Are California Lawmakers Trying to Chase Out Porn Industry Entirely?

When Los Angeles enacted
a rule requiring condom-use in porn, the ostensible reason was
to stop the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Nevermind that this isn’t really a problem in the up-and-up adult
film industry, which has voluntarily adopted strict STI-testing
standards and boasts an on-set HIV transmission rate of zero over
the past decade. The county was going to “protect” performers
from condomless sex,
whether anyone in porn wanted it or not. 

Since the measure’s passage, in 2012, the number of porn stars
utilizing condoms hasn’t really risen, but the number of porn films
made in L.A. has plummeted. According
to Film L.A., the organization that issues local film
production permits, there were around 480 adult films shot there in
L.A. county in 2012, before the condom law went into effect; in
2013, there were about 40. 

“It’s
a safe bet to say that the world didn’t lose its appetite for porn
during that time,” writes Los Angeles Times editor Jim
Newton. “Instead, many of those who produce it are either moving
outside the county … or filming without permits.”

Newton spoke with Kayden Kross, a porn actress and director who
moved filming from L.A.
to Ventura County to skirt the condom law. But she may be
forced out of the state of California entirely, if lawmakers in
Sacramento have their way. State Assemblyman Isadore Hall is
sponsoring AB 1576, a measure to take the condoms-in-porn
requirement statewide, as well as implement new state-mandated
testing and reporting requirements. It’s under consideration by a
Senate committee today. 

Given the way the condom law has played out in L.A., it’s hard
not to see this as a move by California legislators to unload it’s
porn-production hub status to places beyond state lines. At the
least, it’s a downright illogical and ineffective way to try and
make porn safer, as Newton explains: 

At first blush, the requirement seems sensible. Who could oppose
safe sex? But the effort to require condom use in adult films is
misdirected — the porn business isn’t the hub of AIDS or sexually
transmitted diseases. Moreover, asking people to wear condoms is
one thing; having the government order it and enforce it is
another. And, most important, it doesn’t work. Measure B is taking
a fairly safe business and pushing it underground, outside Los
Angeles and quite possibly into places that don’t honor protocols
put into place to protect adult film actors, which require that
every performer be tested every two weeks for sexually transmitted
diseases and cleared for work only if the test is negative.

“It’s time to accept that Measure B’s impact hasn’t been to
encourage condom use; it’s been to encourage evasion and flight,”
Newton concluded. 

For more on Cali’s quixotic campaign to solve a porn problem
that doesn’t exist, check out this 2012 video from Reason TV. For
other avenues of neo-“war
on porn” activism, check out Peter Suderman from the March 2014
issue of Reason.