LOS ANGELES – When a local jurisdiction voices grave concern about pending statewide legislation based on local ordinances they’ve already discovered do more harm than good, voters might want to pay attention.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has released an analysis of Proposition 60 stating passage of the controversial Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act “would further drive the adult entertainment industry underground or to places that offer few protections for adult film workers.”
The department delivered its analysis to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Prop 60, which appears on the Nov. 8 ballot as an initiative, would allow any resident of the state to file lawsuits against adult productions in which condoms aren’t visible. If the suits are successful, plaintiffs will receive a portion of the fines and damages assessed. A number of politicians, health-and-welfare organizations, attorneys and adult industry insiders have voiced concern the lawsuit provision will spawn a cottage industry devoted to for-profit litigation and harassment.
A similar ballot initiative, Measure B, passed in Los Angeles County in 2012. Like Prop 60, Measure B was the brainchild of AIDS Healthcare Foundation founder and President Michael Weinstein. The foundation Weinstein controls funded the initiative with the stated objective of making adult performers safer on the job.
According to L.A. County records, permits for adult film production dropped 95 percent during the first year after voters approved Measure B. Prop 60, the LADPH noted in its analysis, could have the same effect, doing more harm than good to the very people Weinstein has said it will protect.
In its most recent update briefing about the initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors noted:
The Department of Public Health reports that implementation of Proposition 60 would further drive the adult entertainment industry underground or to places that offer few protections for adult film workers. DPH notes that since the enactment of Measure B, there has been a decrease in number of entities filing for a film permit through DPH. According to DPH, this has limited the opportunity for DPH to monitor disease transmission and to provide appropriate interventions to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. In absence of disease control measures, DPH reports that there could be an increase in the number of sexually transmitted diseases. The magnitude of the increase would be extremely difficult to determine and to react to if adult film production is driven further underground. The DPH indicates that this could have the opposite of the desired effect of the ballot initiative, which is to increase the health and safety of adult film workers.
“This echoes everything performers have been saying for the past year,” said Michael Stabile, communications director for adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition. “Proposition 60 would destroy the very protocols that keep us safe on-set. Rather than increase productions with condoms, it would increase the continued migration of the industry out of state and would encourage others to go underground.
“Had Michael Weinstein spoken with working performers and other industry partners, he would have realize this long ago,” Stabile added. “This is why we have fought so hard against this measure and will continue to fight it.”
Proposition 60 is the only ballot measure opposed by all three major political parties in California: the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party. The initiative has been opposed by more than 50 local and issue-based political clubs, more than 45 newspaper editorial boards (including the state’s 10 largest papers), more than 100 HIV/AIDS organizations, doctors and civil rights advocates, and the performers’ groups APAC and APAG. Over the past several months, nearly 2,000 performers have campaigned against Prop 60 by speaking out at university campuses, farmers markets and on social media, as well as leading political rallies and protests.
