Source: Shared with permission from Mike South
By: Mike South
Prop 60, What is it Really? It Isn’t About Condoms!
(By Mike South, August 2, 2016) — Okay first let me say that if you think that I am some sort of shill for AHF or the FSC or anyone else for that matter, please leave, you are not intelligent enough to be here, there are plenty of sites written by and for morons where you will be more comfortable.
Still here? Good! To understand Prop 60 you need a bit of a history lesson.
Back in the early 90s OSHA regulations were in place that required porn companies to provide and use condoms for all shoots, many companies like Wicked, and Vivid complied, but when it became clear that those regulations were not going to be enforced everyone except Wicked dropped the condom requirement.
In doing so, some performer got HIV. One, John Stagliano owned a very successful company, he was largely unaffected, another, Tricia Devereaux married John Stagliano, had she not, things would have been very different for her.
The others, Brooke Ashley, Barbara Doll, Nena Cherry, Jordan McKnight, Caroline and Kimberly Jade were quickly abandoned by the industry. Not to be heard from again.
Along came Lara Roxx, Jessica Dee and Miss Arroyo they tested positive and were quickly and unceremoniously dumped from the industry, never to be heard from again.
Then came Derrick Burts, Cameron Bay and Rod Daily. These are the ones that we know about, there are some that we don’t, because they found out that they were infected and quietly disappeared, after all it isn’t like the multi billion dollar porn industry is going to help them.
So what if it, God forbid happens to you? The first thing that will happen is that your name will get out and the FSC will go to great lengths to say that you got it in your personal life, that you were a hooker and got it from a John or that you got it from an HIV infected sex partner off screen. Then they will cut you loose.
You go to the doctor and you get a prescription for the antiviral drugs that will keep you alive, they cost, on average 18,300.00 per year. You don’t have a job and no prospects for work, the porn industry has cut you off, you desperately want to live but you can’t pay over 1200 dollars a month for the drugs you need.
Your doctor and or your pharmacist tell you to call AIDS healthcare Foundation, they tell you that they will help you, so you call them and they do help, they work to find you employment, they provide you with the medicine you need to stay alive, they hook you up with great doctors and it doesn’t cost you anything, they pick up the tab when you can’t.
So AHF looks at where they are spending money and they see a lot of people who were in porn who contracted HIV and they say hey, this is a multi billion dollar a year business, by their own statements but we are having to take care of the people in their industry and we are spending a lot of our money doing so….that isn’t right, why cant they take care of their own? They certainly have the resources.
So AHF finds out that condoms aren’t being used, as required by law and they say hey this is costing us a good chunk of money, we need to apply some pressure so that we don’t have to pay for these people in porn that get HIV, or to outright prevent HIV infections in porn in the first place.
And AHF starts pushing for condom use. First they do it within the industry and they are stonewalled, so they go to government and say hey these mistakes are costing us a lot of money, you need to make these people follow the law. There is a lot of foot dragging because nobody really wants to undertake the massive task of bringing the industry into compliance, and after all it isn’t costing the department of labor when these people get sick, So AHF escalates to legislation sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but the whole idea is to get the porn industry to pick up the tab for the people in porn that get HIV.
The last legislative effort failed, so AHF takes it to the voters and says we want to give performers the right to sue porn companies that won’t let them use condoms. (Prop 60)
Wait, what?
When I polled porn performers and directors the consensus was that Prop 60 was “a condom law” and that if defeated condoms wouldn’t be required in porn. Indeed that is what the FSC would have you believe but it simply isn’t true.
Condoms are the law, and they are the law in all 50 states, so moving someplace else will not help you unless you move out of the country… and oh, for the record, don’t choose Brazil, condoms are the law there too.
Prop 60 is an effort to incentivize porn companies to use condoms, as the law requires, by specifically allowing performers to sue porn companies if the performer was not allowed to use a condom and catches an STD. The law allows for real damages like medicine, doctor bills and so on, as well as punitive damages under the reasoning that the company broke the workplace safety laws and thus was negligent, negligence being the prerequisite requirement for punitive damages.
If Prop 60 passes, it takes the burden off of AHF if someone in porn contracts HIV, or any other STD. At the same time it protects the performer from being shoved out and shunned by the industry.
Wicked Pictures has always known this, which is why Wicked Pictures requires condoms, and abides by every single workplace safety law and then some.
Brad Armstrong is a Director for Wicked and people who know him know that he isn’t really all that bright, but he doesn’t have to be, he only has to be bright enough to understand that if he can convince his competitors that they should not follow the law, it makes his product more valuable in the long run because OSHA says they are going to enforce these workplace safety rules and if prop 60 passes his competitors will be sued out of business, so Brad likes to encourage people to not use condoms, but Brad doesn’t do what tells them to do, Brad covers his ass six ways to Sunday, he may not be able to spell hypocrite but he understands the concept. So when you see Brad and jessica drake telling you to do what they WON’T do, understand that there is a motive there, and that motive is to get rid of the competition, if it were anything else Brad would shoot non condom, as he claims everyone else should.
Now if you slogged through this, you have a pretty good idea of where things really stand, the truth, if you will. What you decide to do with this information is up to you.
Below is an unbiased summary of exactly what prop 60 calls for
Prop 60 Requires performers in adult films to use condoms during filming of sexual intercourse. Requires producers of adult films to pay for performer vaccinations, testing, and medical examinations related to sexually transmitted infections. Requires producers to obtain state health license at beginning of filming and to post condom requirement at film sites. Imposes liability on producers for violations, on certain distributors, on performers if they have a financial interest in the violating film, and on talent agents who knowingly refer performers to noncomplying producers. Permits state, performers, or any state resident to enforce violations.
