulation – he himself was diagnosed with HIV in 2004. “Condoms were never brought up, they just wanted to get the scene done and move on.”
“Watch for a ‘Condom Wrangler’ acknowledgment to appear alongside the ‘Fluffer’ credit,” commented Scott Marks on The San Diego Reader.
Porn star Taylor Wane said on Twitter: “Will they hire state workers to b pecker checkers?” [sic]
Leave the industry alone. Dashiell Bennett in The Atlantic Wire said that the goal of the law is “commendable”, but it actually won’t do very much. There are “tens of thousands of porn scenes” filmed in LA every year – how on earth can they police every one? And also, porn acting is “much safer” than most people believe. The number of actors with HIV is “quite low”, with most “likely infected off set or outside California.” And the industry will just skip the joint, anyway – which might have the opposite effect of doing more harm to workers than good.
