HIV Advocate Pushes Mandated Condom Use in Porn

An HIV/AIDS advocate who for years has pushed required condom use in the adult film industry as a condition for film permits is now taking his fight to the next level.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles City Council in a 9-1 vote gave final approval to an ordinance requiring porn actors to wear condoms. Industry representatives had opposed the ordinance as governmental regulation gone overboard.

But Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, called the new rule “a great day for the performers and safer sex in our society" and now plans to collect signatures for an equivalent Los Angeles County measure.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

"This is a case study in the power of persistence," Weinstein said in an interview. He noted that the concept of allowing drug users to exchange needles, once seen as untouchable, finally gained acceptance as a way to protect people from HIV.

Weinstein has pushed state legislators and the County Board of Supervisors to back mandatory condom use, but has received little support. No state lawmakers have been willing to sponsor legislation, Weinstein said, and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said in 2010 that the state, not the county Department of Public Health, should be dealing with the matter. (Read the report here.)

Weinstein said that self-regulation within the porn industry is ineffective. "It's in their DNA to not have anybody tell them anything about how they do business," he said.
In truth, there are laws already in place that require safety for any work environment where there is a risk that might endanger any employee...(just ask Treasure Island Media who got slapped with unsafe work environment fines from Cal OSHA)
The truth is, it's a multi-billion dollar business (predominately str8) that practice condomless porn (take note, Cal OSHA has only been busting gay ones)
And I'm betting LA is about to lose a lot of business.