The ad, which appears in today’s LA Weekly on page three, lists the organizations that have come out in support of mandatory condom use in porn such as the Los Angeles Times, American Medical Association, American Public Health Association and the California STD Controllers Association.
The publisher’s assistant at LA Weekly, Melissa Faust, told XBIZ that her publisher, Beth Sestanovich, is in China and she would contact her as soon as possible to respond to our inquiries, which included questions on the ad’s placement, the paper’s guidelines on publishing ads of a sensitive nature and how much AHF paid for it.
The ad poses a question to Fiedling, “What else are you waiting for to protect the public’s health?” and directs viewers to call Fielding at his office or to go to AIDSHealth.org to send an e-letter.
In conjunction with the ad, AHF has also launched an online advocacy campaign asking the foundation’s members to contact Fielding.
“AHF calls on Dr. Fielding to join the growing chorus of thought leaders and health organizations that support mandatory condom use in adult films, and shut down all non-condom porn shoots in the county,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
“Unfortunately, despite clear regulatory requirements and actions taken by public officials, the adult film industry remains convinced it is above the law and continues to place its own interests above the health of performers.”
Many porn performers believe that mandating condoms is unrealistic, and unenforceable. Instead, they say, production shoots should be condom-optional where they would have the right to choose for themselves whether or not to use condoms.
The Free Speech Coalition’s Diane Duke was not available to comment, but has said in the past that the adult industry does a good job at keeping performers safe through its own sound health practices such as routine testing.
“AHF is demonstrating nothing but contempt for our industry,” Duke said in a statement during a Cal/OSHA meeting in October and called AHF’s tactics “political posturing.”
Porn studios also say that mandatory condom regulations will be detrimental to local productions.
“The position advocated by AHF will place adult industry workers in a far less protected environment than they are in now [and is] sure to drive production to locations where there are no protections," industry attorney Paul Cambria said.