L.A. City Council Approves Condom Ordinance for Porn Sets

The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday approved an ordinance requiring actors to use condoms on pornography film sets.

The council voted 9-1 to approve the ordinance requiring the city to enforce the condom requirement and forcing film companies to pay a fee for a film permit in order to pay for the inspections.

Councilman Mitchell Englander cast the lone dissenting vote.

The vote was a second procedural vote on the ordinance and required only a simple majority of the council to give final approval.

Council members last week voted unanimously to form a working group comprised of the City Attorney's Office, Police and Personnel departments and state occupational safety officials to figure out how to enforce the new requirements.     

"It's a great day for Los Angeles, a great day for the performers and a great day for safer sex," said AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who said he does not know of another city in the nation that has a similar requirement. "After you take all the shouting and the drama out of it, it's an issue of public health."

Last month, the city clerk certified about 71,000 petition signatures — more than the 41,138 necessary — collected by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to force the City Council to consider the initiative.

City law required the council to approve the initiative as an ordinance or place it before voters in an upcoming election. Council members and supporters said approving the ordinance would avoid the $4 million cost of putting it on the June ballot.

The cost of enforcing the ordinance would be borne by the industry, officials said.

The condom requirement was opposed by some actors in the industry. "It's pure politics. It's not going to make anybody safer," said Nina Hartley, an adult film actress and registered nurse. Hartley said the oversight will drive more filming underground.

She said adult film shoots require sexual intercourse that lasts 30-60 minutes. Hartley said wearing a condom for that long would lead to chafing, open sores and a greater risk of transmitting diseases.

"They're trying to paint us as "Typhoid Mary's.' It's slanderous," said Hartley, adding that there have only been two cases of HIV in the adult film industry in the last ten years.

Weinstein disputed the statistic saying it's much higher and doesn't account for thousands of cases of chlamydia and herpes that were contracted by adult film performers during that time.

"Self-regulation of any industry has been a calamity, whether its banks or others," Weinstein said. "You don't rely on the industry that stands to lose money by protecting the employees to take care of them. That's why we have an occupational health and safety administration."

A state law already exists requiring the use of "barrier protection" on adult film sets, but is rarely enforced, advocates of the measure say.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is leading a new ballot initiative to force the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to issue health permits for film shoots similar to restaurants, barber shops or massage parlors.

The campaign has gathered about 10,000 of more than 200,000 signatures required by June to put the issue before voters.

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