Adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition released the following statement regarding a Cal/OSHA appeals panel’s decision earlier this month:
Yesterday, Treasure Island Media announced that their six-year investigation with Cal/OSHA over the use of condoms had concluded with a whopping $685 fine for the company.
In a press release, [Los Angeles-based] AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which initiated the investigation, tried to save face by calling it a “landmark ruling,” and it was — for the adult industry. AHF had hoped Cal/OSHA would consider the lack of condoms on an adult set to be a serious fine, and had pushed for fines in the tens of thousands of dollars. Instead, Cal/OSHA rebuked them.
For the past several years, [AHF President] Michael Weinstein has been siphoning non-profit money for a campaign of harassment, while communities in need suffer. In doing so, AHF has effectively become a lobbying organization, spending political money profligately while many people in L.A. and across the country die for lack of treatment. So we ask again: Why is Weinstein focusing on so many millions of dollars to patrol the country’s roughly 1,500 adult film workers when there is not an issue with HIV in adult film?
For those in the adult industry, there is reason to celebrate. The $685 dollar fine — the same fine a company might get for not having a fully stocked first aid kit — is precedent-setting. Weinstein is free to bring more and more cases against adult companies, but the outcome is already known.
Cal/OSHA resources should be used to investigate actual workplace safety regulations brought by workers, not imagined violations of some moralist’s fevered mind. He is wasting state resources and preventing state workers from helping those in need.
Treasure Island should be applauded for their tenacity, and attorney Karen Tynan should be congratulated on a case well argued. We look forward to more such “landmark” rulings.
