The Los Angeles City Council has affirmed last week’s preliminary vote to allow AIDS Healthcare Foundation's mandatory condom initiative to bypass the election process and go straight to law. Today's 9-1 vote means that the new ordinance—which ties the granting of film permits to mandatory condom use on sets and imposes a fee on producers to fund unannounced inspections—will go into effect in 90 days unless a court challenge is able to derail those plans.
The passage of this ordinance, though anticipated, will certainly be met with consternation and anger by producers of adult content in Los Angeles, and is sure to result in consequences that neither AHF nor the City Council apparently care to contemplate.
Though they couch the ordinance as a measure to protect workers, both the City Council and AHF have ignored warnings from the industry that mandating condom use while disparaging the testing regime—which has protected performers for years—will not only fail to keep performers safe to the extent imagined by instigators of this measure, but may actually put them in greater danger as companies go underground, leave the state or abide by the new measure in lieu of testing.
The Free Speech Coalition, which has been working vigilantly in opposition to AHF's "relentless campaign against the industry," posted a statement in reaction to the vote on the FSC blog today.
“The Council’s decision is yet another example of government overreach and intrusion. The regulations imposed are without any input from the stakeholders most impacted—adult performers and producers,” said FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said. “Mandatory condom regulation will not increase performer safety, it will diminish the successful standards and protocols already in place and compromise performer health. Government regulation of sexual behavior between consenting adults is, and has always been, a bad idea. The government has no business in our bedrooms—real or fantasy.”
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