Posted on 11/11/2012 12:48:30 PM PST by NYer
LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A referendum passed on Tuesday is drawing attention to the unhealthy conditions of the pornography industry—and how pornographers profit by placing young people at risk of diseases from syphilis to AIDS.
On November 6th, Los Angeles County voters passed a referendum requiring pornographers to wear condoms to cut an outbreak of disease.
Critics say porn producers, who make $14 billion a year, put money over safety by insisting that sex scenes with condoms don’t sell.
The industry threatened to move its studios, 90 percent of the which are located in the San Fernando Valley, elsewhere.
Although porn’s defenders say the films are harmless adult entertainment, the statistics show the harm the industry causes to its actors.
A study cited by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the group behind the measure, found that 97 percent of pornographic films are made without condoms and cites some staggering STD statistics to garner support for the measure:
- Compared to the Los Angeles community at-large, performers are up to 64 times more at-risk for gonorrhea and 34 times for Chlamydia.
- The annual prevalence rate of gonorrhea and chlamydia in the adult industry is estimated to be more than seven times higher than in the general population of sexually active adults.
- Women in the adult industry are at the highest risk of infection. For instance, three quarters of all cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia were reported in women during a four year period.
Industry producers claim their self-regulatory, required monthly STD tests render the condom mandate unnecessary. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation counters with, “Testing is not prevention. It is an established medical fact that testing does not prevent transmission of disease.”
The “Yes on B” campaign was bolstered by the support of past and present industry actors.
One male pornstar made headlines in 2010 when the industry temporarily shut down due to his contraction of HIV after a seven-month stint in the business. Derrick Burts, originally known in the headlines as “Patient Zeta” claims he contracted the virus on set.
The industry halted productions again this August, when producers found out a male performer had been hiding positive syphilis test for weeks. The scare came in the midst of campaign season, bringing more attention to Measure B.
The newly passed measure will require industry titans to pay filming permits, which cost $11,000 for two years. The permit fees will finance regular inspections to ensure compliance with the new regulation.
Porn producers claimed the measure is unconstitutional. The Free Speech Coalition immediately announced plans to file a lawsuit to overturn the law on behalf of the “adult entertainment” industry.
Pornography production is only legal in California, New Hampshire and Nevada. Nevada already has the condom mandate in place.
Patrick Trueman of Morality in Media told LifeSiteNews.com that the new ordinance only deals with the physical harms and ignores other lasting forms of damage.
“While Measure B might provide a measure of protection for porn stars, it does nothing to protect the millions of consumers of porn,” said Trueman, Morality in Media’s president. “They suffer many consequences such as life-long addiction, broken marriages and relationships, broken dreams and destroyed lives. Scientific research on the effects of pornography is now overwhelming and the inescapable conclusion is, porn harms!”
There are some notable medical issues that bear discussion. (I happen to despise nosy politicians even more than immoral porn).
1. Porn stars aren’t getting AIDS. Undoubtedly, they are tested regularly, but the reality is that they’re getting ordinary STDs. Of course unprotected anal sex with an infected man remains an effective way to transmit AIDS, and there is plenty of that in porn, but if the guy never receives anal sex (or shares needles), then he’ll never get it to pass on.
2. Comparing STD rates to the community, or sexually active adults (which includes marrieds) is junk science. The comparison is with active singles, or some such.
3. That 3/4 of cases are among women is also junk science, because we don’t know size of the male and female porn populations.
4. The male performer who says he got HIV on the job did gay porn.
“Los Angeles County voters passed a referendum requiring pornographers to wear condoms to cut an outbreak of disease.”
Shouldn’t it be the same for homosexuals? If not why not?
Homo’s spread more disease than pornographers and prostitutes
combined.
Not much of a change there, people are still getting screwed there...
Regards,
GtG
Since the rest of Hollywood is already here, They should come to GA to film
No Pun intended
Let's get all the females from 12 to 52 on long-term hormonal implants. Let's give Planned Parenthood a hundred million dollars to scatter glitter over the "slut" concept for all the dear young Vagina-Americans. And then let's see if we can get the gonorrhea rate to double every six weeks.
Pretty soon all the girls will be sterile from untreated gonorrhea, and --- No conceptions! No pregnancies! No births!
In a generation, no future, no America, no more human life. It's much better than condoms, better than Abortion Rights! It's the Final Solution!
It’s all a good measure of how angry the rest of the world really is with the US Constitution!!!!!!!
“Shouldn’t it be the same for homosexuals? If not why not?”
difference between private bedrooms and commercial enterprise that can be publicly regulated
“While Measure B might provide a measure of protection for porn stars, it does nothing to protect the millions of consumers of porn,”
Condoms will take away much of the fantasy in porn. That’s a good start.
“Simply reading, considering and/or discussing the initiative violates the public conscience.”
If the ballot measure wasn’t there, the $14 billion industry would still exist.
True. But regardless how we voted, the ballot measure made us all complicit in the porn industry.
*** I ran a distribution center next door to a porn studio in Tampa Florida....
Believe it or not, it is now a IRS building****
So no change was there.
Darn it! Beat me to it!
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