The California Assembly bill seeking to regulate health codes for the adult industry died in front of the Health Committee last week, but that’s not going to stop Assemblymen Tim Leslie from trying to pass another version of it next year.
Brian O’Neel, the press secretary for Assemblyman Leslie, told AVN.com that Assembly Bill 2798 will resurface next year one way or another.
"We were doing this for the actors and actresses and for the general public’s health. That was our sole intent,” O’Neel said.
“The bill was to codify and expand existing industry practice. We also want to make the industry practice applicable all across the state, not just one city,” O’Neel said, noting that the adult industry has spread outside of “porn valley” and spread out across the state.
“It’s pretty much anywhere you can string two lights together and hire some to have sex on camera," he said.
The Assembly Health Committee had moved last week for the bill be sent to interim study, where the merits of the bill would be debated while the Legislature was on recess.
According to Leslie's office, the Assembly Committee on Rules must first approve of such a meeting if it is to take place.
Assembly member Cindy Montañez, who represents a District 39, which encompasses Chatsworth, is the chairwoman of the rules committee.
A request from Leslie that an interim study for the bill be scheduled for this summer has not been responded to as of yet, though it was only sent last Friday.
Assembly member Montañez also serves on the Health Committee, as do four other legislators from Los Angeles County.
Last minute changes in the bill resulted in a very different bill being presented to the Health Committee than what was previously reported.
Rather than requiring a certain frequency of test, or mandating condoms, the bill called for the Department of Health Services and Cal/OSHA to set the standards necessary for adult performers, as well as the frequency of testing for STDs and the types of tests that they would be required.
That would certainly require condom use, which the majority of the industry seems opposed to, for various reasons, the most popular one being that fans object to condoms.
O’Neel suggests that digital imaging could be used to remove the condom from the image.
“If Mel Gibson can make a cannonball look like its about to take your head off in The Patriot then there’s amazing things they could probably do with penises and vaginas,” O’Neel said.
Another problematic provision that has been changed was the section that sought to bar performers with sexually transmitted diseases from performing.
O’Neel says that it was apparent soon after they introduced the bill that to ban some for something like herpes, a STD that never goes away but is only viral periodically, would not be the correct course of action.
“So what we said is that you would have to offer personal protective measures, and let people know when they are going to be working with performers that have STDs,” O’Neel said.
The bill would require production companies to notify know that another cast member has a controlled or controllable STD, though they wouldn’t be required to name the individual.
The bill would also pave the way for civil suits against production companies for performers who caught STDs while working.
O'Neel suggests that while it is already possible to sue a production company for STDs, this bill would make it easier.
O’Neel admitted that his office should have sought more advice within the adult industry while shaping the bill. Part of their hesitation to talk to members of the industry was that perception that the adult industry was tied to the mob.
“We were going off some bad information about the industry,” O’Neel said. “And it may be good information, it depends on who you talk to.”
And while Leslie's office and lobbyist Mike Ross both contacted a few people in the adult industry about the bill, there wasn't much outreach from the industry to discuss the bill, not even after the news broke. "There’s not a lot of good will going around right now, and if I can change something and we can work out something that will work next year, great," O'Neel said. "If not, we’ll move on anyway."
The full text of AB 2798 can be read here.
