366,880 valid signatures of registered California voters are needed; however, backers will continue to collect up to 550,000 signatures total as a cushion before September 14th filing deadlines for measure, which would then appear on November 2016 presidential ballot.
LOS ANGELES (July 16, 2015) Safer sex advocates affiliated with AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the group, FAIR (For Adult Industry Responsibility), are pleased to announce they have collected enough signatures of registered California voters—371,486 signatures collected as of July 12th—to qualify a statewide ballot initiative that would expand the power of Cal/OSHA and local California public health departments to enforce condom use on adult film sets throughout the state. The measure is intended to prevent thousands of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that occur in performers each year in the industry and comes after nearly a dozen adult performers became HIV-infected while working in the industry between 2004 and 2014.
To qualify the measure, 366,880 valid signatures of registered California voters are needed (5% of all votes cast for governor in the most recent statewide election, which was held in November 2014). However, as a cushion, the advocates, who began collecting signatures in early April, will continue to collect signatures up until the September 14th filing deadlines, with a goal of collecting a total of between 525,000 to 550,000 signatures for submission to county election officials statewide. After the signatures are certified, the ballot measure will appear on the November 8, 2016 California presidential election ballot.
The California statewide condom ballot measure is modeled on Ballot Measure B, a similar measure officially known as the ‘County of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act,’ which passed with overwhelming voter support—57% to 43%—in the November 2012 election in Los Angeles County. Initial polling on the new proposed statewide measure that was conducted in September 2014 suggests as many as 71% of the state’s voters would back the statewide measure.
“As of July 12th, we have collected enough signatures to qualify this statewide ballot measure regulating condom use and safer sex practices in California’s adult film industry; however in an abundance of caution we plan to continue to collect signatures right up until the September filing deadlines,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation and one of the citizen proponents of state measure. “In 2012 in Los Angeles with Measure B and with our initial polling for this measure, voter sentiment favoring safer sex in adult films was clear: unlike most politicians, voters were not squeamish about this issue, seeing it as a means to protect the health and safety of performers working in the industry. It’s only fair that these performers be afforded the same safeguards as other Californians in their workplaces. In November 2016, we anticipate California voters will once again reaffirm.”
The advocates’ push for a statewide California law via ballot initiative came about as means to expand the safety regulations protecting adult film performers working anywhere in the state. It also came about after the delayed implementation and roll out of Measure B in Los Angeles—delays advocates largely attribute to legal challenges from the adult film industry as well as bureaucratic indifference by L.A. County officials.
The adult industry filed a lawsuit soon after Measure B passed in 2012 alleging free speech infringement of the First Amendment rights of the performers and adult producers. However, in a December 2014 decision, the U.S. Ninth District Court of Appeals rejected the adult industry’s First Amendment claims and upheld Measure B, noting that, “…Measure B, passed in 2012, was designed to address the spread of disease and is narrowly tailored to that end.”
