Why Porn Stars Won't Be Using Condoms, Despite City Law's Debut Today
Condoms are coming to porn shoots in Los Angeles today. 
Nate 'Igor' Smith
Well, that's the theory, anyway.
A Los Angeles city ordinance that requires condom use at on-location adult video shoots within the city is the law starting today.
But like a lot of things coming from City Hall ...
... it's so-far a law with, er, no teeth.
That's right, even though today is the day porn stars are supposed to be using condoms, there's still no enforcement, uh, tool.
In fact, porn stars are already supposed to be using condoms on-location and everywhere else in the state of California. State workplace safety authorities require it. They just don't enforce it too much.
We can't expect much different from City Hall. The LAPD's not about to be patting down porn stars.
The L.A. City Council was wise, however when, instead of spending money to put an initiative on the city ballot that would have asked you to vote yes or no on condoms in porn, it decided to pass the law itself.
That saved you the $4 million it would have cost to get the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's initiative, for which it obtained enough signatures, on the ballot.
But ... the city is still working on how it would be enforced.
The City Council convened a "working group" to figure out how to make porn stars use these things. The rule is tied to on-location porn permits issued by the city. But, as you well know, a lot of adult video is shot without permits.
The adult video industry says consumers won't buy condom porn, that its own STD testing protocols are effective, and that the business will move out of state if this rule is actually enforced.
Like a lot of things in L.A., that remains to be seen. (The city has battled to regulate marijuana dispensaries in town, but while some have been shut down, dozens if not hundreds of outlaws remain).
On the flip side, the multi-billion-dollar industry's threats to move out of state have been all bark so far. And California is one of very few states where you can legally pay people to have sex ... on-camera.
Nonetheless, props to both sides for, er, sticking it out.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been trying to get mandatory condoms in porn for years and it now working on a countywide voter initiative. The AHF casts the issue as a matter of life and death.
The group is hailing this, the first day of mandatory condoms in L.A.'s on-location porn, as "historic."
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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