As Americans go to the polls today to decide if they want to be led by a disappointment or a lunatic for the next four years, voters in Los Angeles County are also making a decision that will affect the future of the adult film industry, not just in LA but across America.

Measure B is a piece of legislation forced through by the pushy and cynical AIDS Healthcare Foundation under the guise of public health. If passed, it will make it a criminal offence to shoot any sex scene in Los Angeles without using ‘barrier protection’. That’s not just condoms – it’s effectively outlawing any contact with bodily fluids, meaning dental dams, rubber gloves and – if interpreted as vigorously as the law will permit – goggles. In other words, levels of protection that no one actually uses in real life. And it won’t just apply to professional porn producers. Any making a home video or taking photos, anyone operating a webcam or using the likes of Chatroulette – failure to cover up will be illegal.

AHF has been steadily pushing their war on porn for the last few years, using a handful of disgruntled former performers to spread misinformation. They effectively forced the closure of Sharon Mitchell’s AIM – the one-stop shop for industry medical testing since the 1980s. AIM wasn’t just an HIV-testing facility, but a place for performers to get general medical and emotional support. Despite certain claims, it had a provable track record of success in both proving the safety of performers and rapidly responding to any outbreaks – of which there were very few. While the mainstream media like to leap on ANY HIV case in the adult industry, we should remember that of the thousands and thousands of performers who have worked in the industry in the last thirty years, only a tiny number have contracted AIDS – many of them being gay performers in the early 1980s who caught the disease before it became known, and almost all the other people who contracted it through non-industry sexual activity. No one has contracted HIV through porn work since 2004.

AIM’s closure meant that there was no longer a central place for performers to go. It’s led to confusion about testing standards and safety with alternative facilities – in other words, it’s put people at risk. But AHF seems unconcerned by this, as they instead force through their dubious bill, using a combination of lies and strong-arming.

As has been pointed out, if this measure passes, it would drive the industry out of LA. It’ll cost the local economy dearly. And of course it will be copied elsewhere, no doubt driven by AHF, who like to spend their budget on pursuing the porn industry rather than supporting AIDS victims. Huge local government resources will be eaten up in enforcing the law, and people’s sexual choices will be removed. Worse still, it won’t make anyone any safer. Not only are condoms not 100% effective, but there would be an inevitable underground of renegade producers springing up, with none of the checks and safety measures currently used.
Interestingly, much of the media and other groups who have no love for the sex Industry have come out in opposition to the bill. Polling is, much like the Presidential election, too close to call. So LA country residents are encouraged to get out there and defeat this bill, which is nothing more than an attempt to shut down a legal and safe industry for ideological and power-trip reasons.

VoteNoOnB.com