The same activists that protested outside of Larry Flynt’s office last week intend to hold at least one more protest of a similar nature next week. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation’s largest HIV/AIDS advocacy organization, organized the protest, urging the adult entertainment mogul to voluntarily require the use of condoms in the adult videos his company produces.
This time, instead of protesting outside of the Flynt Publications building on Wilshire Boulevard, AHF plans on protesting outside one or more of the book stores that Flynt is scheduled to appear at on his tour promoting Sex, Lies & Politics: The Naked Truth, his new book that was released last week.
According to Ged Kenslea, a spokesperson for AHF, members of the advocacy group will almost certainly protest at the Hustler Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard when Flynt appears there on July 1, and they may appear protest outside Brentano’s at the Century City Shopping Mall when Flynt appears there on June 30.
“We’re doing this for the safety of the adult actors and we think it will be good for society as a whole by making an imprint regarding condoms on the viewing public,” Kenslea said.
“There is a correlation between things like smoking or violence in mainstream films that corresponds with viewers mirroring those actions,” Kenslea said. “Whose to say that viewers won’t emulate actors in their sexual hygiene?”
AHF wasn’t aware Flynt was releasing a book until they started doing research in preparation for the first protest, “but when found his tour schedule we decided that we would protest outside at least one of the stores he was signing at in the area,” he said.
The goal of the protests is to encourage all adult production companies to voluntarily adopt a mandatory condom policy, not just Hustler Video. Hustler Video was singled out because of an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, in which Flynt argued against mandating condoms, suggesting that most companies would just move underground or go overseas.
Kenslea doubts that everyone in adult will go underground or move overseas – he suggests the industry will adjust. “There is precedent where that has already happened. In the gay porn industry they adopted voluntary compliance with condom use about six or eight years ago. That’s not a business that has gone away,” he said.
Kenslea was under the impression that gay porn had testing requirements similar to those established by AIM Healthcare Foundation, when in fact the gay studios are adamantly against establishing test requirements for performers.
The protesters last week carried signs reading: “People Vs. Larry” and “Condoms Now.” The signs were designed to look like Lifestyle brand condoms, recycled props from a previous campaign.
