YNOT – Health officials in Miami-Dade County, Fla., last week said they will investigate a complaint alleging the adult movie industry’s refusal to require condoms on all sets violates state laws aimed at restricting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.In January, Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation — a mainstream advocacy organization that claims to be the largest non-profit HIV-AIDS healthcare provider in the U.S. — filed a complaint against three Miami-based adult companies and one based in Beverly Hills, Calif. All four — Bang Brothers Films, Josh Stone Productions, Reality Kings Productions and Hustler Video — produce sexually explicit content in Florida and do not require performers wear condoms. According to AHF, the lack of condoms on adult movie sets puts performers at risk of contracting and spreading HIV-AIDS and other STDs.
In addition, “They set a bad example,” AHF President Michael Weinstein told United Press International. “A lot of young people get their sex education from porn. They find daddy’s DVD or go online.”
Bang Brothers attorney Lawrence Walters called the investigation “a tempest in a teapot,” saying the adult industry voluntarily adheres to a testing protocol meant to safeguard the health and wellbeing of performers and cannot be held responsible for what viewers read into adult films. He also suggested AHF’s relentless efforts to encourage state legislatures and local health departments to require condoms on sets represent an effort to kill the adult entertainment industry.
Since last year, AHF has hounded California legislators and CalOSHA, the state’s workplace safety regulator, in an attempt to force the use of condoms on all California adult movie sets. In July 2009, AHF filed a lawsuit seeking court-ordered enforcement of condom usage in Los Angeles County, where the majority of heterosexual adult studios are located. In late June 2010, AHF backed a lawsuit brought by two former adult performers who claim Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, the industry’s primary provider of health tests and certificates, of violating state and federal privacy laws and discouraging safer-sex practices. The lawsuit seeks class-action status.
During a CalOSHA hearing June 30 in Los Angeles, health officials indicated California’s current workplace health and safety regulations may already mandate condoms on sets, at least by implication. CalOSHA official Deborah Gold indicated the regulatory body may clarify current regulations if hearings currently underway in California indicate a need to be more specific.
After attending CalOSHA’s Los Angeles hearing, California-based attorney Michael Fattorosi indicated he interpreted state officials’ remarks to mean clarified regulations may pose interesting conundrums for the industry.
“They believe that under the current blood-borne pathogen law, condoms are mandatory in California for all adult productions,” he wrote on an adult industry forum. “Further, cum in any orifice is a violation of the regs. Finally, they also think that condoms can be removed from the scene in post-production during the edit. A very well-informed group we are dealing with.
“Everyone in California can thank the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Shelley Lubben’s Pink Cross Foundation for making this an issue at this time,” he noted.
