Voters deciding if porn actors must wear condoms

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sex stars are rallying against passage of a ballot measure that would require condoms in pornographic films.

If passed, Measure B on Tuesday's Los Angeles County ballot would force actors to wear condoms during porn shoots and it would require Department of Public Health inspections.

"The idea of allowing a government employee to come and examine our genitalia while we're on set is atrocious," sex film star Amber Lynn told the Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/YHmtQT ) during a Sunday rally outside the Dejavu strip club in North Hollywood.

The measure is backed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Condom use would be a condition for obtaining shooting permits. Porn producers would pay a fee to get permits, and the funds would be used to pay enforcement costs.

Michael Weinstein, executive director of the AIDS Heathcare Foundation, has spent more than $1.6 million on Measure B, according to county Registrar-Recorder's office figures.

"As a taxpayer, if I wasn't in the porn industry, I would be aghast at how much was being spent on supporting Measure B," Lynn said. "That's money that could have gone to supporting sex education, or help those suffering with HIV."

Sex-film stars insist an industry health protocol requiring regular HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia testing is enough.

But Weinstein said the adult-film industry's current testing methods have contributed to an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Additionally, he said, performers don't have medical insurance and taxpayers pay for their health care.

"Our goal is to protect performers, and I understand if they disagree with us," Weinstein said on Sunday.

Opponents of Measure B include the San Fernando Valley Industry and Commerce Association, the Free Speech Coalition and No on Government Waste.

Passage of Measure B, they said, could chase the porn industry from Los Angeles, taking away billions of dollars and 10,000 jobs.

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Information from: (Los Angeles) Daily News, http://www.dailynews.com