Voters in California will make an unprecedented decision on Tuesday about whether to deputize themselves as condom police. The ballot measure is called Proposition 60, and if it passes it will require adult performers to wear condoms in scenes with “vaginal or anal penetration by a penis.” If they don’t, adult film producers, distributors, and anyone with a financial stake in the film could be fined, or even sued by California residents.
The measure reflects years of work by Michael Weinstein, president and founder of a $1.3 billion nonprofit organization called the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. In the 1980s, Weinstein fought against attempts to quarantine AIDS patients and founded the AIDS Hospice Foundation. But recently, his fight has shifted to porn. Since 2009, Weinstein has been petitioning the state to require better safeguards against sexually transmissible infections in the adult film industry. With several hearings, but no resolution, Weinstein pushed for a Los Angeles city law called Measure B that would require adult film performers to wear condoms. LA residents voted it into law in 2012, and in 2015, Weinstein and the AIDS Health Foundation went statewide, spending nearly $5 million dollars to get Prop 60 on the ballot and in front of voters.
The law goes far beyond forcing performers to wear condoms. Prop 60 would require producers of adult films to buy a license every two years, and to notify the state and pay a fee for each shoot. Producers would also need to pay for and provide performers with regular testing, vaccines against sexually transmissible infections, and protection from exposure to bodily fluids. Ostensibly, these requirements would “protect performers in the adult film industry and minimize the spread of sexually transmitted infections resulting from the making of adult films in California,” according to the measure. But opponents argue that Prop 60 is a badly conceived piece of proposed legislation that could endanger the very people it’s intended to protect — especially considering many performers are also “producers” of their own films.
