CANOGA PARK, Calif. – An appellate court on Monday declined to grant an injunction against Los Angeles County’s controversial Measure B, meaning for the foreseeable future all performers employed in the production of sexually explicit materials in the county are required to wear condoms.
L.A. County voters approved Measure B in November 2012. In addition to requiring performers to wear so-called barrier protection, the local ordinance also mandates that studios fund health testing and pay onerous licensing fees. Vivid led a group of adult industry insiders in a constitutional challenge to the ordinance; the case awaits trial.
In its ruling, the 9[SUP]th[/SUP] Circuit Court of Appeals was careful to state the court was not weighing in on the core issues of the case. The decision affects only the request for an injunction that would have stopped enforcement of parts of the ordinance not already enjoined by lower courts.
“While this intermediate decision allows that condoms may be mandated, it doesn’t mean they should be,” said Diane Duke, chief executive of adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition. “We have spent the past two years fighting for the rights of adult performers to make their own decisions about their bodies and against the stigma against adult film performers embodied in the statute. Rather than protect adult performers, a condom mandate pushes a legal industry underground where workers are less safe.
“This is terrible policy that has been defeated in other legislative venues,” she added.
By some accounts, L.A. County—the epicenter of adult entertainment production in the U.S.—has seen a 95 percent drop in adult film permits since the passage of Measure B. Within one year of the measure’s passage, L.A. County’s film-permit revenues reportedly dropped by $500,000.
Duke said much adult film production has moved into neighboring counties and out of state, most notably to Las Vegas.
Under standards enforced by the industry, adult film performers must test every 14 days for a full-slate of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, in order to work. Duke repeatedly has said there been not a single incidence of HIV transmission on a regulated adult film set in more than a decade.
