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Measure To Require Condoms In California Porn Trailing In Early Returns

KCBS_740LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A ballot measure that would require actors to use condoms in porn movies filmed in California was trailing Tuesday in early returns.

Proposition 60 was behind 53 percent to 47 percent with about 3.5 million votes counted.

The so-called Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act would place the condom requirement and a number of other regulations on the porn industry. It would also call for fines as high as $70,000 for those who break the rules.

The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has provided more than $4.6 million to support the measure, says its passage is crucial to protecting the young, often low-paid actors who crank out films by the hundreds for an industry that by its own account grosses about $5 billion annually.

"They are a legal industry, every legal industry is regulated and is subject to workplace safety standards, and there is no reason why they should be exempted," said foundation president Michael Weinstein.

The measure is similar to one adopted by Los Angeles County voters in 2012.

The porn industry, much of which is based in Los Angeles, says the regulations are unneeded, unwanted by its audience and would force filmmakers to either go underground or leave California. Opponents raised more than $540,000 to defeat the measure.

One prominent actor-producer, James Deen, said he's already moved his business out of state after being fined more than $70,000 earlier this year for violating a similar condom measure adopted by Los Angeles County voters in 2012. Like others in the industry, he maintains condoms aren't needed.

"In the adult entertainment industry we are regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases and all blood-borne pathogens," Deen said. "It isn't as if we are a bunch of random people running around having sex without condoms."

In addition to requiring condoms, Proposition 60 would:

  • Require porn producers to be licensed by the state.
  • Require producers to pay for vaccinations, tests and monitoring of sexually transmitted diseases, something actors themselves now pay for under an industry requirement that they be tested every 14 days.
  • Hold all individuals with a financial interest in a porn film liable for any violations.
  • Allow any witness to a violation, including anyone who watches a porn film, to sue the filmmaker if state officials don't act promptly on their complaint.

© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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