LOS ANGELES, CA — AIDS Healthcare Foundation will host a press conference and rally Monday at 9:00 pm in front of Larry Flynt’s Hustler Hollywood Store on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The group plans to employ three-foot-wide, colorful condoms to emphasize its call upon California legislators to pass laws requiring all adult-entertainment actors use condoms.AHF is a mainstream organization providing medical care and advocacy to more than 100,000 people in 22 countries. The organization claims to be the largest non-profit HIV-AIDS healthcare provider in the U.S., providing more than 14,000 free HIV tests annually.
According to a statement published on the AHF website (AIDSHealth.org), “AHF believes a ‘condoms in porn’ bill should be drafted as a worker safety provision of California’s Labor Code, akin to how the Labor Code currently requires the use of hardhats and other garments and barriers as safety precautions on certain California work sites and locations.”
AHF hopes to remind legislators of the aftermath of a 2004 incident in which a male performer infected several other performers on the set of a production. The incident shut down the industry for weeks, prompted Cal/OSHA fines of $30,560 against two studios and resulted in 185 adult studios receiving a letter in which legislators and health officials warned the industry to adopt mandatory condom usage voluntarily or face legislation.
“Unlike the gay porn industry, condom use is not currently standard procedure in the straight porn film industry,” AHF noted on its website. “Larry Flynt’s Hustler label is considered a ‘condom-optional’ production house, but those in the business know what this really means: ‘Condoms allowed, but if you demand to use one, you probably won’t be asked to work again.’ Since Flynt is an influential leader in this business, and because of his previous outspoken opposition to requiring the use of condoms by adult entertainment actors, AHF has chosen to renew its call for legislation requiring the use of condoms in porn in front of Flynt’s Hustler Hollywood Store.”
The store is located at 8920 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, CA.
Scheduled speakers include AHF President Michael Weinstein, an outspoken opponent of the adult film industry.
“This industry has been putting actors at risk for a very long time,” he told The New York Times for an article published Saturday. “And they’re sending a terrible message to young people that the only kind of sex that’s hot is unsafe sex.”
