ESPLER Project Joins Opposition to Prop 60

SAN FRANCISCO — In a statement tonight, the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project urged Californians to oppose ballot Proposition 60 in November.

ESPLERP joins numerous organizations opposing the measure, including the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), the Free Speech Coalition and both the California Democratic Party and California Republican Party. 

The proposed initiative won't make adult film workers safer, Maxine Doogan of ESPLERP said. Instead, she said, it threatens their safety and violates their privacy, by incentivising any private citizen to file lawsuits against individual workers and, most disturbingly, expose their home addresses and legal names.

“It is really perverse that Proposition 60 claims to be about adult film industry worker safety,” Doogan said. “Whereas it exposes workers to individual lawsuits of up to $1.5M, and creates a huge privacy loophole where they will become the targets of legally sanctioned stalking and trolling.”

“Prop 60 also allows the proponent of the proposition, a private individual who is bankrolling it, to enforce the law as a sworn in state employee,” noted Claire Alwyne of ESPLERP. “This sets a dangerous precedent whereby wealthy individuals can in effect buy legal power through ballot measures and circumvent the normal democratic process.”

“We urge the California public to vote ‘no’ on Prop 60 this Nov. 8,” Doogan said.

If passed by voters in November during the General Election, Prop 60 require performers in adult films to use condoms during production. It also would require producers to pay for performer vaccinations, testing, and medical examinations related to STIs and require them to obtain state health license and to post condom requirement at film sites.

Prop 60 also would impose liability on producers for violations, on certain distributors, on performers if they have a financial interest in the film involved and on talent agents who knowingly refer performers to noncomplying producers.

The initiative, which would cost about $1 million annually to regulate, also permits state, performers or any state resident, including possibly chief proponent of the initiative, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, to enforce violations. 

The state Legislative Analyst’s office, in a July 18 notation, said that, if passed, adult film wages and business income in California would likely decline and as a result the measure would likely reduce state and local tax revenues by several million dollars per year.