WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Daily News, whose circulation is primarily based in the San Fernando Valley where much of porn is shot, says in an editorial today that an initiative requiring county health permits for porn production makes sense but that another initiative to force condoms on movie sets in the city of Los Angeles is flawed.
"It's hard to imagine that voters, faced with far more important issues, such as a presidential election, would much care who wears condoms and where they wear them," the editorial said of the city ballot initiative. "For most people, the health of porn actors is a remote issue — not to mention a personal choice.
"And does a city that can't police medical marijuana dispensaries or rogue billboards hope to enforce a law to wear condoms on movie sets?"
The Daily News said that the AHF's ballot measure that would mandate L.A. County porn movie producers to get health permits, just as owners of tattoo parlors, massage parlors and bathhouses, is the more reasonable of the initiatives.
"While producers of porn movies would be required to pay for inspections, and face fines if they violated the law, profits for adult movies are such that even a proposed $1,000 fine would be worth the risk of being caught. And what's to say that as soon as the inspector leaves the set the condoms wouldn't come off?
"The San Fernando Valley is a major center for porn movie production, so there's justification behind requiring a county health permit."
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation begin circulating petitions last month asking Los Angeles County voters to require porn performers to wear condoms during filming. The group qualified last month for a similar ballot measure in the city of Los Angeles, but that initiative still faces a legal hurdle with the City Attorney, which has sued the AHF and seeks an injunction over the measure.
The move to go countywide would dramatically expand AHF's mandatory-condom proposal's reach. Los Angeles County covers some 4,000 square miles and is home to over a quarter of all California residents, including the city of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, also known as Porn Valley.
To qualify for the countywide November election, the AHF needs more than 200,000 signatures by June 5.
The Daily News called the AHF's goal to combat the spread of AIDS "virtuous."
"[C]onsidering that the porn industry already operates on the fringes, it's hard to believe that any new law that's easy to thwart would get much compliance," the Daily News said.
