CANOGA PARK, Calif. – The Adult Performer Advocacy Committee and the Free Speech Coalition have submitted a formal protest letter to the California Department of Industrial Relations (Cal/OSHA) about proposed new regulations ostensibly designed to increase performers’ safety on adult movie sets.
The final draft of the regulations, titled “5193.1 Sexually Transmitted Infections,” requires any sexual activity include “barrier protection for eyes, skin, mouth and mucous membranes” whenever there is possible contact with potentially infectious materials — in this case, sexually transmitted diseases. Among Cal/OSHA’s defined potentially infectious materials are semen, pre-ejaculate, vaginal secretions and other bodily fluids. Consequently, the agency new regulations will require condoms and dental dams during oral sex, as well as the use of goggles and gloves by anyone on-set who may be at risk of contamination.
The proposed new regulations have been under consideration since 2009, when Michael Weinstein began a crusade to force additional safeguards for adult performers — safeguards performers say they don’t need or want. Weinstein is president of the controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a nationwide treatment and support group for those living with HIV/AIDS.
A vote on the final regulations is expected early next year.
“This has been a disappointing and surreal process,” said APAC President Chanel Preston. “In hearing after hearing, Cal/OSHA disregarded the real concerns of performers, producers and infectious disease specialists. As a result, we have irrational regulations based in fear and stigma about adult film work that make no sense on an adult film set.
“If Weinstein’s goal was to force the industry out of California, he’s succeeded,” she added. “There’s no way to comply with these measures.”
Officer Diane Duke, FSC chief executive officer and a co-signatory on the letter, called the process “heavily biased.”
“This was a healthcare discussion that devolved into discussion of sexual morality, and it never should have happened,” she said. “We have a performer population which is tested every 14 days for a full slate of [sexually transmitted infections], and we’ve successfully prevented HIV transmission on regulated sets for over a decade. But because of one man’s well-funded moral crusade, we’re now talking about goggles and gloves for adult film and porn stars being sued if they don’t use a condom.”
Weinstein hopes to place a “barrier-protection-required” ballot measure before California voters in 2016. As proposed, the law would not only impose onerous penalties upon studios and performers who fail to comply with its prescribed conditions for adult filming, but also allow private citizens, acting as agents of the state, to sue companies and individuals involved in non-condom scenes they observe in adult films. The proposed ballot measure provides a profit motive for such lawsuits: Plaintiffs would receive 25 percent of any judgment, plus legal fees.
“I suspect even Weinstein knows this isn’t reasonable,” Duke said. “This isn’t about regulation. It’s about suppression.”
After a contentious May hearing, Cal/OSHA issued revised proposed regulations in October but left the barrier-protection provisions in place and ignored concerns raised by performers, infectious disease specialists and AIDS organizations including the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV. Nov. 3 was the deadline for the adult industry to respond.
The full text of the letter to Cal/OSHA is here (PDF).
