Filth on Friday - Put A Hat On

Pornographers in Los Angeles will now be required to use condoms while filming, under a new law signed by the city mayor this week.

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation which has campaigned for a law of this kind for six years, said it was “a great day for Los Angeles, a great day for the performers and a great day for safer sex.”

More facts, to back that up:

• 66% of porn performers have Herpes, a non-curable disease.
• 2,396 cases of Chlamydia and 1,389 cases of Gonorrhea have been reported among performers since 2004. 
• Chlamydia and Gonorrhea among performers is 10x greater than that of LA County 20-24 year olds.
• Over 100 straight and gay performers have died from AIDS. 
• 26 cases of HIV have been reported by Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), since 2004.
• 70% of sexually transmitted infections in the porn industry occur in females according to County of Los Angeles Public Health. 

The Pink Cross Foundation, a faith-based charity offering help and education to those in the sex industry and struggling with pornography addiction, sees this as a step towards shutting down the industry. I really hope and pray that someday that happens. Is that realistic? Depends on your point of view. Pink Cross is run by amazing women (and men) of God, and I ain't gonna be the one to say what God can or cannot do through them.

On the other hand, the consumers, the producers, and some of the performers don't like condoms, which obviously leads me to wonder: Will it work? I mean, from a practical point of view, how are they going to enforce this? And whatever else they may be, pornographers are clever. If there is a loophole, I bet they'll find it. Or failing that, just move. A more cynical blogger may wonder whether the mayor would really want that...

Worst case, of course, the whole porn industry goes right underground, and what 'controls' there currently are disappear entirely.

I guess I have mixed feelings about the end result of this, but if nothing else the passing of this law has raised public awareness of goings on in an industry that many of us would, I imagine, happily pretend doesn't exist.

Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16712744
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/01/25/mayor-villaraigosa-signs-porn-condom-ordinance-into-law/
http://www.shelleylubben.com/porn-industry-statistics