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LA's Porn-Star Condom Law Passes After Hard-Fought Campaign

By Andrew Lu on November 07, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Fans of legal adult pornography may never view an X-rated movie the same ever again, after Los Angeles County voters passed a ballot measure requiring condom use by porn stars.

Almost 56% of voters in Los Angeles County cast their ballots in favor of Measure B. The measure requires all porn actors to wear condoms, and requires porn producers to pay for a permit to shoot pornographic scenes, reports Business Insider.

With LA's San Fernando Valley being the unofficial porn capital of the United States, a major portion of porn produced in this country will be affected by the measure.

At the heart of the battle, voters were choosing between health and safety concerns for porn actors and authenticity of sex scenes in porn movies, reports Business Insider. However, some believe an underlying motive behind the vote may have been an effort to force the porn industry out of Los Angeles County.

The porn industry was vehemently against Measure B, with many production companies threatening to move to more accommodating locales. Now they may have to act on their threat, if they want to continue to film scenes that include unprotected sex.

Porn executives basically found Measure B to be overly prudish. They claimed that all porn actors are already currently required to undergo strict STD testing. Before shooting a scene, actors have to provide an email from a lab proving they tested negative for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea, reports Business Insider.

Still, despite these precautions, a much publicized syphilis outbreak threatened to shut down much of the Southern California porn industry this past summer.

Along with the requirement that actors wear condoms, porn executives will also have to pay a permit fee. This fee will pay for county inspectors to randomly check porn shoots to ensure that all the actors are using protection. This will be an interesting (and potentially eye-opening) job, to say the least.

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