SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Adult performers from across California headed to Sacramento today to attend a legislative hearing on the California Safer Sex in Adult Film Act.
The proposed ballot initiative would allow private citizens — including any viewer of adult video — to sue a performer if a condom is not visible in the film.
“No worker in any other industry faces this type of harassment from the public,” says Eric Paul Leue, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, one of the groups that spoke in opposition at the hearing. “The initiative empowers stalkers, harassers, anti-porn activists, profiteers and crusaders, while leaving actual performers, including members of the LGBTQ community, more vulnerable. This initiative could open the door to similar measures for other industries.”
In addition to the Free Speech Coalition, the controversial ballot initiative has been opposed by the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), AIDS Project LA, the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, the California Republican Party, and the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA).
The Los Angeles Commission on HIV also recommended as part of its legislative slate that the county Board of Supervisors oppose the measure.