US VOTERS TO SLAP CONDOMS ON PORN STARS

FREE....AIDS Healthcare Foundation volunteers Natella Johnston and Jeff Herman hand out free condoms in front of the 'Condom Nation' truck as part of its six-month, 25 state free condom hand-out tour.

LA COUNTY voters will decide in November whether to force porn actors to use condoms during movie shoots, in a ballot measure that marks a new front for an AIDS group that has long targeted the porn industry.

The initiative is the latest salvo against the industry, after the city of LA passed a similar requirement in January that has yet to be enforced.

Backers of the initiative submitted about 370,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, well over the 232,000 required, said Ged Kenslea, a spokesman for the group AIDS Healthcare Foundation that's behind the proposal. It would force health officials and regulators to enforce laws already on the books.

The manager of governmental affairs for the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk said the measure had enough signatures to go to voters, but it must still go before the county Board of Supervisors for final review. If county residents approve the measure, it could affect the way porn movies are made. Producers have warned they could move from LA to dodge the requirement.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an advocacy group and healthcare provider, has worked to get the initiative before voters as a public health effort to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

"You really couldn't ask for a better opponent than porn producers," said Michael Weinstein, the foundation's president. "Any amount of money they spend (to defeat the measure) would backfire because people have a low opinion of porn producers."

Weinstein's group succeeded in leading the LA City Council in January to approve a requirement that porn actors use condoms on the set as a condition of obtaining a film permit. But city officials are still working out the kinks on how to enforce the requirement, which would not apply to shoots inside movie studios, because those do not need a permit.

 

SAFE.....Porn star Jenna Jameson can only have only safe sex on an adult movie set if the vote passes in November.

The proposed ballot measure, if approved by voters, would require porn producers to get a health permit from LA County to make their movies showing explicit sex and nudity.

Weinstein, whose group began pushing for condoms in porn movies after an actor was infected with HIV eight years ago, said the ballot measure would impose more far-reaching controls on porn producers than the city rules. Using condoms on the set would be a requirement of the permit, whether the shoot was in a studio or elsewhere.

Existing California workplace laws mandate the use of condoms by porn actors, but AIDS Healthcare officials say the state statute isn't specifically aimed at the industry and is widely violated. The group expects that involving LA County health officials and the use of health permits, which already apply to everything from barbershops to restaurants, will win compliance.

Representatives from the porn trade group Free Speech Coalition have said efforts to force condoms on porn sets will threaten freedom of expression and lead to government overreach by regulating sexual behaviour between consenting adults. The vast majority of US porn movies are produced in LA, in particular, the San Fernando Valley. (Reuters)