Why is there such legislative interest in porn, lately? The California Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act is the second ballot measure in three years involving condom use on adult film sets. The first, passed in 2012, Measure B, or the County of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Industry Act, requires all adult films produced in Los Angeles County to acquire health department permits and administer a condom-only policy in every act that involves vaginal or anal penetration. While I am all for the safety of adult film performers and a reduction and eventual eradication of sexually transmitted diseases in the industry, in this particular case, condoms are not the answer.
For the sake of full disclosure, I spent several years working around the porn industry as a studio engineer for both Playboy Radio and Spice Radio on SiriusXM. I met some good people during those days, but also a whole lot of creeps, so I am not here to completely absolve the porn industry of its sins. I do, however, stand with it on this issue.
First, consider who the major backer of these ballot initiatives is. The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation has done phenomenal work in combatting the spread of HIV and has been a major advocate of HIV and AIDS patients, but with so much on their plate, why are they allocating so much of their precious resources to fighting an industry that, before Measure B, hadn’t seen a documented case of HIV contraction since 2004? In fact, since Measure B, two performers have contracted the disease that the law was designed to protect against on a 2014 shoot in Nevada. No one wants to watch porn with condoms and the people that produce porn know this, which is why the business has been moving out of the San Fernando Valley and into places like Vegas and Miami where comprehensive testing and other industry resources just aren’t in place.
Porn is supposed to be about passion and fantasy — not reality. Nothing kills passion and fantasy faster for the viewer than thinking about the threat of STDs and pregnancy. Honestly, I don’t know many pizza guys or pool boys who go to work, wearing a rubber, on the off-chance that they will have a steamy encounter with a bored and lonely housewife.
One person that seems to be turning up at many events related to the latest ballot measure is former adult performer turned moral crusader and president of the religious, anti-porn advocacy group The Pink Cross, Shelly Lubben. This may be a harsh comparison, but The Pink Cross is like the Westboro Baptist Church of porn. They show up to every AVN Expo and AdultCon with altered scripture and are more concerned with eliminating the industry than with the well-being of the performers. This is troubling when objectively looking at what AIDS Healthcare is doing, because any involvement with Lubben immediately sends up red flags that this is legislation based more on a moral objection to porn than a strictly public health issue.
The other issue with condoms in porn involves what the constant friction of latex does to the performers. In a 2012 interview with Jezebel, adult film icon and former registered nurse, Nina Hartley, was quoted as saying “condoms just aren’t built for porn.” Anyone that has ever been involved with filming a polished, edited project knows that getting five minutes on the screen often requires two or more hours of shooting and reshooting, and porn is no different. At some point, no personal lubricant can prevent the friction burns that come from hours of latex-on-skin action, which can lead to serious infections, in hard-to-reach places, which are difficult to treat.
What needs to happen to ensure the safety of all involved in the adult film industry is a reformation of a third-party healthcare organization for the industry, similar to the former Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare, which shut down after a massive data breach that resulted in the leak of the personal and medical information of thousands of people involved in the adult industry. When AIM was around, there were no major outbreaks. Everyone was tested at least once every 30 days and even the chance of a major infection resulted in an industry-wide shut down and a level-three quarantine of everyone.
Why isn’t AIDS Healthcare more focused on testing and why was it so involved in the lawsuit that brought AIM down? For an organization that says they are so concerned with the well-being of adult performers, dismantling testing organizations and putting restrictions on production that just push it out of its established area is an odd way of showing it.
