California Lawmakers Reject Mandatory Condom Use in Porn
Porn participants will continue to go raw for the foreseeable future — even as four performers tested positive for HIV in the last month — after California lawmakers rejected a bill that would make condom use mandatory during filming.
The measure, AB 640, would have required performers state-wide to wear condoms while filming sex scenes, and mandated that producers provide medical testing and training.
In the last month, three performers have publicly announced their positive HIV test results, and an unidentified fourth performer reportedly came forward with a positive test to an advocacy group last week.
While a moratorium remains in effect, many in the industry say that requiring condoms on set would be ineffective and would harm California's economy. It is unclear whether the performers contracted the disease on- or off-set. Opponents of condom porn point to the fact that two of the performers were reportedly dating.
"People have personal lives. All the evidence suggests that these infections were not workplace-related," Diane Duke, CEO of the porn advocacy group Free Speech Coalition, told the Guardian.
The majority of films propelling the $5 billion porn industry has traditionally shot in Los Angeles; some estimates say as much as 90 percent of all productions are shot in the county alone. Last year Measure B passed, requiring condom use in films shot in LA County, but many find the bill toothless because there are no enforcement mechanisms.
Even so, some productions have moved to San Francisco and other parts of California, and production companies have sued LA County to block implementation of the law. But entertainment companies are threatening to film in places like Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix if legislators require condom use statewide.
“We don’t believe the current law will stand up to judicial scrutiny,” Vivid founder Steve Hirsch said about Measure B to Time Magazine . “However if the law is ultimately upheld we will have no choice but to leave L.A. As long as we feel the conditions continue to be safe, we can’t be forced to produce at a disadvantage.”
