More Performers Speak Out Against Cal/OSHA Sanctions

VAN NUYS, Calif.—Adult performers want to make sure the world hears their side after a subcommittee of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) met June 7 to discuss control measures for adult entertainment productions.  According to AVN.com, topics for discussion included “a rule requiring ‘a condom or other physical block that prevents the passage of blood and OPIM-STI to another person’ during ‘occupational exposure’ on the set of an adult producer.” This would require barriers during all sexual acts and eliminate the mandatory STI testing the industry currently adheres by.  While Cal/OSHA states it has the well being of the performers in mind, Penthouse Pet and adult star Ryan Keely wants to make it clear many performers don’t agree.   “Keep your laws off my body,” she demanded. “It’s really important to me to make sure our side is heard, which is why I’ve been actively collecting quotes from performers around the industry regarding their anger towards the proposed laws.  It’s not a black and white case of using condoms.  It’s more complicated, and it will ultimately make the industry less safe.” To read AVN’s recap of the Cal/OSHA Subcommittee on Control Measures’ proposed laws, visit here.  To read AVN’s coverage on the June 7 meeting, visit here.  In order to help give voice to the concerns regarding Cal/OSHA’s proposed adult production laws, Ryan Keely urged some of the industry’s leading performers to provide quotes on the issue.  Their words are representative of a unified adult industry. Ela Darling said: “As an adult performer in the porn industry, the proposed changes to Cal/OSHA frighten and infuriate me. If these changes go through, performers will be considered employees of a production company rather than independent contractors, which is what we have been operating and paying taxes as for years. If that is the case, then the self-imposed STD testing procedures that have made me feel safe and secure in my career will be considered workplace discrimination, and I will be disallowed from verifying that my costars are free of infection. As an individual and as a performer, I would rather have unprotected sex with someone whom I know for sure has been tested for HIV, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia in the past thirty days, than have barrier-protected sex with someone whose STD status is either unknown or positive.” Lily Cade added: “These proposed regulations are so absurd that, if actually enforced, they would drive the porn industry out of California. Taking my job away doesn't make me safer—it makes me unemployed.  I absolutely, unequivocally, love what I do, and I do not want that taken away from me because of misguided concerns about my safety.  We are not a hazmat team. We are not radioactive. We are fucking, something almost everyone does, and almost no one encases themselves in plastic wrap to do.  I am not opposed to safety, but our testing protocol kept us safe. Regulations requiring condoms, dams, gloves, eye protection, the prevention of any and all body fluid contact with skin, and treating everyone as if they are infected are unnecessary and divorced from the reality of what porn performers need and want.” Justine Joli stated:, “Once again the government is trying to force me to have sex in a way that I do not enjoy. The proposed regulations would make girl on girl sex scenes un-sexy and un-marketable. As a girl on girl performer, I strongly oppose these new regulations. I feel girl on girl sex films would never be shot, and I would be forced to perform with men if I wanted to keep making a living in the industry I have worked in for years. Girl on girl sex is the only form of intercourse with another person where the transmission of STIs is less than 30 percent. Being required to use dental dams, plastic over labia, gloves and goggles instead of testing won’t make me safer.  It will only take my job away.” The Cal/OSHA meeting took place at the California Department of Transportation building, 100 S. Main St., Room 1.040 in downtown Los Angeles on June 7 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  For more information about Cal/OSHA, visit here.