LOS ANGELES—The most recent California Business Roundtable/Pepperdine University poll, conducted Oct. 21-28, indicates that many of the propositions on the Nov. 6 ballot remains close, but one that does not is Prop. 35, which strengthens and broadens so-called human trafficking penalties.
Though support for the proposition has slipped slightly since July, when it peaked at about 88 percent, a still healthy 76.5 percent of polled voters indicates they will or already have voted yes on 35. Likewise, in July a paltry 6.4 percent of respondents planned to vote no, whereas in the latest polling a slightly more respectable 13.7 percent said they had or will vote no.
According to the Ventura Star, that makes 35 a likely winner next Tuesday, an unfortunate outcome for an initiative that analysis has shown will do little to address the real problem of human trafficking, but instead will put victims of trafficking at greater risk while bringing people who have nothing at all to do with actual trafficking under the scope of the strengthened and broadened law.
As AVN has reported, it will also put adult producers in California at risk of being imprisoned for life if an underage individual makes it onto an adult set, even if that individual uses a fraudulently obtained government issued identification as proof of age.
As Don Austen of Thursday's Child wrote in a editorial yesterday, "Traci Lords made between 80 and 100 adult-rated sex films when she was under 18. She also appeared in provocative sexual poses in numerous men’s magazines, including Penthouse, where she was the Penthouse Pet of the Month. Even though she presented a government-issued driver’s license in order to get hired, under Prop 35, everyone involved in all of the films that she did could have been sent to prison for life. Even though Lords tricked them into believing she was of consensual age, under Prop 35, she would, regardless, be classified a sex trafficking victim."
It may be too late to slow or beat back Prop. 35's momentum, but if you have not yet voted, please vote NO on Prop 35. You can rest assured that it is not a vote for sex traffickers.
