Freedom for…Porn?

The industry weighs its options as L.A. says condoms are mandatory in sex films

Photo by Think Stock

A quick click onto popular gay porn sites these days shows a lot (a lot) of barebacking (or gay male sex without condoms). But 30 years after AIDS came into our vernacular, should actors and directors in these films have the right to use condoms – or not?

That’s the question many in the porn industry are asking now that Los Angeles (a veritable capital of porn production in the U.S. with an estimated 90 percent or more of these films made in the San Fernando Valley) has voted to deny permits to any X-rated film that violates a law requiring that porn actors wrap their rascals.

The city council approved the measure last week thanks to pressure from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AFH), a sponsor of the bill. Apparently there was a law already on the books in the Southern California city – but it wasn’t being enforced. Now, however, the city says it will go so far as to deny permits to any porn production that doesn’t use condoms. In the past decade, porn shoots have been suspended several times following high-profile cases where porn performers have been infected with HIV.

“It’s a great day for the performers and safer sex in our society,” says Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “This is the first legislative body to take up the issue and the near-unanimous support is very gratifying.”

Courtesy of AHF

But porn industry representatives are furious at the vote. Diane Duke of the lobbying group Free Speech Coalition has said, “This is government overreach. It’s not about performer health and safety, it’s about government regulating what happens between consenting adults.”

Health officials say safe sex is common sense- especially in the workplace where the work is about, well, sex.

“Personally at every opportunity I have to do anything to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, I always take that opportunity,” explains Councilman Paul Koretz. But he also adds, “I think there’s no doubt: the voters would see this as a common sense issue and pass it.”

But for studios who have used barebacking and other unsafe sex acts for profit – will that encourage them to go rogue with shoots that completely ignore guidelines? And could this actually create a much bigger problem in the industry?

“It’s going to be interesting to see how in fact they do try to enforce it and who’s going to fund it, and all of the time and effort they’re going to spend,” Steven Hirsch, co-founder and co-chairman of Los Angeles-based Vivid, one of the largest makers of erotic movies, told the Washington Post. He predicts that studios like his will simply up and leave L.A.

That puts an $8 billion a year industry on the lookout for new digs.

“The only thing that the city could potentially achieve is losing some film permit money and driving some productions away, but you can’t actually compel an industry to create a product that the market doesn’t want,” Christian Mann, general manager of Evil Angel, another of the industry’s largest production companies, told the Post.

Porn star Dawson has made a career out of unsafe sex acts. He's also HIV positive (courtesy of Treasure Island)

For many years, the porn industry has been ahead of the curve when it came to acknowledging not only a spectrum of sexual preferences (though lesbians might argue that girl-on-girl videos are really made for straight dudes) but also frank talk about HIV and AIDS. And a bit like legalized prostitution, the industry has been self-regulating on many mainstream productions when it comes to age of consent and even safe sex.

Porn aficionados may have noticed an onslaught of assurances that actors were over 18 in many popular videos. The same happened with safe sex – especially in gay porn – as society’s magnifying glass began to take a closer look at the rapid spread of HIV among gay and bisexual men in the 80s and 90s.

But not every studio takes the high road. And that’s not enough, says the AFH. “Let’s make one thing clear: Condom use on adult film sets is, and has been, the law in California under blood-borne pathogens regulations,” Ged Kenslea, a spokesman for AHF, tells the Post. “It is just a law that has not been uniformly enforced or followed. This film permit ordinance that the city council approved today provides another enforcement mechanism to make sure that adult film producers are complying with existing California law.”

Plenty of gay male porn stars have gone public about their HIV-positive status, like Derrick Burts, Mason Wyler and notorious bottom “Dawson.”

But critics argue that many of these studios eroticize HIV and AIDS among gay men. But what do the actors think?

“They take steps to have the men checked out [for STDs] before a shoot and if a guy has anything they are encouraged to not perform,” Dawson has said in an interview with Windy City Times. “As for HIV, I have been positive for a while.” He says the studio he works with – Treasure Island, which is known for not using condoms on set – is always honest about everyone’s status, including his own. And he’s defended the studio’s decision to practice unsafe sex.

“They need to get off their soap boxes,” he said. “People are adults and if they decide to watch a bareback movie, that’s their choice.”

But doesn’t any industry have a responsibility to protect it’s employees (hello, OSHA)? Every other industry ensures safety – so why not the porn industry? Is this really a free speech issue? Or does banning unsafe sex acts somehow stigmatize HIV-positive actors?

Porn may be about fantasy – however illicit or alluring – but the reality is that actual people with actual bodies and blood cells are creating the illusion. And as we’ve learned from the last three decades, HIV and AIDS is about as real as it gets.