League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	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

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