Tough new health rules for porn actors rejected
After nearly five hours of often emotional testimony from porn stars and others in the adult film industry, state regulators voted Thursday against a controversial set of workplace safety regulations that would have required performers to use condoms.
The regulations, drafted by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, would have put adult performers in the same category as doctors, nurses and others who work in medical settings and are required to use “barriers” for protection.
Thursday’s vote in Oakland was met with cheers and jubilation from a roomful of mostly porn film actors and behind-the-scenes workers who opposed the measures.
The proposed regulations needed four of five votes to pass, but failed by a single vote, 3-2, when two members said they needed more input from the porn film industry.
More than 80 speakers addressed the board, and the vast majority of them — porn performers using real or stage names, filmmakers, health advocates and academic specialists — argued that the new regulations would actually increase the risk to the performers by resulting in less testing than current industry protocols dictate.
“The very nature of our work defies these regulations, making it very challenging or impossible for us to do our jobs,” said Chanel Preston, an adult film star from Los Angeles who serves as the president of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, which promotes safety in the porn industry.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which sponsored an ordinance in 2012 that requires condoms to be used in films made in Los Angeles County, pushed Cal/OSHA to approve the new rules, which include amending existing blood-borne pathogen standards to make them specifically apply to the adult film industry.
Opponents of the proposed rules feared they would also require the use of goggles or dental dams, which protect performers during oral sex, but foundation officials said that was a “smoke screen” to obscure the real issue of condom use in the adult film industry.