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Smart Voter
Los Angeles County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
Measure B
Safer Sex In the Adult Film Industry Act
County of Los Angeles

Ordinance - Majority Approval Required

Pass: 1,617,866 / 56.96% Yes votes ...... 1,222,681 / 43.04% No votes

See Also: Index of all Measures

Results as of Dec 2 2:20pm, 100.00% of Precincts Reporting (4,993/4,993)
Information shown below: Official Information | Impartial Analysis | Arguments |

Shall an ordinance be adopted requiring producers of adult films to obtain a County public health permit, to require adult film performers to use condoms while engaged in sex acts, to provide proof of blood borne pathogen training course, to post permit and notices to performers, and making violations of the ordinance subject to civil fines and criminal charges?

Official Sources of Information

Impartial Analysis from
John F. Krattli,
County Counsel
Measure B is a citizens' initiative measure that qualified for placement on the ballot based upon a sufficient number of registered voters signing a petition proposing this ballot measure. If approved by the voters, the measure would adopt an ordinance amending the Los Angeles County Code, adding Chapter 11.39, entitled "Adult Films," to Title 11, Health and Safety, and amending Section 22.56.1925 to Title 22, Zoning. To the extent provided by State law, the measure is intended to be applicable throughout the County.

The proposed amendment would require producers of adult films to obtain a public health permit from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (the "Department") in order to engage in the production of adult films for commercial purposes, and to pay a permit fee set by the Department to offset the cost of enforcement. The measure would require the use of condoms for all acts of anal or vaginal sex during the production of adult films, as well as the posting of both the public health permit and a notice to performers regarding condom use. Producers are required to provide a written exposure control plan describing how the ordinance will be implemented. A "producer" means any person or entity that produces, finances or directs adult films for commercial purposes.

Violation of the ordinance would be subject to both civil fines and criminal misdemeanor charges. The Department would be authorized to enforce the provisions of the ordinance, including suspending or revoking the public health permit due to violations of the ordinance, or any other law including applicable provisions of the Health and Safety Code, blood borne pathogen standard, California Code of Regulations, or the exposure plan of the producer. Suspension or revocation of the public health permit requires notice and an opportunity for an administrative review, unless the Department found or reasonably suspected immediate danger to the public health and safety, in which case the Department could immediately suspend or revoke the public health permit, initiate a criminal complaint, or issue a fine, pending an administrative hearing.

The measure, if approved by the voters, may only be repealed by a subsequent vote of the electors or by an amendment of the Los Angeles County Charter superseding the ordinance. The Board of Supervisors is authorized to amend the ordinance by a majority vote in order to further the purposes of the measure.

This measure requires a majority vote of the qualified voters in the County of Los Angeles who cast votes in the election.

Contact FOR Measure B:
Yes on B
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
6255 W. Sunset Blvd. 21st Fl.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 860-5200

Contact AGAINST Measure B:
No on B
No on Government Waste Committee
6380 Wilshire Blvd #1216
Los Angeles, CA 90048-5018

  Official Information

Memorandum to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors from County Counsel John F. Krattli
Campaign Finance Data

Maplight / Voters Edge (Measures A & J included)
Pros & Cons from LWV / L.A. County

The Situation: Existing state law requires, among other things, that sex performers be protected from sexually transmitted infections by condoms. The County Department of Public Health and others dealing with public health issues are concerned about an on-going epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases and its relation to the adult film industry.

The Proposal: Require those making adult sex films in Los Angeles County to obtain a Public Health permit, abide by existing law, and pay a fee to cover the costs of administration and enforcement. Let the Board of Supervisors amend the ordinance in keeping with its purposes.

Supporters say the failure of the adult film industry to use condoms to address the spread of preventable sexually transmitted diseases, including the current outbreak of syphilis, to performers and to the wider community burdens the general public. Without health insurance, performers are an economic as well as a health risk. This is not a free speech issue; it is a public health and safety issue.

Opponents say that safe sex practices are a good idea but should not be forced on adult film performers, that doing so would drive the industry out of Los Angeles County. Every actor is tested at least monthly; driving problems underground would only increase the risk, not reduce it. This measure would kill thousands of jobs in Los Angeles County, not just actors but craftspeople, caterers, etc., and expose the county to the potential of expensive law suits.

A Yes vote would support putting the ordinance in place, providing county oversight of the adult film industry.

A No vote would leave the situation unchanged.
News and Analysis

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Arguments For Measure B Arguments Against Measure B
A YES vote for Measure "B" is a vote to safeguard public health and for workplace protection.

The American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and all major public health institutions favor the use of condoms in the making of pornographic films. Nevertheless, condoms are rarely used in the making of most adult films, resulting in thousands of performers contracting preventable sexually transmitted infections, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, herpes, hepatitis, and HIV. Reputable scientific studies have shown that adult film performers are far more likely to acquire these infections than the general population. Multiple HIV infections have been documented in this legal industry since 1998, resulting in several shutdowns of the industry. Infections acquired within the industry are spread to the larger community.

Porn producers claim that requiring condoms will be a financial hardship on their industry. However, the lifetime cost of treating an HIV infection is more than $567,000. Since these performers are not provided health insurance by porn producers, this cost is most likely to be borne by taxpayers of Los Angeles County, as health care provider of last resort. The taxpayers are subsidizing the porn business. On the other hand, 100% of all costs of the permits and inspections required by this initiative are covered by the pornographers.

It isn't fair to ask the general public to pick up the tab for irresponsibility of this industry. It isn't fair that people, and the community as a whole, are contracting infections, some of them life threatening and lifelong, in order to make a living. Pornographers should not be exempt from the basic safety rules that protect everyone else. Public health should not be sacrificed on the false claim that this is a free speech issue; this is a public health and safety issue.

Vote yes on "B"!

JEFFREY D. KLAUSNER, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine, UCLA

RICHARD POLANCO
Senator Retired

PAULATAVROW,Ph.D.
Director Bixby Program on Population and Reproductive Health, UCLA

MICHAEL WEINSTEIN
President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation

MARK ROY MCGRATH, MPH
Public Health Analyst, UCLA

Rebuttal to Arguments For
Measure B is a ridiculous waste of tax dollars.

It would throw hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars, every year, at an imaginary threat. It would send government inspectors, at full salary and benefits, to adult film sets to ensure actors are not only wearing condoms but rubber gloves, goggles and lab coats. This is money we need for real public health threats.

Measure B's backers falsely claim a health threat in the adult film industry. Every single actor is tested at least monthly. In 8 years, not one has contracted HIV on a set anywhere in the U.S. In fact, by driving film productions underground where there is no testing and no industry regulations, actors would be less safe, not more. Moreover, the Department of Public Health warns that Measure B would expose the County to expensive lawsuits + wasting money needed for real public health risks.

While we are wasting tax dollars for no reason, we are also driving a vital source of jobs out of state. The adult film industry employs thousands of people out of L.A. County: not just actors, but lighting and sound engineers, caterers, craftspeople, etc. This is exactly what we do NOT need during this recession.

Measure B is a ridiculous waste of tax dollars, kills thousands of jobs, is unnecessary, and does nothing to protect public health.

Vote NO on Measure B.

STUART WALDMAN
President of VICA (Valley Industry and Commerce Assoc.)

DR. PETER MIAO
Infectious Disease Specialist

DIANE DUKE
CEO Free Speech Coalition

PAMELA J. BROWN, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics

RANDALL WEISSBUCH, MD
Physician

Safe sex practices are a good idea. However, they shouldn't be forced on adult film actors. Our individual rights have been fading fast since the Patriot Act.

Do-gooders such as New York Mayor Bloomberg seek to create a nanny state where our behavior is increasingly regulated for our own good. Bloomberg decreed that people must buy soft drinks in small cups, because they could become obese if they bought larger sizes. Measure B declares that adult film actors would have to wear condoms during filming. This isn't much different than regulating the size of soda a person can buy. Do you like the idea of busybodies forcing people to do what is healthful for them? If not, vote NO.

Measure B would destroy the adult film industry in Los Angeles County, and it's quite a big industry here. Film producers tried using condoms during the HIV scare of the 1990s, and people refused to watch the movies. So will the producers just stop making these films? No. They will likely move to areas where they have the freedom to make the kinds of films they want to make, most likely to other counties or other states.

Measure B also creates an expensive government bureaucracy at the same time as budgets and services are being cut. Do we really want our tax dollars paying for government agents to go to movie sets and look at how sex acts are being performed? And would the film producers who get permits for their shoots now even bother in the future, if they are being faced with all these new regulations?

Whether you agree with the supporters of Measure B or not, it's a bad idea to impose their standards through force of law. They may regulate your business or your sex life the next time around. Vote NO on Measure B.

NANCY C. ZARDENETA
Chair, Libertarian Party of Los Angeles County

PAMELA J. BROWN, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics

RANDALL WEISSBUCH, M.D.
Physician

JOHN URIBE
Civil Liberties Attorney

TED BROWN
Small Business Owner

Rebuttal to Arguments Against
Comparing drinking soda pop to the immediate risk of infection with a sexually transmitted disease on the job trivializes the threat facing porn performers. The current outbreak of syphilis in the porn industry is living proof that having sex in adult films without a condom is a clear and immediate threat to the health of these performers and our community.

It is widely accepted that when you are on the job you are afforded protection that you may or may not choose to exercise in your own home. If you wish to make home repairs without gloves or a hard hat that is your own business. When you get paid to perform a task, workplace health and safety rules apply. Porn is a legal industry. Performers are paid to perform and they are entitled to the same on the job protection that every other person enjoys.

Measure B makes clear that no public dollars will be spent to enforce condoms in porn. All of the costs will be carried by porn producers. Sex acts in your bedroom are a strictly private matter. When filming is done for money it is a public matter. Why should people or even animals that appear in Hollywood movies be protected and the young people who appear in porn be abused?

The fact that many porn producers break the law and film without permits is not a good reason to do nothing to protect any performers or our community from disease.

Vote Yes on B!

JEFFREY R. KLAUSNER, MD. MPH
Professor of Medicine, UCLA

RICHARD G. POLANCO
Senator Richard Polanco (Ret.)

PAULA TAVROW, Ph.D.
Director, UCLA Bixby Program on Population and Reproductive Health

MICHAEL WEINSTEIN
President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation

MARK ROY MCGRATH, MPH
Public Health Analyst, UCLA


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