This afternoon, April 2nd, the California Assembly’s Committee on labor and Employment took up AB1576, a bill from Assemblymember Isadore Hall (D-AHF) which would require condoms and other protective barriers in all adult production within the state, as well as 14-day testing, medical record keeping and more.
AHF-sponsored witnesses in support of AB1576 included Cameron Bay and Rod Daily (both of whom carefully sidestepped the fact that they were not infected on an adult film set ), Hayden Winters, AHF employee Darren James, and Jessie Rogers.
Rod Daily and Cameron Bay
Bay brought up the infamous bloody penis again, implying (falsely) that she may have been infected on a set for Kink.com. Her scene partner is HIV-negative, making that impossible.
She also lied to the committee, saying she had been “a performer for all of three months ” when she contracted HIV. In truth, she had been performing in adult content since 2008.
Former gay porn performer Daily told the committee that he never contracted STDs in gay porn because he used condoms in addition to getting tested — but never mentioned that the only reason he tested (infrequently at that) was so that he could work for a company owned by Manwin (now Mindgeek) which requires performers to subscribe to the PASS testing protocols from “straight” porn production. Daily did not elaborate on how he contacted HIV.
Oddly, Daily spent much of his time talking about the “straight” side of the adult business, asserting that most performers want condoms: “I’m sure they would all like to use condoms, but no one says anything because they’re scared.”
Winters claimed she contracted HPV and herpes, and mentioned her old buddy Derrick Burts, who contracted HIV in 2010. However, Winters failed to mention that Burts too did not contract HIV on a California porn set. Nor did she mention that Burts claimed to have contracted it on a set where condoms were used.
Assemblymember Hall made a series of outrageous claims, including that the adult industry “largely ignored” the production moratoria in 2013. Anyone with access to social media would know that’s a lie — as evidenced here.
And Rand Martin, a representative from AHF, disputed whether adult production is leaving California, stated that adult production in only legal in California and New Hampshire, and that in addition to being illegal to shoot in Las Vegas/Clark County, Nevada, adult production would also be governed by the laws regarding sex work which mandate condom use.
Witnesses in opposition to the bill included adult performer and RN Nina Hartley, Free Speech Coalition‘s Jeffrey Douglas and Diane Duke, and Kink.com’s Mike Stabile.
Douglas obliterated the AHF argument that adult production would be illegal in Nevada, pointing out that such production takes place across the county every day, and further that there has been no criminal prosecution of adult production in ANY state since the 1988 Freeman case which legalized such production in California. Given more time, he likely would have also mentioned that government agencies in Nevada has given licenses to studios whose very business is to shoot adult content.
Moreover, Douglas made it clear that Nevada’s laws regarding condoms in prostitution (in legal brothels) only related to sex workers interacting with members of the public (not with each other on film or video), and furthermore that prostitution is illegal in Clark County, so there are no condom laws there to be (mis)applied to adult production in the first place.
He also argued that until the 9th Circuit’s decision in the Measure B case is rendered, no similar legislation should be made on a state level because a ruling that mandatory condoms and other barriers are an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech would also invalidate AB1576.
In the end, the Committee voted to send AB 1576 to the Assembly’s Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee.
“Once again, they chose moral posturing and emotion over facts, science and logic,” Hartley told TRPWL.
For now, the bill moves forward.
Well, from what I heard it wasn’t a great day up there. I’m pretty sure the bill will make it out of that committee but will then go on to near certain death in the Arts and Entertainment committee, which is pretty much an extension of the entertainment business overall, which doesn’t like porn but likes governmental meddling in the production process even less. I’ve said before and will say again that no bill of this kind will ever go to a floor vote. The Leslie Bill didn’t and Hall’s scrambled nonsense has even less of a chance. It’s just… Read more »
Here’s a good example of the strategic blowback from the porno-bucks for California argument against mandatory condoms: “Before voting, Chairman Hernández also weighed in, stating that while he had declined to vote on Hall’s condom bill last year, he would be voting in support of it this year, and encouraged the others to do the same, saying, “I’m not comfortable with the argument that we need to protect an industry’s profits on the back of a worker. So I am proud to support this bill today.” Every time some producer makes an economics-based argument they provide that kind of ammunition… Read more »
I agree with you, Mr. Greene.
When the issues include rights and liberties, you need INDIVIDUALS to testify: adult performers, directors, small business owners. “Industries” can’t assert individual rights and liberties
Am in total agreement with Ernest here, and I’ve been arguing the same point for quite a while that you just don’t use only conservative/libertarian arguments on an electorate or a body of government that is far more liberal/progressive. This was as much the case for Measure B as it was for this current bill, and could very well lead to ultimate disaster. The focus should have been on the essential threat to free speech and expression, as well as the use of performers as unwilling guniea pigs for social engineering efforts, as well as educating the public on how… Read more »
Jessica Drake has spoken against the government mandating condoms in porn and the company she works for, Wicked Pictures, has mandatory condom use. Drake prefers to be a condom only performer but in a Slate interview, Drake did say condoms are “very uncomfortable for long periods of time.” Defenders of Measure B dismiss people such as Nina Hartley saying that condoms being used for hours can cause irritation to women and yet Drake, who regularly uses condoms in sex scenes, is backing up what Hartley has been saying. Wicked Pictures has mandatory condom use for intercourse and yet Wicked Pictures… Read more »