Los Angeles County declines to force condom use in porn films

Los Angeles County officials Tuesday rebuffed demands from an AIDS activist group that the county’s public health officials take immediate action to require performers in porn films to wear condoms.

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FOR THE RECORD
Added at 11:57 a.m. March 2: An earlier version of this post carried the headline “L.A. County can't require condoms for porn actors, officials say.” As the post notes, county health officials said it would be difficult or costly to carry out such a policy. The headline has been updated to reflect that.

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County officials said the California Legislature would need to approve legislation that would require condom use for pornography shoots. They said it would be difficult to try to regulate the porn industry through the county's Public Health Department.

"It is very, very difficult to implement. There are roughly 200 production companies with about...1,200 actors,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county's public health chief. “All you need is a room and a camera and a bed, basically, to do this kind of shoot, and we have no ability to police this.”

Fielding said that it would be difficult for public health officials to prove if the movies were produced in L.A. County or elsewhere, as producers often do not apply for filming licenses. In a memo to supervisors on Sept. 17, health officials warned such an effort would be costly, as the public health department would need to identify filming sites and monitor compliance, which would require significant staff time.

"We worked closely with county counsel trying to see if there’s some other way that we could effectively do this under existing authority, and what we’ve come up with is, basically, we’re unlikely to to have an effective approach to prevent them from acquiring preventable STDs,” Fielding said Tuesday. “It’s very disturbing to come to that conclusion, but we also have to be realistic.”

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district includes the San Fernando Valley, agreed that adult film performers are vulnerable to sexually-transmitted diseases and said they deserve some kind of protection through the law. But he said the state’s legislators would need to act.

“I think the only answer to this at the end of the day is a statewide approach to this, which would also empower law enforcement, and you run sting operations,” he said.  “All you’ve got to do is make one or two arrests and the rest of the...industry will understand pretty quickly that there’s a risk."

Yaroslavsky said, however, that not a single California lawmaker has been willing to sponsor such legislation.

Fielding’s department testified to California lawmakers in 2004 asking the Legislature to approve a law that would regulate the adult film industry; require condom use during filming; implement STD screening requirements, which would be paid by the industry; and have film companies pay for the local cost of monitoring compliance.

Brian Chase, assistant general counsel for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, accused the county of having “done nothing” to protect adult film performers during Tuesday’s meeting.

In December, an L.A. County Superior Court judge dismissed the foundation’s petition seeking a court order to compel county health officials to require condom use on porn sets or take other reasonable steps to stem the spread of disease. The court ruled that the county has broad discretion in how it oversees public health.

-- Rong-Gong Lin II at the L.A. County Hall of Administration

Comments

[Ruby Jackson]

C'mon, how hard is this to monitor? You watch the movie, if the actors aren't wearing condoms, you fine the production company.

[Sean]

I personally offer my services to the government to get paid a government salary to sit around all day watching pornos to make sure everyone is wearing a rubber.

[Mark]

I was thinking the exact same thing, Ruby Jackson! This is really easy.

[Kevin]

What kind of bureaucratic laziness is this? At the very least, require it and allow people to sue if it is not enforced by the studio. They should also walk into the studios and do spot checks once in a while. Look at the film or video the studio has just been recording. If there are violations, fine them. If the fines are big enough, the violations won't be worth the risk of getting caught. Start with one inspector and let the fines he collects pay his/her salary.

[Efron Herta]

Too much big brother.

[Overlord]

Where can I apply for the job of watching the xxx movies "monitor compliance" ? It sounds like a great job.

[jeff]

This is news????????

[Nhat]

"C'mon, how hard is this to monitor? You watch the movie, if the actors aren't wearing condoms, you fine the production company."

How would you prove that it was filmed in LA County?

[jt]

I'll go to the film sites and monitor the film shoots for nothing.

[Bob]

Why do we even allow porn to be filmed here? I mean, aren't porn "actors" really just prostitutes? Sex for money? Couldn't they be busted for that alone?

[jab00]

Um, it's actually not that easy. There are probably dozens and dozens of shoots made daily. Who will be watching all that porn? The staffing for this is just not practical. Porn actors/actresses are adults. They know they are taking a risk.

[freud5137]

What I find humorous is the claim that they have no way to police it when there's a camera! There seems to be a pretty obvious way you could enforce such legislation.

[kob]

I thought the porn industry was one business that CA couldn't drive out of state. I guess I was wrong.

[bill]

Ruby -- easy, you film it in Vegas (or claim to). Less money for an already broke CA.

[jimmyd2]

"C'mon, how hard is this to monitor? You watch the movie, if the actors aren't wearing condoms, you fine the production company. "

You missed the part of the article that stated the obvious "how do you know whether the movie was filmed in Los Angeles County". Such an ordinance would only be enforceable in Los Angeles County. Suspecting where a movie was filmed and proving it beyond reasonable doubt would be problematic. That is the reason for the recommendation that the California legislature take up the matter.

[masterpuff theater]

The last time I checked, porn stars weren't running through the streets infecting innocent civilians. If people want to have sex for money, they assume the risks of such a lifestyle. Hey Zev, we live in the San Fernando valley, how about protecting us from uninsured drivers, scam artists, crooked businesses and homeless vagrants.

[Christine Beatty]

Perhaps you skimmed the story so fast you missed this, Roby: "Fielding said that it would be difficult for public health officials to prove if the movies were produced in L.A. County or elsewhere." The county health department only has jurisdiction over LA County, to prosecute a case they'd have to *prove* where it was shot.

And with 200 production companies producing thousands of films every year, staff would have to be hired just to review movies. Would you like your police and fire protection cut to pay for that? How about schools? I know, we'll just raise taxes more. Does that work for you?

[allaire8]

In gay adult films condom use is standard. It wasn't, of course, years ago. I always thought there was a law requiring condom use, but if not that means gay movie production companies and performers willfully using them and have for many years. Certainly not eveyone has the HIV virus, and it's down among the gay population in comparison to other groups, but there's also all the other STDs as well. Not that the performers have anything, but the HIV virus does not discriminate as we see around the world. Some performers do straight and gay movies. I know they getting tested often, but it just seems safe.

[Mike]

Last I checked, adult film actors and actresses as a group are a very clean set of people. They voluntarily test themselves periodically, and many productions and actors / actresses will not work with people who do not have recent paperwork. It's in their own best interests to be self policing. I would trust a porn actress to tell me she's clean over some random girl at a bar any day of the week.

Yes, a few outbreaks have occurred and have received media attention, but it is the exception, not the rule. As a percentage it's very small compared to the number of actors and number of encounters in total in the industry. Much smaller than in the general population, I would wager a guess. I don't see a huge pandemic that would warrant the enforcement of condom usage.

[Michelle]

If you can required construction workers to wear helmets, gloves for restaurant workers, truck drivers to wear seat belts, why not condoms for actors? If the film industry needs to appliy for permits before filming in any location, why not the porn film industry?

[ludachrist]

@jEFF..IF YOU DONT LIKE THE STATION, CHANGE THE CHANNEL.

[kseniya michelle stubblefield]

i am a beginner in the industry and kind of freaked out by the idea that there is so many sicknesses are going around! how am i supposed to believe that i wont be that % of the unlucky ones? And i don't get why no one around are afraid for their life? i know too many people who's life are not the same because of a simple std that can not be cured! i am totally up for the law of condoms. there should be a law for the constant use of condoms period!!!