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California governmental nannies want to micromanage the porn industry.
What's next will these same government nannies be writing rules and regulations that govern how private individuals can have sex in their own bedrooms?
California could require condoms in porn May. 27, 2011 09:34 PM Associated Press LOS ANGELES - Porn performers in California would be required to use condoms in sex scenes if draft rules from state workplace safety officials advance out of the proposal phase. Cal/OSHA officials provided the Associated Press with a 17-page draft proposal that contained sometimes graphic details of the bodily fluids, waste matter and other materials that porn actors must protect themselves against to avoid infection. The draft is to be discussed at a public meeting in Los Angeles on June 7 and would later go to the state's Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board for a ruling on whether it becomes part of state code. The seven-member body is appointed by the governor and tasked with rulemaking to ensure safe and healthy workplaces in the state. The draft says porn producers must provide and require "use of condoms or other barrier protection to prevent genital and oral contact with the blood or (any other bodily fluids) of another person." The draft specifies that condoms can't be reused, cannot be expired, or used with multiple partners. Performers wouldn't be allowed to share razors under the rules. And employers would have to keep sex toys clean. The producer would also have to ensure that body areas contaminated with bodily fluids are cleaned between sexual acts with the same or different partners under the draft rules. The draft also makes rules for employers to provide medical services and follow-up for all employees who have been exposed to possibly infectious materials. The draft also calls for sex workers to be provided with vaccines for human papilloma virus and hepatitis B. Employers would have to provide showers to performers and follow rules on how laundry contaminated with human fluids must be handled. The proposed change in rules comes in response to a complaint filed in 2009 by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, calling on the state to require condoms in porn. Since the complaint, Cal/OSHA has been meeting with stakeholders to discuss implementing a more specific rule. Cal/OSHA has said they always believed porn performers fall under the same section of state workplace safety law that requires nurses to wear protective gear to spare them exposure to blood-borne and fluid-borne illnesses, but the law has never been made specific to porn sets. The AIDS advocacy group has called for the use of condoms in porn, saying that actors were in unsafe situations and they glamorized risky sex for audiences. Vivid Entertainment founder Steven Hirsch has said that such moves could force filming to leave California, causing a blow to the multi-billion porn industry that has many operations in the San Fernando Valley. Hustler Video head Larry Flynt has said audiences don't want to see actors using condoms because it interrupts porn viewer fantasies with a reminder of disease prevention and birth control. |