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Will government nannies cause the porn industry to leave Los Angeles???
Porn industry could leave LA if condoms required Jan. 18, 2012 07:06 AM Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- Some of the most prominent purveyors of erotic films say they'll start packing up their sex toys and abandoning the U.S. porn capital if authorities carry through with an effort to police film sets and order that every actor be outfitted with a condom. That effort took a serious leap forward Tuesday when the Los Angeles city council voted 9-1 to grant final approval to an ordinance that would deny film permits to producers who do not comply with the condom requirement. The measure now goes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for approval. Before the measure can take effect, the council has called for the creation of a committee to determine how it might be enforced. "It's going to be interesting to see how in fact they do try to enforce it and who's going to fund it, and all of the time and effort they're going to spend," said Steven Hirsch, co-founder and co-chairman of Los Angeles-based Vivid, one of the largest makers of erotic movies. "Ultimately I think what they will find is people will just stop shooting in the city of Los Angeles," added Hirsch. "That's a given." His company would be among those that would consider leaving, he said. Approximately 90 percent of U.S. porn films are made in Los Angeles, almost all of them in the city's San Fernando Valley, said Mark Kernes, senior editor of Adult Video News. When films, Internet downloads, sex toys and admission to dance clubs are counted, Kernes said, it's an industry that produces about $8 billion a year in revenue. It has been battered in recent years, however, by the recession and the increased popularity of free Internet porn. Kernes and others say requiring condoms would further erode business. They say consumers, particularly those overseas, have made it clear they won't watch films when the actors use condoms, complaining that it is distracting and ruins the fantasy. "The only thing that the city could potentially achieve is losing some film permit money and driving some productions away, but you can't actually compel an industry to create a product that the market doesn't want," said Christian Mann, general manager of Evil Angel, another of the industry's largest production companies. Ged Kenslea, spokesman for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said the measure is needed because the industry has failed to properly police itself. For years, he said, filmmakers have ignored state health laws mandating the use of condoms when workers are exposed to blood-borne pathogens. "Let's make one thing clear: Condom use on adult film sets is, and has been, the law in California under blood-borne pathogens regulations," he said. "It is just a law that has not been uniformly enforced or followed. This film permit ordinance that the city council approved today provides another enforcement mechanism to make sure that adult film producers are complying with existing California law." The council's final vote to approve the law was taken without public discussion, on a day when most of the porn industry's major players were in Las Vegas preparing for Wednesday's opening of the Adult Entertainment Expo, their industry's largest trade event. The industry already does its own policing, filmmakers say, requiring actors be tested for sexually transmitted diseases a minimum of every 30 days when they are working. They say no cases of HIV have been directly linked to porn films since 2004, adding they fear if the industry scatters to areas outside of Los Angeles, testing could fall by the wayside, exposing performers to more risk. "If someone is going to catch an STD, it's usually out of the business because we are tested so often," said veteran porn actress and producer Tabitha Stevens. In her 17 years in the business, Stevens said, she has worked both with and without condoms. Although she prefers to use condoms, acknowledging they do increase safety, she said the choice should be left up to the performers and not mandated by a government agency. "If you want to wear them, wear them. If you don't, don't. That's up to the talent to decide. It shouldn't be up to the government to decide," she said
L.A. City Council OKs law requiring condom use by porn performersSourceL.A. City Council OKs law requiring condom use by porn performers By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times January 18, 2012 In a significant defeat for the adult film industry, the Los Angeles City Council has given final approval to a city ordinance requiring porn actors to wear condoms while performing. The 9-1 vote Tuesday marks a significant victory for the L.A.-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has been rallying for years to protect the health of porn actors by asking agencies in California to mandate condom use during film shoots. In the past decade, porn shoots have been suspended several times after high-profile cases of porn performers infected by HIV. "It's a great day for the performers and safer sex in our society," said an ebullient Michael Weinstein, president of the foundation, which has been waging a largely lonely battle for mandatory condom use for years. "This is the first legislative body to take up the issue, and the near-unanimous support is very gratifying." Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is supportive of the ordinance, believing it to address a public health issue, a mayoral spokesman said. Because Villaraigosa is in Washington, D.C., this week, it's possible that the council president, Herb Wesson, will sign the ordinance as acting mayor. For years, lawmakers have largely ignored calls to crack down on condom-free porn filming. But last year, the foundation changed its tactics and gathered signatures to ask voters to pass an ordinance requiring adult film producers, when seeking a filming permit in the city of Los Angeles, to have actors use condoms. The new rule would require porn producers to pay a fee to fund surprise inspections. The proposed requirement would have targeted the multibillion-dollar porn industry centered in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. Last week, council members signaled during the ordinance's first reading that they believed the porn condom measure would pass at the ballot box and decided to back the AIDS group's proposed ordinance to avoid a $4-million special election this June. "I think there's no doubt: the voters would see this as a common sense issue and pass it," said Councilman Paul Koretz. Porn industry representatives opposed the measure. Diane Duke of the lobbying group Free Speech Coalition said, "This is government overreach. It's not about performer health and safety; it's about government regulating what happens between consenting adults." Weinstein said gay porn performers have been using condoms for years. Referring to the porn industry, "it's in their DNA to not have anybody tell them anything about how they do business. Self-regulation in the industry has been shown to be a failure across the board," Weinstein said. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is also gathering signatures for a measure to go to Los Angeles County voters for the November election. It would also require condom use and ask porn producers to obtain permits from the county Department of Public Health before filming. The county would also be able to do surprise inspections. The AIDS group is also considering launching a similar condom measure in San Francisco. ron.lin@latimes.com
L.A. city attorney tries to block condoms-in-porn voteSourceL.A. city attorney tries to block condoms-in-porn vote By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times December 17, 2011 A fight is brewing at Los Angeles City Hall over whether voters can legally consider a ballot measure that would make porn actors wear condoms during filming within city limits. The proposed initiative would force any adult filmmaker to require that performers use condoms and allow the city to charge a fee for inspections of sets, according to Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Last month, the group said it had collected more than 70,000 signatures calling for a vote, far more than the 41,000 needed to put the measure on the city ballot in June. But last week, City Atty. Carmen Trutanich filed a complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court saying that "Los Angeles voters have no power to adopt the proposed measure," because only the state — not the city — has the ability to make such rules. Trutanich's suit raised the question that a voter-approved condom requirement could attract a lawsuit, forcing "the needless and wasteful expenditure of public resources made in connection with a measure which the voters have no power to adopt." "What we're trying to do is seek judicial clarification to see if the city of Los Angeles is preempted from regulating condoms in adult film shoots or whether those powers are relegated to other state agencies," said Frank Mateljan, spokesman for Trutanich. City Councilman Paul Koretz said in an interview Wednesday that Trutanich's action to block the ballot measure was "anti-democratic." "Usually, we have the people have their say first," Koretz said. Koretz and Councilman Bill Rosendahl wrote a council motion, submitted Tuesday, asking that Trutanich withdraw the lawsuit. There was no vote, Koretz said, and the issue will remain on hold while the city clerk checks whether enough valid signatures have been collected to put the initiative on the ballot. Koretz and Weinstein noted that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has said the city does have the authority to require condom use. "The Legislature allows local safety action," wrote James D. Clark, staff counsel to Cal/OSHA, in a letter to the City Council. "The people have a right to vote," Weinstein said. Worrying about lawsuits coming after the election is "not a reason to prevent a democratic vote from taking place." ron.lin@latimes.com
Porn industry may boogie out of L.A. over condom law By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times February 20, 2012, 5:59 p.m. For decades, the nation's pornographic film industry found a happy, largely accepting home in Los Angeles. Producers operated lucrative businesses in anonymous office parks in the San Fernando Valley. Available in the city were a steady supply of actors and film production talent as well as opulent mansions that often served as theatrical backdrops. By one estimate, at least 5% of on-location shoots were for adult films. But this coexistence has been suddenly shaken by sweeping health regulations that, starting March 5, will require porn performers to wear condoms while on location. The landmark law marks a rare attempt to regulate how films are made, threatening an industry that has been a source of millions of dollars in revenue. AIDS activists are gathering signatures for a countywide ballot measure that would extend the ban to dozens of additional communities. The industry, however, is fighting back. Leaders say that they could take legal action against the city or move filming out of town. It's a debate that pits the desire to protect the health of porn actors against the freedom to make films that audiences want to see. The Los Angeles City Council acted earlier this year after a series of incidents in which adult film productions were suspended amid concerns that HIV had been transmitted among performers. Despite the health risks of having unprotected sex on movie sets, the industry has strongly opposed a condom requirement, saying that monthly testing already safeguards performers and that customers won't pay to see such films. "It's certainly a fascinating conundrum," said Jason E. Squire, a USC professor of cinematic arts. "You want all performers, whatever they do, to be safe. That transcends content. I don't know what the proper solution is." AIDS activists say that the fight over condoms is about protecting performers' health and opposing the promotion of unsafe sex. "The fact that porn sends out a message that the only type of sex that's hot is unsafe ... we think that's detrimental," said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation. The Los Angeles law was the result of months of aggressive lobbying by Weinstein and other AIDS activists, who have long called on the government to step in and make the porn workplace safer. The council approved the law only after activists pressured it by gathering enough signatures to ask voters to decide the issue at the ballot box. The industry has been forced to suspend production several times amid reports that adult performers contracted HIV. One was Derrick Burts, who tested HIV-positive in 2010 and said clinic staff told him he was infected by a fellow performer. "It's a broken system that they have in place," said Burts, who backs mandatory condoms. "What performer wouldn't want to feel more safe on a work set?" Porn industry representatives say the law is unnecessary because they regularly test actors for HIV. They maintain that Burts was not infected on the job, and that they haven't had a confirmed work-related HIV case since 2004. When a performer turned up HIV-positive in another state in 2011, companies here voluntarily halted production until others could get tested. Steven A. Hirsch of Vivid Entertainment said his company's performers are allowed to use condoms if they want — but most don't. Filmmakers tried requiring condoms on their own in the late 1990s after an HIV scare, but sales began suffering. "The viewers out there don't want to see movies with condoms," Hirsch said. Diane Duke of the adult film lobby group Free Speech Coalition said performers should have the right to have sex as they wish. She compared the issue to boxers who fight for entertainment, even though they risk injury. "The goal of that is to knock someone out — pound them in the head until you knock someone out," Duke said. "This is the first step of government overreach into the way we make movies," Duke said. "It's clearly the government interfering where it really doesn't belong.… Because our industry deals with sex … we're vulnerable and easy to attack." It's unclear how much money the city would give up if porn producers began leaving. Film L.A., the nonprofit that manages permits, estimates that it issues under 500 a year to adult film companies wanting to shoot on location. Some filmmakers, however, may not bother asking for permits. A survey found that one of the top 10 sites for on-location filming in Los Angeles in 2010 was a Chatsworth porn studio. In the most recent study, local economists estimated a decade ago — before the recession — that the industry generated $4 billion in sales and provided 10,000 to 20,000 jobs annually to actors, makeup artists, camera crews, caterers and the like. Even with the condom law, there are still options available to the porn industry. A loophole allows filming without condoms in certified sound stages like ones found at major movie studios. They could also do filming outside the city limits, though it is unclear what kind of welcome they would receive. The mayor of the Ventura County suburb of Simi Valley has already called on his city to draft a mandatory condom policy similar to that of Los Angeles. "The people of our town do not want to be noted for being porn purveyors," Mayor Bob Huber said. Porn producer Hirsch considers the condom requirement "a nuisance more than anything else. We will continue shooting the movies, and if that means outside of the city of Los Angeles, so be it." Duke says she thinks that other states would welcome the industry. Some have suggested Nevada, which hosts an annual adult film trade show and even has legal brothels in rural areas — although they are regulated and require condoms. But there may be a legal obstacle to pulling up stakes entirely: Porn generally became legal in California after a 1988 state Supreme Court decision ruling that adult film producers shouldn't be prosecuted under anti-prostitution laws. Only one other state, New Hampshire, has had a similar court ruling, issued in 2008. There could also be political resistance in Nevada. As its population has grown and gambling casinos have become parts of major Wall Street-traded entertainment and resort companies, the state has become more economically and socially conservative, said Michael Green, professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada. For instance, he said, Nevada has voted to ban gay marriage and rejected the legalization of marijuana. "Those are not necessarily the hallmarks of the old libertarian Nevada," Green said. And noting that government has tried to attract new industries to the state, "diversifying Nevada's economy by becoming the next Hollywood for porn strikes me as contradictory," Green said. Additionally, there is plenty of talent in Los Angeles for the adult industry. Some aspiring actors, videographers and sound engineers who arrive here hoping to break into mainstream movies find their way working in adult films. Weinstein's political march, meanwhile, isn't stopping at City Hall. The AIDS group is gathering signatures for a November ballot measure that would ask Los Angeles County voters to require condoms when porn companies film in areas regulated by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which has authority over all 88 cities in the county except Pasadena, Long Beach and Vernon. But at this point, city officials have not determined how they will enforce the new law. They are forming a committee of advisors from the Los Angeles Police Department, the city attorney's office, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and others. "Frankly, it's hard to tell" what the adult film industry will do, said Mark Kernes, senior editor at AVN Media Network, an adult film industry trade publication. ron.lin@latimes.com Times staff writers Ben Fritz and Richard Verrier in Los Angeles and Ashley Powers in Las Vegas contributed to this report. |