SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Nearly 500 adult performers have signed a petition asking legislators to vote no on California State Assembly Bill 1576, a proposed law that would codify onerous health-protection protocols on adult movie sets. Many performers say the bill violates their privacy and is so restrictive that it would push a legal industry underground.
Among performers’ and others’ objections: AB1576 would establish criminal penalties for failing to employ condoms when shooting sexually explicit scenes, require producers to log every performer’s sexual activities and force performers to waive their rights to medical privacy.
Independent groups representing talent, including the Adult Performers Advocacy Committee and the Erotic Service Providers Union, have joined 463 individual petitioners and adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition to oppose AB1576. The petition will be presented Wednesday during an Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing.
“This is an insulting and paternalistic bill,” said Lorelei Lee, a performer and one of the bill’s most vocal opponents. “This shows a total disregard for performers’ autonomy and threatens a vital safety infrastructure that we have spent 10 years building. AB1576 squanders resources addressing a problem that doesn’t exist. If the bill becomes law, it will, in fact, harm the people it claims it will protect.”
According to FSC Chief Executive Officer Diane Duke, AB1576 represents a collaboration between Michael Weinstein, the controversial head of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Assembly member Isadore Hall III [D-Compton], a Baptist minister. AB1576 is the third such bill the pair have attempted to advance through the state legislature.
“Performers shouldn’t have to give up control over their bodies,” Duke said. “We are a small community and not always the most political, but outrage has come from all areas of the industry — gay, straight, trans, fetish, studio and independent — to fight against a bill that criminalizes sex between consenting adults. More performers are signing this petition every day, and we look forward to presenting it Wednesday.”
During testimony before the state assembly in April, performer and registered nurse Nina Hartley called AB1576 “a solution in search of a problem.” She has been relentlessly outspoken about the bill.
“There has not been a single case of HIV transmission between performers on a regulated adult film set in over 10 years, and yet they treat us like a threat to public health, using shame, sexism and fear-mongering to dismiss our concerns about privacy, discomfort, rights and safety,” she said.
A PDF of the petition is available [email=joanne@freespeechcoalition.com]upon request[/email].
