CA Senate Panel Tables Condoms in Porn Bill

Gay porn producers and models alike are relieved that they will continue to chart their own sexual destinies without government interference after a state Senate committee failed to "vote out" a bill that would have required condom use for commercially filmed sexual acts in California.

Assembly Bill 1576, authored by Assemblyman Isadore Hall III (D-Los Angeles), would have required mandatory condom use on all porn sets.

In a statement, Hall, who said he was "disappointed" by the Senate's August 14 action, reiterated that condoms are already required on film sets.

"While I am disappointed with today's outcome, one thing is and has always been clear on this issue: existing state and federal blood borne pathogen laws already require the use of a condom or a barrier devise when producing an adult film anywhere in California and the United States," Hall said. "AB 1576 wouldn't have changed existing law, but it would have helped increase industry compliance in protecting its workers."

Many in the gay adult film business campaigned vigorously against AB 1576, citing regular HIV testing and on-set condom availability as among the reasons the government didn't need to get involved.

The bill was strongly supported by Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which feels that porn models, gay and straight alike, were at risk for regular HIV exposure and transmission due to the regularity of sexual encounters with multiple partners that comes with the job.

AHF was also a major sponsor of a similar law that Los Angeles County voters passed in 2012.

At the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s, many gay porn models succumbed to complications from AIDS. There have been several HIV scares on the straight side of the adult film business, but these incidents have been far less frequent.

Hall framed his bill as an attempt to protect actors while they are at work, but some disagreed with that.

"AB 1576 was a classic example of politicians and institutions legislating against (they say 'on behalf of') communities they know nothing about and didn't bother to consult," said Conner Habib, a gay adult model and author. "The bill was an enormous amount of money wasted on a generally safe and healthy population. The money could have gone to people in real need of care and education related to STDs.

"The legislators and organizers behind it used sex-phobia, HIV stigma, and shame-induced anti-porn sentiment as the fuel to get it as far as it did," he added.

City resident Blue Bailey generated a great deal of controversy regarding his participation and support for barebacking, or sex without condoms. Bailey, who's HIV-positive, is now studying at Hastings School of Law. He plans to become an entertainment lawyer.

"The failure of the bill to pass is a great victory for First Amendment rights for the porn community and is in line with up-to-date HIV prevention strategies," Bailey told the Bay Area Reporter . "This should be a wake-up call to Michael Weinstein of AIDS Healthcare that he cannot force-feed his condom-only approach to the masses. We are in the age of PrEP, and research is starting to suggest that undetectable persons with HIV are non-transmittable."

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP, is the use of antiretroviral drugs, namely Truvada, as an HIV prevention tool. As previously reported, the international iPrEx trial found that daily use of Truvada reduced the risk of HIV infection for gay and bisexual men and transgender women by 42 percent overall, rising to more than 90 percent among participants with blood drug levels indicating regular daily use.

Local porn company Kink.com said it's tried for years to work with Weinstein and Hall.

"It doesn't have to be a battle," said Michael Stabile, spokesman for Kink.com. "For the past three years we have offered to work with Michael Weinstein and Assemblyman Hall to craft regulations that would both protect performers and work to make sets even safer. But they seem to want a fight. This was a bill that was opposed by LGBT groups, HIV outreach organizations, sex worker rights, and the performers themselves. We will continue to work with performers to make sets safer."

Weinstein, president of AHF, remains steadfast that a condoms in porn law is needed because existing law isn't always followed.

"Regardless of whether or not AB 1576 becomes law this year, condom use already is, and has been, the law in California under existing Cal/OSHA authority," he said in a statement emailed to the B.A.R. "The porn industry has simply chosen to ignore these laws with few if any repercussions for the producers."

Weinstein said the bill will be reintroduced next year and Hall alluded to the same in his statement.

"We will reintroduce the bill next year and are proud of the fact that we moved this legislation farther along in this session than in any previous year," Weinstein said. "By way of comparison, it took over a decade to get a needle exchange bill passed on a statewide level. We are prepared for a long haul, if that's what it takes."

Hall said that his commitment to "protect the health and safety of California workers has only been strengthened by my work on this issue."

"That commitment will continue through my legislative efforts in the years to come," Hall added.