AIDS Healthcare Foundation wants porn permits tied to condom use
For Adult Industry Responsibility
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.—The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation announced a petition drive today to get a city ordinance on the June ballot that would require porn actors to wear condoms.
“At present, animals working in film and TV productions in Los Angeles enjoy more safety and health protections than adult film performers do,” according to Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “There are laws and state statutes to protect adult performers, but there is no real enforcement.”
Weinstein said no government agency has been willing to tie the production permits for X-rated videos to a requirement that condoms are used.
“This is why we have spearheaded this ballot initiative: so the people the voters in Los Angeles may decide on this important health and safety issue affecting adult film performers,” he said.
Adult-film production companies have been generally resistant to requiring condom use, saying they can lower the quality of the productions and detract from the fantasies the films depict. They also contend performers are regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
To get the ordinance on the June 2012 ballot, AHF needs to gather signatures from 41,138 voters registered in the city over a 120-day period ending Dec. 23, according to the City Clerk’s Office.
Weinstein, who said the ordinance would call for the city-county film permitting office to collect a fee from producers to cover periodic on-set inspections, announced the petition drive alongside two actors who say they contracted the HIV virus while performing without a condom. The campaign will be known as For Adult Industry Responsibility, or FAIR.
AHF is a nonprofit that provides services to people with HIV/AIDS in the United States and around the world.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—In a decision that could put a dent in the Southland’s famed pornographic-film industry, Los Angeles County voters approved a requirement that adult film actors wear condoms.
The “Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act” requires adult film producers to apply for a permit from the county Department of Public Health to shoot sex scenes. Permit fees will finance periodic inspections of film sets to enforce compliance with the requirement that performers use condoms while engaged in sex acts.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson received the inaugural World AIDS Day Magic Award from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Sunday at Staples Center, honoring his work raising awareness about HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment.
Johnson, who announced in 1991 that he tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, is the founder and chairman of the nonprofit Magic Johnson Foundation, whose mission includes making donations to community-based organizations that focus on HIV/AIDS education and prevention.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A group that wants the city of Los Angeles to form its own public health department submitted a petition today with 69,640 signatures in a bid to qualify a ballot measure asking voters if such a department should be formed.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health handles health services for 85 cities, including Los Angeles. Proponents of the ballot initiative said the county is too stretched to adequately respond to public health risks.
With just a few clicks of a mouse, kids as young as 12 can have free condoms delivered to their doors in California.
News of the program’s expansion to two new counties comes as the federal government approves the “morning-after pill” without a prescription for girls as young as 15.
The development has garnered mixed reactions.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Los Angeles County voters will be asked today if adult film actors should be required to wear condoms under Measure B, the “Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act.”
If passed, the measure would require adult film producers to apply for a permit from the county Department of Public Health to shoot sex scenes.
Permit fees would finance periodic inspections of film sets to enforce compliance with the requirement that performers use condoms while engaged in sex acts.
