FSC: “Measure B Decision will Hurt Performers”
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announced today that it would decline to issue an injunction to stop Measure B, the 2012 ballot measure which seeks mandate condoms in adult film produced in Los Angeles County.
This latest decision is not a ruling on the constitutionality of Measure B, but rather a decision declining to enjoin the rest of the statute at this time. A lower court has struck down the enforcement component of the law; this latest ruling does not change that decision.
Diane Duke, CEO of Free Speech Coalition, has issued the following statement on the Ninth Circuit’s decision in the Measure B case —
This latest decision is not a ruling on the constitutionality of Measure B, but rather a decision declining to enjoin the rest of the statute at this time. Previous courts have struck down the enforcement component of the law; this latest ruling does not change that decision.
While this intermediate decision allows that condoms may be mandated, it doesn’t meant they should be. I have spent the last two years fighting for the rights of adult performers to make their own decisions about their bodies, and against the stigma of adult film performers embodied in the statute.
Rather than protect adult performers, a condom mandate pushes a legal industry underground where workers are less safe. This is terrible policy that has been defeated in other legislative venues.
Los Angeles County has seen a 95 percent drop in permits since the passage of Measure B, as adult film production has moved into neighboring counties, and out of state, most notably to Las Vegas.
Under standards enforced by the industry, in order to work, adult film performers must test every 14 days for a full-slate of STIs, including HIV. There has not been a transmission of HIV on a regulated adult film set in over a decade.
Plaintiffs in the case are considering all options for moving forward and will make a decision in the coming weeks.
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So, essentially, if we are to trust the Ninth Appelate Court’s ruling, porn performers have no more protection from the “tyranny of the majority” when it comes to regulating their profession out of business than strippers in even private venues. Essentially, sexual expression remains third-class speech, justifiable to be censored and throttled at the whim of the State.
I guess that those moving vans to Vegas can start rolling now…until Nevada (or the federal branch of OSHA) drops the condom mandate hammer down as well.