Porn Industry Condom Bill Shot Down in California

On Thursday, AB 1576, which would have mandated the use of condoms by all adult film performers in California, died in an Assembly committee, reported the Daily News.

The death of the bill is considered a victory for the pornography industry, which is worth $6 billion in California and $11 billion nationwide. If the bill eventually passed, thousands of production jobs, including makeup, lighting, carpentry, transportation, food service, payroll, web design, and acting would have left the state for less restrictive venues.

Assemblyman Isadore Hall III, D-Los Angeles, who authored AB 1576, claims that the bill was simply designed to protect the performers. “Here is the dirty little secret about porn production in California: It’s just work,” he explained. “Take away the racy titles and creative storylines found in many of these films, and adult film actors become, well, just workers.”

Not so, say members of the Canoga Park-based Free Speech Coalition. Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, say that AB 1576 would have undermined the industry and that it was unnecessary, because the industry already administers their own regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

Moreover, the News reported, Duke claims that the mounting of the bill by Hall galvanized the producers and workers to a point that she hadn’t seen in sometime. She said, “Out of this grows a stronger industry, one not intimidated by harassment campaigns like AB 1576. But the battle is not actually over, for we must always work to make sure our productions are safe and legal, that our performers have a strong voice in their own sexual health, and to keep a thriving industry in California.”

Breitbart News reported in May that porn actress Lorelei Lee claimed that the bill was “insulting” and “paternalistic.” According to her Twitter account, she is elated with the latest news, saying that she is “so happy that our work has been paid off… the workers have been heard.”