Should condoms be mandatory on adult film sets?
This morning in Universal City, CA, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the Pink Cross Foundation will announce plans to file complaints with the California Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA) against 16 of the top adult film industry companies, as part of its campaign to persuade Cal/OSHA to enforce mandatory condom use on adult film sets in the Los Angeles-based adult entertainment industry.
The film companies to be named in the complaint include Anarchy Films, Backend Productions, Blue Pictures, Critical X, Hustler Video, Heatwave Entertainment, Immoral Productions, Latin Media, Legend, Mayhem, Maverick Entertainment, Raw Flesh, Sin City, Top Dog/Magnus Productions, Vivid Entertainment, and Club Jenna. 58 films from the 16 companies were considered in the AHF analysis.
In a statement yesterday (click through for the full list of films and film companies AHF is presenting in its complaint), Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, wrote:
As a global HIV and STD medical provider operating treatment clinics and prevention facilities here in California, we see it as our duty to pursue action on the issue of safety in the workplace—in these instances, unprotected sex acts taking place in albeit non-traditional workplaces—porn sets located throughout the San Fernando Valley that are churning out billions of dollars of adult fare every day. This is why we are filing workplace health and safety complaints with Cal/OSHA today: to press for the enforcement of state and local workplace regulatory guidelines which would require the use of condoms in all adult films produced in California.
Later in the same statement, AIDS Healthcare Foundation reports on some of the California Department of Health statistics that are motivating their push for mandatory condom use on adult film sets in California:
According to figures cited by DPH, there were 2,013 documented cases of Chlamydia among LA porn performers between 2003 and 2007. In the same period, 965 cases of gonorrhea were documented. Many performers suffer multiple infections. In the period April 2004 to March 2008 there have been 2,847 STD infections diagnosed among 1,884 performers in the hardcore industry in LA County. DPH attributes the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in the porn industry to a lack of protective equipment for partners, including condoms. The agency recommends condoms be used during production, but has never taken steps to ensure their use, or to protect the performers who are essentially required to endanger their health in order to remain employed.
XBIZ.com, an adult industry news source, has more details about the new complaints and notes that today's press conference and the announced Cal/OSHA complaints "are the latest high-stakes moves by AHF meant to encourage lawmakers into passing mandatory condom legislation in porn. The group sued Los Angeles County last month alleging that public health officials did nothing to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases after it was reported that a single performer contracted HIV from a person outside the industry."
The adult entertainment industry has sought to limit the spread of disease and avoid mandatory condom legilsation through a series of self-imposed testing and quarantine practices.
What do you think? Should condom use in adult films be mandatory and regulated by the State of California?
For more info on the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, click here.
For more info on the Pink Cross Foundation, click here.
Comments
I think it's an interesting opportunity: The porn industry could help make condoms sexier and part of the fantasy. In this day and age, you pretty much have to be crazy or suicidal to go bareback if you're going to be getting freaky with anal, DP, groupsex, etc. with multiple partners who are with multiple partners, like what you see in porn. Why aren't more of the performers themselves getting behind this more? I'd tend to agree: In this light, it's a workplace safety issue, and a serious one.
No way. The porn industry will find a away around this, even if it ultimately means leaving California to, ahem, do it. People just don't want condoms in porn, sorry.
OMG, herpes! Even celebrity can get STDs, no wonder why more and more hot girls join the largest STD dating site == Positivefish.com == !
There is hardly a condom to be found in porn. Just do some quick searching. Start with the big ones, like youporn.com, and see - nobody flippin' wears condoms. That's the reality. There is so much anonymous, casual and group sex going on every day all day, and being filmed and put on the 'net, that if the health warnings were correct, the AIDS rate among people doing porn flicks would be through the roof.
How is that explained? Just click through the pages of videos on youporn.com/ and see when you come across your first condom.
Ha, Ha, Ha! I can't believe it. This is not news. It is comedy at its finest. I am crying from laughing so hard. Should I just wear a bio-suit when I jerk off. Just the word condom and my fella goes numb. The last thing I want to see is a guy with a condom on a porn. When I do, no matter how hot the scene, I have to change it. Porn is fantasy. Condom is our society. Prepackaged and fake, protecting us from nothing. Who really cares about the porn stars. What is the deal? From what I have heard, most studios require routine testing for all STD's not just HIV. All I know is that when a guy dons a condom, he should not be having sex with that girl in the first place. As far as gays go, I have no idea. I don't comment on things I don't know. I do know straight porn and I do know condoms. It equals sadness.The only thing that these activists are accomplishing is putting more shame and control into sex. The result is FEAR and SHAME. Keep it to yourself, hippie!
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!