The Los Angeles City Council passed a ruling, following an almost unanimous 9-1 vote, which requires the use of condoms in all porn shoots that take place in the Los Angeles. The multi-billion dollar center of the porn industry, the San Fernando Valley, also falls under the jurisdiction of the ruling from the city council.
“It’s a great day for the performers and safer sex in our society,” said Michael Weinstein, who is the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “This is the first legislative body to take up the issue and the near-unanimous support is very gratifying.”
Over the past couple of years, there have been a large number of outbreaks in the porn industry, with the city halting production during those outbreaks. There have also been claims made of additional cover-ups of outbreaks.
Weinstein and his group had been campaigning for the new rules for the past couple of years but did not experience any success. Recently, they decided to collect signatures from voters about an initiative that would make condom use mandatory when shooting porn movies in Los Angeles. The city council acted on this initiative so it could save close to four million dollars on putting together a special vote for the initiative.
Lobbyists for the porn industry took umbrage to the government interfering with how their business is conducted. “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.