from http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-porn-condoms-20120221,0,7088283,full.story
By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
February 21, 2012
For decades, the nation’s pornographic film industry found a happy, largely accepting home in Los Angeles.
Producers operated lucrative businesses in anonymous office parks in the San Fernando Valley. Available in the city were a steady supply of actors and film production talent as well as opulent mansions that often served as theatrical backdrops. By one estimate, at least 5% of on-location shoots were for adult films.
But this coexistence has been suddenly shaken by sweeping health regulations that, starting March 5, will require porn performers to wear condoms while on location.
The landmark law marks a rare attempt to regulate how films are made, threatening an industry that has been a source of millions of dollars in revenue. AIDS activists are gathering signatures for a countywide ballot measure that would extend the ban to dozens of additional communities.
The industry, however, is fighting back. Leaders say they are considering plans to fight back either in court or by moving filming out of town.
It’s a debate that pits the desire to protect the health of porn actors against the freedom to make films that audiences want to see.
The Los Angeles City Council acted earlier this year after a series of incidents in which adult film productions were suspended amid concerns that HIV had been transmitted among performers. Despite the health risks of having unprotected sex on movie sets, the industry has strongly opposed a condom requirement, saying that monthly testing already safeguards performers and that customers won’t pay to see such films.
"It’s certainly a fascinating conundrum," said Jason E. Squire, a USC professor of cinematic arts. "You want all performers, whatever they do, to be safe. That transcends content. I don’t know what the proper solution is."
AIDS activists say that the fight over condoms is about protecting performers’ health and opposing the promotion of unsafe sex.
"The fact that porn sends out a message that the only type of sex that’s hot is unsafe … we think that’s detrimental," said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
The Los Angeles law was the result of months of aggressive lobbying by Weinstein and other AIDS activists, who have long called on the government to step in and make the porn workplace safer. The council approved the law only after activists pressured it by gathering enough signatures to ask voters to decide the issue at the ballot box. The industry has been forced to suspend production several times amid reports that adult performers contracted HIV. One was Derrick Burts, who tested HIV-positive in 2010 and said clinic staff told him he was infected by a fellow performer.
"It’s a broken system that they have in place," said Burts, who backs mandatory condoms. "What performer wouldn’t want to feel more safe on a work set?"
Porn industry representatives say the law is unnecessary because they regularly test actors for HIV. They maintain that Burts was not infected on the job, and that they haven’t had a confirmed work-related HIV case since 2004. When a performer turned up HIV-positive in another state in 2011, companies here voluntarily halted production until others could get tested.
Steven A. Hirsch of Vivid Entertainment said his company’s performers are allowed to use condoms if they want — but most don’t.
Filmmakers tried requiring condoms on their own in the late 1990s after an HIV scare, but sales began suffering.
"The viewers out there don’t want to see movies with condoms," Hirsch said.
Diane Duke of the adult film lobby group Free Speech Coalition said performers should have the right to have sex as they wish. She compared the issue to boxers who fight for entertainment, even though they risk injury.
"The goal of that is to knock someone out — pound them in the head until you knock someone out," Duke said.
"This is the first step of government overreach into the way we make movies," Duke said. "It’s clearly the government interfering where it really doesn’t belong.… Because our industry deals with sex … we’re vulnerable and easy to attack."
It’s unclear how much money the city would give up if porn producers began leaving. Film L.A., the nonprofit that manages permits, estimates that it issues under 500 a year to adult film companies wanting to shoot on location. Some filmmakers, however, may not bother asking for permits. A survey found that one of the top 10 sites for on-location filming in Los Angeles in 2010 was a Chatsworth porn studio.
In the most recent study, local economists estimated a decade ago — before the recession — that the industry generated $4 billion in sales and provided 10,000 to 20,000 jobs annually to actors, makeup artists, camera crews, caterers and the like.
Even with the condom law, there are still options available to the porn industry. A loophole allows filming without condoms in certified sound stages like ones found at major movie studios.
They could also do filming outside the city limits, though it is unclear what kind of welcome they would receive.
The mayor of the Ventura County suburb of Simi Valley has already called on his city to draft a mandatory condom policy similar to that of Los Angeles.
"The people of our town do not want to be noted for being porn purveyors," Mayor Bob Huber said.
Porn producer Hirsch considers the condom requirement "a nuisance more than anything else. We will continue shooting the movies, and if that means outside of the city of Los Angeles, so be it."
Duke says she thinks that other states would welcome the industry. Some have suggested Nevada, which hosts an annual adult film trade show and even has legal brothels in rural areas — although they are regulated and require condoms.
But there may be a legal obstacle to pulling up stakes entirely: Porn generally became legal in California after a 1988 state Supreme Court decision ruling that adult film producers shouldn’t be prosecuted under anti-prostitution laws. Only one other state, New Hampshire, has had a similar court ruling, issued in 2008.
There could also be political resistance in Nevada. As its population has grown and gambling casinos have become parts of major Wall Street-traded entertainment and resort companies, the state has become more economically and socially conservative, said Michael Green, professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada. For instance, he said, Nevada has voted to ban gay marriage and rejected the legalization of marijuana.
"Those are not necessarily the hallmarks of the old libertarian Nevada," Green said. And noting that government has tried to attract new industries to the state, "diversifying Nevada’s economy by becoming the next Hollywood for porn strikes me as contradictory," Green said.
Additionally, there is plenty of talent in Los Angeles for the adult industry. Some aspiring actors, videographers and sound engineers who arrive here hoping to break into mainstream movies find their way working in adult films.
Weinstein’s political march, meanwhile, isn’t stopping at City Hall.
The AIDS group is gathering signatures for a November ballot measure that would ask Los Angeles County voters to require condoms when porn companies film in areas regulated by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which has authority over all 88 cities in the county except Pasadena, Long Beach and Vernon.
But at this point, city officials have not determined how they will enforce the new law. They are forming a committee of advisors from the Los Angeles Police Department, the city attorney’s office, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and others.
"Frankly, it’s hard to tell" what the adult film industry will do, said Mark Kernes, senior editor at AVN Media Network, an adult film industry trade publication.
ron.lin@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times staff writers Ben Fritz and Richard Verrier in Los Angeles and Ashley Powers in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
Another BS propaganda piece by the LA Times.
While it’s true that “only one other state, New Hampshire, has had a similar court ruling,” it’s also true that the issue hasn’t come before many state courts. Furthermore, many courts around the country have, while ruling on other issues, used the same or very similar legal reasoning as the court in Miller v. California. The Miller ruling didn’t appear magically — it was part of a continuum of rulings, reflecting a view that has taken hold in many jurisdictions.
I’d have to check, but I seem to recall there’s also a New York City case on point.
I’d also like to note that the Michael Green who is quoted above, a professor at the two-year community college, College of Southern Nevada, specializes in nineteenth-century politics and the American West. The only four-year degree I see offered at the school is one in Dental Hygiene.
http://www.csn.edu/pages/203.asp
Its funny they try to make hetero sets out to be dens of HIV outbreaks when the rate of catching HIV is lesser then the general public.
If they are gonna force porn sets to be mandatory condoms then lets branch out to other industries and shut them down. Lets close all the nightclubs and movie theaters too because kids go there on dates and might hook up, as well as any other place where people might gather with the intention of hooking up because you know someone there might be HIV+ and spreading it.
AHF has sponsored events at gay clubs in West Hollywood — they just parked the AHF van outside. I’m sure everyone who hooked up on the premises used safer sex that night, and I’m sure none of those condoms broke.
Re-read Weinstein’s comment in the piece, above: “The fact that porn sends out a message that the only type of sex that’s hot is unsafe … we think that’s detrimental.” That is straight up censorship. He is proposing government censorship of a message that he finds unseemly. Period.
So last night I’m watching Hawaii 5-0 on CBS and they are chasing a bad guy on a motorcycle. The rider is traveling above the posted speed limit, weaving in and out of traffic, failing to obey lights and stop signs AND he’s not wearing a helmet. (best I could tell, this was not just a depiction, as no helmet was visible in the medium wide shots that showed the rider actually driving- the did’t fake it with greenscreen, or by shooting a trailered bike and not showing the ground) All of these acts are unsafe and against the law, yet they were depicted in a mainstream television show and nobody bats an eye.
While the safety of condomless sex is debatable (and boy has it been debated), condomless sex is a LEGAL act, yet if we depict it in a piece of filmed entertainment, we might as well be beating baby seals to death. Which goes to Michael’s point- we are being censored because our message involves sex, even though in 2009 30,797 people died in traffic accidents (www.census.gov) compared to the number of deaths of persons with an AIDS diagnosis, around 16,500-18,000. (Deaths of persons with an AIDS diagnosis may be due to any cause). (www.avert.org)
@FetishDirector – You’ll recall that Kayden Kross mentioned on Stossel that we are not presumed to learn how to drive from watching a Vin Diesel movie. If Vin Diesel isn’t required to keep in under 65 in the next Fast and the Furious movie, and James Bond doesn’t have to wear tactical armor in his next shoot-out, then there is no legitimate basis — health, safety or otherwise — for the instant legislation.
Furthermore, the entire character of the AHF campaign is decidedly un-American. In our society, under our system, you don’t censor content you don’t like, you COMPETE with that content in the marketplace of ideas. If Michael Weinstein wants to send a message to porn viewers, let him produce some porn with condoms and compete in the market. THAT is how we do it in a democratic republic.
Fascists and other authoritarians — like Michael Weinstein — don’t get it.
Agreed Michael, and a very good point, although asking Weinstein to produce porn with a condom positive message would be an interesting contrast to the gay bareback videos that AHF resells in some of it’s Out of the Closet stores.
I saw Kayden’s interview. There are so many examples of bad behavior in entertainment, I was just throwing out one more, the most current.
An idea here, couldnt a porn scene begin with a condom and then finish without and still be within the law? Where does Weinstein stand on abortion and other acts of choice? If he stands pro-choice doesnt this go against his mandatory condom views?
Not according to Cal/OSHA it couldn’t. They treat cum as if it were battery acid.
As for Weinstein’s stance, he’s a hypocrite who’s bogged down in gay culture-speak: sex = death! Your grandmother is going to get AIDS unless everyone wears a condom!
Plus, his whole business — AIDS inc. — requires that AIDS fear and hysteria be universalized. Never mind that the CDC reports that the only group to show increases in HIV infection since the early 1990s are MSMs (men who have sex with men) — everyone has to be terrified of sex. It’s not FAIR, to people like Weinstein, that people not in high risk groups don’t live with the same terror as those who are.
Once again we see someone whose answer to the society’s problems is not to fix those problems (he opposes government funding of the search for an AIDS vaccine, opposes PreP therapy, etc…) but to spread the misery around.
Weinstein is an AIDS profiteer. The worst thing for business would be a cure — he’d be out of business.
Funny thing is that a true conservative would have no problem with people doing porn or the government restricting how they do it, aside from age, incest, sex with animals. But true conservatism was no more than the pages of Barry Goldwater’s book. Funny how at one time Conscious of a Conservative was viewed as evil as Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is now.
Larry; that is true; its called giving “profits” to liberal organzations and helping out the charities ,like they used to in porn valley. Greasing the palm(LOL) anyway. They billionaries that I have been shooting for are “PISSED off at the TALENT agents in LALA land and don’t want money,going to condom productions and you all have to thank those, selfish, greedy, Brainwashing , LA-based agents for “FUCKING” the Industry up and fucking the bankruptcy of a alot of companies and the moving of a lot of MANWIN/Brazzers bought companies to “OVERSEAS”. So word is today of thought is…..D-E-N-I-A-L.. and there is alot of that in LA right now. What was the cause of the HIV outbreaks in the Industry? and Who was responsible for the talent that caused those sitaution’s to happen? and, and, and? How about this folks, hook up with Fredrick A. Seimen, world A claim Swedish porn director that shoots Bi- crossover male talent with ” donkeys” until the Donkey is either Killed” and or the Crossver Male talent dies from over fucking. That’s the new selling scenes for PORN valley with Condoms. look up the word and understand, That lots of layoffs and talent are here today and gone tomorrow and alot of Productions companies are on the way out. Who is going to want to watch condom used scenes. LAPD is up and ready along with those condom-Nazi’s and I sure made sure that I ain’t involved in those “crappy” rip off scenes. My fans email 8 pages of request a day and the sales for those companies and the girls involved are going to sky rocket. Thanks LA talent agent’s. keep bringing more FRESH crossover talent. New type of productions are coming to LA.California.
Up hill slow, down hill real fast! our Profits are first and your Safety is Last Ladies and straight male talent. ( CUT talent Rates too) with falling sales. Glad in didn’t invest in those companies!. Cheers Mates!
Has the porn industry ever been in such dire straights as it is now (since when it became legal in the early 70s)? Its like 1 nail in the coffin after another lately.
The only donkey I’m okay with in my porn is a plush Eeyore in the background; silently judging.