LOS ANGELES — A spokesman for the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act campaign let his words speak for the direction of the California ballot measure.
“The voters will decide in November,” spokesman Rick Taylor told XBIZ.
Tomorrow is the last day for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Michael Weinstein to pull his condom proposal from the November ballot.
But that is highly unlikely.
Weinstein, the proponent of the ballot measure and president of the AHF, for years has attempted to mandate barrier protection — including condoms, goggles and dental dams — on adult sets through legislation in the state. But his three bills all died in the Legislature.
Now, Weinstein is asking California voters to weigh in over what many call an existential threat to the industry in the state.
Taylor, the spokesman for the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act campaign, said the campaign will take a no-holds barred approach over the issues regarding the ballot measure.
“We will make sure that the voters of California understand the pornographers are breaking the rules and putting workers at risk every single day,” Taylor said. “We are going to correct that wrongdoing.
“That’s why we have over 1 million signatures of California voters who put this on the ballot to put an end to this terrible workplace environment. We look forward to a campaign with honesty and truthfulness."
If enacted, California's Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act would punish adult film producers with levy harsh civil fines for noncompliance of a mandatory condom law and its regulations.
It also could give Weinstein great control over the adult filmmaking industry in California. Weinstein, as the proposal’s chief enforcer, could personally file an unlimited number of lawsuits directly against adult film performers, producers and agents if passed. He also could use unlimited state funds to do so.
Just yesterday, two groups representing the adult industry — the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC) and the Californians Against Worker Harassment campaign — held a press conference and invited Weinstein to face off with adult performers over the issue of regulating adult filmmaking. But Weinstein was a no-show.
Eric Paul Leue, who leads the Californians Against Worker Harassment campaign as well as the Free Speech Coalition as executive director, proceeded with the press conference without Weinstein.
At the media event, Leue said that if voters pass Weinstein’s proposal, “what they will create is an unprecedented lawsuit model that will allow the bigots and rightwing activists in this state to hunt down our workers because of who they are and what they do for a living. And I feel that is frightening.”
Today, Leue told XBIZ that now “is time for the industry to unite and defeat this once and for all."
He emphasized that both major political parties in state — the California Democrats and California Republicans — have opposed the initiative, as well as major LGBTQ and HIV organizations.
“The industry has led a successful campaign by scoring these major oppositions which stand for about 13 million voters in the state,” he said.
Leue added that Taylor, who reps the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act campaign, is a "paid political operative who profits only if the measure goes to the ballot."
"More money from diverted from the AHF's nonprofit services goes into the pockets of this paid political hack," he said.
