L.A. City Council Demands Condoms in Porn
After a nearly unanimous 9-1 vote, the Los Angeles City Council passed a ruling necessitating the use of condoms in all porn shoots taking place in L.A. The San Fernando Valley, the multi-billion dollar epicenter of the porn industry, falls under the jurisdiction of the ruling.
"It's a great day for the performers and safer sex in our society," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has been waging a largely lonely battle for mandatory condom use for years. "This is the first legislative body to take up the issue and the near-unanimous support is very gratifying."
The past few years have seen a number of outbreaks in the porn industry, with additional claims of orchestrated cover-ups. The city has gone so far as to halt all shoots during these periods.
Weinstein and Co. had been campaigning for the condom requirement for years with little success. They recently decided to gather signatures from voters on an initiative that would enforce mandatory condom use on shoots in Los Angeles. This forced the city council to act in an effort to save four million dollars on arranging a special vote for the proposal.
Porn industry lobbyists took umbrage with the government butting its head into how they conduct their business. "It's not about performer health and safety, it's about government regulating what happens between consenting adults," said Diana Duke of the Free Speech Coalition.
Forget strippers. If there was ever a strict libertarian battle for Ron Paul to pick in hopes of drumming up a surge, this is it. Rest assured though, porn aficionados. The regulation only applies to shoots in LA, so the whole rest of the world is open to all your filthy sexy needs.
[photo via AP]