LOS ANGELES – Mid-June has been a busy time for both sides of the contentious “condoms in porn” issue in California. Nearly simultaneously, the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee finally came out with an official statement about the matter and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health declared its intention to form an advisory committee that presumably will include adult industry representatives.
For its part, APAC criticized what it characterizes as “an anti-performer ballot initiative” created and shoved onto the November ballot by AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein. Among APAC’s objections to the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act are sections that would codify the public’s right to sue individual performers who elect to work without condoms. Because such lawsuits would reveal performers’ legal names, home addresses and other personal details, they would expose performers to harassment, extortion and criminal stalking. Extreme cases could put performers’ lives at risk.
“APAC is the only group in the adult film industry led by, and comprised solely of, adult performers,” an APAC statement distributed late Thursday noted. “We advocate on behalf of performers, and work to maintain and improve safe working conditions in the adult film industry by giving performers organized representation in matters that affect our health, safety, and community. This proposed initiative will not make adult film performers or workers in our industry safer.”
In a letter to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla opposing the measure, APAC President Chanel Preston attacked the initiative as dangerous.
“Performers are not opposed to regulation, or to the use of condoms in addition to our current testing protocols,” Preston noted in the letter. “But these decisions are highly personal and cannot be imposed upon us without our consent.
“No other worker in California can be sued by the general public or be subjected to such a public form of harassment,” she added. “Legalizing harassment is not a California value.”
On Friday, Cal/OSHA announced it will form an advisory committee to shape new regulations for the adult industry. The committee ostensibly will include working adult performers.
During June’s meeting of Cal/OSHA’s Standards Board, a Cal/OSHA representative said the division has reviewed a petition for regulation from AIDS Healthcare Foundation and expects to complete, by early July, a review of a separate, opposing petition submitted by the Free Speech Coalition. That’s when committee formation will begin.
“We can hope to see announcements for an advisory committee later this summer, and we are hopeful that this represents a new era wherein performers and those working on adult film sets are recognized as true stakeholders,” said Karen Tynan, an attorney specializing in employment and workplace safety who works on behalf of the adult industry. “Effective regulation can only come when performers and other industry workers have a voice in the development of the regulations that affect them.”
