Los Angeles mandates porn stars wear condoms

Producers complain the sight of a condom in a sex scene turns off consumers of their videos.

The Los Angeles City Council voted 9-1 on Tuesday to give final approval to the measure, proposed after the AIDS Healthcare Foundation qualified an initiative for the ballot that would have asked voters in June to mandate condoms at porn shoots as a condition of obtaining film permits.

The city would have had to spend over $4 million to hold the election, and city officials said a decision to simply adopt the condom requirement allowed them to dodge that costly poll.

Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz, who brought the measure, said he expected residents at the ballot box would have overwhelmingly approved the condom requirement, so it was a “no-brainer” to adopt it now.

“For us right now, our only real policy issue is do we spend $4 million and have this become law? Or do we not spend $4 million and have this become law?” Koretz said.

The council gave preliminary approval to the measure last week, and its passage made the city the first in the nation to impose such a requirement. Most of the U.S. porn industry is based in Los Angeles.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) already requires porn performers to wear barriers, such as condoms, when they are in contact with bodily fluids.

But enforcement has been a challenge for the state. For one, the Cal-OSHA requirement is not specifically aimed at adult films, and it is openly violated within the industry, said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare. He has clashed with porn producers for years over the issue.

“I don’t know of any other industry where people go out in public and say they’re not going to follow the law,” Weinstein, whose group provides care to AIDS patients, said last week.

‘FILM RECORD’

The language of the newly adopted condom measure does not state how it will be enforced. But Koretz said that violations would be “awful tough to hide” because they would be caught on camera.

He said that was especially true for large production companies based in porn hub the San Fernando Valley, which is part of the city. But he said some smaller companies, which are less likely to get film permits, were more difficult to track.

“If you’re hiding in the weeds, that will continue to be the case,” he said.

Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A., a nonprofit hired by the city to oversee television and film productions, said his office normally has Los Angeles police handle enforcement when problems arise with permitted shoots.

But Audley said last week that he told city leaders he believes workers with health licenses would be best able to make sure adult film performers use condoms. He said his office and representatives from Cal-OSHA would soon meet to discuss how the new city mandate should be enforced.

FilmL.A. hands out under 500 permits a year for adult movie shoots, Audley said. But some estimates put the number of adult films shot in the Los Angeles region at 50,000 a year, he said.

Now that it has succeeded in having the City Council adopt the condom measure, AIDS Healthcare is widening its campaign by pushing for a November ballot initiative that would force porn producers to obtain a public health permit from Los Angeles County officials. The permit is similar to what barber shops must receive, said Ged Kenslea, a spokesman for AIDS Healthcare.

If that county measure passes, it would stop producers within Los Angeles city limits from moving shop to neighboring communities to avoid using condoms, Weinstein said.

Porn producers have been critical of the condom mandate.

Steven Hirsch, the co-chairman and founder of adult film company Vivid Entertainment, said last week his company has a “condom-optional” policy and leaves it up to performers.

While over 80 percent of the U.S. porn industry is based in Los Angeles, where performers are regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases, productions could move to other states or countries due to the condom mandate, he said.

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – (Reporting By Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)