The porn industry lost a fight last Friday when a federal judge rejected their contention that forcing adult film performers to wear condoms during filming was unconstitutional. Los Angeles County Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed with a majority vote last November, something AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein called “a tremendous, tremendous victory, one that will got a long way to safeguard the health and safety of those adult performers working in the industry.”
California Productions and Vivid Entertainment, along with porn performer Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce, sued the county in January to bar the law, and though county officials declined to defend it, the AIDS Healthcare foundation was granted “intervener” status to defend against the porn industry’s law suit.
“The exercise of 1st Amendment freedoms cannot be limited by referendum,” the lawsuit said, as quoted by the L.A. Times. The ordinance stands “as an unconstitutional prior restraint upon protected expression.”
Unfortunately for the porn industry, the judge was less impressed by the evidence they presented from personal testimony as it was by the AIDS foundation, which mentioned established health risks.
“Plaintiffs [adult film industry,] by contrast, have presented evidence from individuals in the adult film industry, but not in the public health or medical profession, who claim testing is so effective and universal that condoms are unnecessary,” Pregerson wrote.
So in short, the government says you must be safe and protected, whether you want to or not. This has dual meaning for those in the industry. It means that performers can’t be forced to risk themselves with unprotected sex, but it also means that they also can’t choose to have unprotected sex, which might be more exciting for viewers. Telling performers how they must have sex for the camera – sounds to many like government infringment.