Tell Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky that LA County Must Enforce Condom Use in Adult Films!
Call Today or Send Him an Easy E-letter (below)— LA County Officials: Protect Porn Actors & the Public Health!
August 31, 2009
After an outbreak of HIV in the porn industry in 2004, and a second HIV outbreak this past June that involved as many as 22 HIV-positive individuals affiliated with the industry, nearly all Los Angeles County officials—including Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district (District 3) includes most of the San Fernando Valley where the $13 billion porn industry is headquartered—have said nothing on condom use in porn. County leaders and the Department of Public Health continue to ignore the health threats facing thousands of young people working in L.A. County’s porn industry—including the transmission thousands of sexually transmitted diseases each year.
AHF has raised awareness on the importance of consistent condom use in all porn productions with protests and rallies targeting the porn industry and top producers like Larry Flynt. AHF has also filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health for its failure to enforce existing public health laws, and filed workplace safety complaints with Cal/OSHA last week over the lack of condom use in most adult films shot in Los Angeles County.
In a written legal response to AHF’s lawsuit, the County showed its complete disregard for the well-being of young people who working in the porn industry and who are continuously threatened with STD and HIV infections. County lawyers wrote, “…the adult film industry employs approximately 1,200 adult film performers at any given time. The population of Los Angeles County is approximately 9,850,000. Thus, AHF is seeking that the County be compelled to take certain actions in regard to less than .01% of the population….Plainly, the public need here is minimal.”
You can be absolutely certain that if 1,200 Los Angeles firefighters, nurses or schoolchildren came down will other illnesses or infections, government health officials and politicians like Yaroslavsky would be scrambling to speaking out—and resolve—the public health threat in a heartbeat.
There is no firewall between porn actors and the general public—many performers have sex with people outside the industry, including boyfriends, girlfriends, casual partners and those who may pay them for sex.
Please take a moment to call Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and tell him that Los Angeles County must enforce the use of condoms in all adult films to protect the young people working in the industry as well as the general public.
• Hon. Zev Yaroslavsky, Supervisor, 3rd District (213) 974-3333
