CANOGA PARK, Calif.—What many supporters of Measure B don't fully grasp is what LA County requiring the use of condoms and other "barrier protections" in all adult productions would look like. Now, thanks to director/performer Kimberly Kane, people can see first-hand what the future of porn in LA County will look like—and it ain't pretty.
Click here to see a "safe for work" version of the No on Measure B video.
"At first, I wanted to do a photo essay about barrier protections, and I think word got to FSC and they approached the new owners of Remmet Studios, and we all came together for this project," Kane explained. "Now, I'm pro-choice as far as condoms, but the law isn't just about condoms; it's about all these other things that will essentially put us out of business, and not make us any safer, so I am not for Measure B."
The "other things," of course, include the list that's part of California Code of Regulations Title 8 Sec. 5193, which includes dental dams, latex gloves, hospital gowns, laboratory coats, face shields or masks and eye protection, even hazmat suits, and basically anything else public health officials think will keep bodily fluids from passing from one person to another.
After searching for just the right adult stars to take part in this offshoot of the No on Measure B campaign, two of the industry's top actors volunteered their services: Wicked Pictures contract star (and sex educator) Jessica Drake, and the man who's been all over mainstream news for the past few months, James Deen.
"I'm against Measure B and I think everyone should vote No on Measure B because it's a violation of the First Amendment and my constitutional rights as a citizen," Deen said of his opposition to the ballot initiative. "We have a choice to shoot with or without condoms and we regulate our health and safety very well. We have had zero HIV transmissions in over eight years and every time anybody has had a positive test, it's been somebody who's contracted the virus through unprotected sex outside the adult industry. I endorse safe sex, I endorse condom use; I even endorse dental dams and all that other stuff if people thinks it makes them more safe, but I think there's nothing safer than getting regularly tested and having sex with a bunch of other people who are regularly tested. It's a violation of my choice as a human, as an American and is a violation of my freedom of speech to tell me what I have to do in my movies."
"What people have to understand is, porn is entertainment, it's not real sex, so don't copy it," he continued. "In Hollywood movies, you have people going through car chases and running from the cops; it doesn't mean you should do that in real life; it just means it's a form of entertainment, just like porn. And you know, in porn we do things that aren't practiced in real-life sex. People don't usually have hour-and-a-half long sex marathons with abnormally large-sized penises in crazy positions, pounding in certain ways; that's all for entertainment value. You can basically cause more harm by putting condoms on and opening up tears, infections—plus condoms are only 87 percent effective, and there are a lot of other issues. At the end of the day, porn is entertainment, and people shouldn't have government laws dictating their entertainment."
"My involvement came because Kim Kane called me and told me what she was going to do," Drake added. "Over these past few weeks, I along with a lot of other talent have been brainstorming on ways for us to be more visible in the public eye, to inform them of some of the truths, maybe set the record straight on Measure B, and what it would do to not only our industry but jobs here in California. So I was really excited about her asking me to take part in this, even moreso when I found out that James Deen was involved. He's got a tremendous amount of star power right now and I think he's an incredible actor. We're here today to shoot the reality of what a sex scene would look like and it's pretty 'in your face,' and I think when people see this, and they can really connect the words and the measure with what that's going to translate to in real life, that's going to drive this point home about how important it is to vote No on B."
Drake also used her participation in last weekend's LA AIDS Walk to help drive that point home.
"The AIDS Walk is something I do every year, but this year, it happened to fall on my birthday so I wanted to do it up as big as possible," she explained. "I became aware of the AHF's involvement of the walk—they are a sponsor, and I don't fault the AIDS Walk for accepting money from sponsors, because they need more money, but I did go into it deciding that we as adult performers would have a very big 'No on B' presence during the walk. What I did was have all the shirts screen-printed. Originally, they just said 'Team Wicked—LA AIDS Walk' on them, but I threw a huge 'No on Measure B' logo on the back of them, and also for our team marching signs, I did 'Team Wicked' on the front and 'No on B' on the back. When we went into it, initially there were people who had no idea what that measure was, and we were explaining it to people during this 10K; like, they would walk along side of us and see the signs and the T-shirts and ask us what it was all about. We had a team of 16 or 17 people—Mark Nicholson, Brad Armstrong, Alektra Blue, Brandi Aniston, Kourtney Kane, Keni Styles and Barry Scott and a lot of Wicked's office staff—that were just covered with 'No on B' stuff, and this is really the key for us, to create this community awareness and let people who don't really have any working knowledge of our industry talk to us and see our thoughts on it, because the way the opposition is portraying it, they're trying to say that porn performers are being abused and that's why they want this measure passed. The latest thing, the billboard debacle, the shaming of our industry, that there's something wrong with what pornographers say, I think that's such a huge thing for me."
Another industry veteran who volunteered to take part in the project was director David Lord.
"I was asked by the producers to come down and be a part of it," Lord said, "and it's something I feel strongly about, having the choice of how we protect ourselves—and besides, running the industry out of California when the state desperately needs our tax dollars seems insane. Beyond that, the context of Michael Weinstein and AIDS Healthcare Foundation doesn't seem to be coming from the right place. I think it's false what he's saying, and since every little bit helps, so I'm honored to be a part of this project."
Though not officially authorized by the No on Government Waste/No on Measure B Committee, the video, which runs about three minutes, debuted today on Huffington Post, and the accompanying story, which sadly doesn't make it clear that Measure B requires not only condoms but the additional apparatus—dental dams, goggles, latex glvoes and face shields—depicted in the video, includes interviews with Drake and Deen. It will also be posted on YouTube, and it may be freely linked to, posted and distributed by any performer or studio without charge.
