By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times –
LOS ANGELES — After facing years of political pressure from health care advocates, Los Angeles County supervisors agreed on a 3-1 tally Tuesday to let voters decide in November whether adult film actors should be required to wear condoms during shooting as a guard against spreading HIV infections.
Backers of the measure had gathered more than 370,000 signatures supporting the proposed ballot measure, which sets up the first such vote in the nation. The Los Angeles City Council approved a similar condom ordinance in June and avoided putting the measure to a popular vote.
“Today is a historic day,” Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said in a statement. “We look forward to educating the public about the issues at stake. … Simply put: No one should contract an incurable disease as a routine part of going to work.”
The measure’s opponents said they would probably mount a campaign against it before the vote and could also sue the county to block the balloting.
“We’re looking at a bunch of different options,” said Diane Duke, the executive director of the Free Speech Coalition.
Before the vote, the measure’s proponents said it would promote a safer environment for performers.
“As a matter of fairness, adult film performers should be entitled to the same clean and healthy work places the majority of Californians and Angelenos enjoy,” said Mark McGrath, a consultant with AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
But adult film industry representatives said that actors are tested frequently and that sexually transmitted diseases are more closely linked to poverty, lack of insurance and education.
They also said that film production companies could move out of the county to areas that have fewer restrictions.
“This law will drive a significant portion of the adult entertainment industry out of California. Don’t kid yourselves,” said Allan Gelbard, an attorney who frequently represents the adult film industry.
Others also argued that the law would violate free-speech rights because it would require actors to wear condoms even if they did not want to.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who was the only supervisor to vote against the measure, was strongly critical, saying that the county could not regulate the adult industry and that the law could open the county to lawsuits from adult performers who are infected by AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases on film shoots.
“I’m trying to understand why we would, as a county, take on the huge responsibility of workplace issues,” she said.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas abstained from voting.
Molina said she was also concerned about how effective the law would be since it would cover only unincorporated areas.
“It doesn’t apply to the San Fernando Valley, which I understand is the hub of where these films are made,” she said. “I don’t know how much porno is going on in East L.A. or Altadena now.”
Other county officials, including Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s director of public health, have also said the law would be difficult to enforce.
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