The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted down the measure 3 to 2, after failing to garner the necessary four yes votes from the seven-member panel.
Advertisement
They said they were disappointed in the ruling but heartened that the porn industry agreed that new workplace safety regulations were necessary.
It seems that board members were influenced by porn industry representatives, who in a public hearing in Oakland, California, argued on adopting condom measure. If the proposed regulations didn’t destroy their multibillion-dollar industry, they said, they would likely force it underground.
That, they say, could eliminate safety standards already in place, such as testing every 14 days for sexually transmitted diseases.
California officials in charge of workplace safety voted down a proposal Thursday that would have specifically called for putting condoms on porn actors, heeding the call of scores of industry officials who said adding that and other restrictions would force them to make films nobody would watch.
He was one of dozens of adult performers to speak before the Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s Standards Board considering the regulations.
According to the RT News, one vote made all the difference Thursday night in Oakland, California, where adult film actors and producers argued against a proposed statewide safety regulation requiring not only condoms, but goggles and dental dams according to some interpretations.
“When you criminalise sex work in any way, you make it more unsafe”, said said porn actress and journalist SiouxsieQ.
Officials in California have rejected proposals demanding the use of condoms in porn films after actors told them it would be a turn off for the audience.
Such a requirement would spell the end of many porn film scenes, they said. He added his group would be interested in working with them to achieve that goal.
The Wrap reports that while there was no mention of the use of dental dams or goggles under the provisions, it would require sex workers to ensure that their eyes were protected from the risk of blood-borne pathogen infections.
Some actors who have contracted HIV from performing in porn films expressed support for the regulations, which would also have required producers to pay for performers’ medical visits, treatments abd other health-care expenses.
Although the condom requirement might not prevent transmission of all STDs, it would be a far more effective approach than the current 14-day STD testing requirement practice.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation head Michael Weinstein shares that this is something that’s “pure fantasy on their part”.
Advertisement
“This will only energize us in preparing for that November ballot”, Kenslea said of Thursday’s outcome.
