AHF: Advocates Submit Official Language for Condoms in Porn California Ballot Measure

Groups first announced plans for ballot measure in November; today, safer sex advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and FAIR (For Adult Industry Responsibility), submitted official text of a 2016 California statewide ballot initiative for title and summary as a prelude to signature gathering.

Proposed statewide California law will require condom use in all adult films shot anywhere in the state.

LOS ANGELES (January 12, 2015) As part of its ongoing campaign to improve and strengthen state law on the use of condoms in adult films produced in California in an effort to reduce the spread of STDs, including HIV, safer sex advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) as well as from FAIR (For Adult Industry Responsibility), the formal campaign committee that will shepherd signature gathering for the ballot initiative process, today submitted the official text of a 2016 California statewide ballot initiative for (proposed) title and summary as a prelude to signature gathering. Plans for the proposed initiative—a statewide California law that will require condom use in all adult films shot anywhere in the state—were previously announced by the group in November. The measure will be formally known as "The California Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act."

Advocates aim to have the condoms in porn measure qualified to appear on the November 2016 Presidential election California ballot. Initial polling of 1,158 California voters that the group conducted on the statewide measure in mid-September 2014 showed overwhelming support for the proposed law—71% answered 'yes'—when asked how they would vote on such a measure were the election held today.

"Given the probability of strong support from California voters, we are confident that this no-nonsense workplace safety measure will become the law of the land, providing much-needed additional protection to California workers," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation and one of the five formal proponents of the ballot measure. "We sadly just witnessed another HIV infection directly tied to the adult industry this fall—an outcome that consistent and correct condom use could have prevented."

When condom advocates first announced plans for the statewide ballot measure in November (link to full press announcement here), Cameron Adams, who became HIV-positive while working in the adult film industry in August 2013, said at the time: "The adult film industry exposed me to blood on set because they just wanted to finish a scene. I did everything the adult film industry told me to do, and now I am HIV-positive … I am proud to support and participate in this California-wide ballot initiative to require the use of condoms in all adult films. Being exposed to bloodborne pathogens and other potentially infectious material shouldn't be considered part of the job. It's time for California voters to support fairness."


About AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 382,000 individuals in 36 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.

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