AHF 'Statewide Ballot Measure' a Phony?

LOS ANGELES—Remember the big ballyhoo that AIDS Healthcare Foundation made a couple of weeks ago about plans for a statewide ballot measure, the text of which was not revealed, though it was hinted that the measure would somehow "force" CalOSHA to expedite the regulations it's rewriting to include the adult industry in Section 5193 of the Health Code? Aside from the "Big Lies" noted within AVN's article on that press conference, it now looks as if there never was a ballot measure planned—but that hasn't stopped AHF from claiming that its "plan" has spurred CalOSHA to move faster. Except that the agency hasn't. According to the headline of its press release issued today, AHF claims that "Cal/OSHA Commits to Expedite New Porn Safety Regulations by New Year." That's the press release's first lie: CalOSHA has promised no such thing. Although AHF claimed that it has been seeking CalOSHA regulation change since 2004—another lie—it notes that it filed its first petition with the agency in 2009, and as AVN has reported, Deputy Chief Deborah Gold and agency Chief Counsel Amy Martin held a series of hearing over the following three years to obtain public input regarding possible changes to California Health Code Title 8, Section 5193, which mandates that certain forms of protective gear be used when the possibility of exposure to blood or "other potentially infectious materials" (OPIM) may occur in the workplace. Generally speaking, AHF argued openly at the hearings for mandatory condom use, though the actual wording of its petition includes the phrase "but are not limited to," meaning that more barrier protections besides condoms might be sought—and later filings by AHF make it clear that they would be sought. But by November of 2013, CalOSHA had drafted changes to Section 5193, though they were not finalized at that time and as a CalOSHA spokesperson later noted, what had been created was a "draft regulation" to which CalOSHA expected to make even more changes before submitting it to the CalOSHA Standards Board. But according to an article in the Los Angeles Daily News on November 5, apparently written in response to AHF protests of CalOSHA offices in Los Angeles and Oakland, Amy Martin was quoted as saying that the draft of the new standards had been completed and had been forwarded to the Standards Board, to be discussed at their March 2015 Board meeting. AVN analyzed that article on November 6—and AHF held its press conference regarding its "plans" for a statewide ballot measure on November 7. But AHF's latest press release essentially sidesteps all of that history and implies that its L.A. and Oakland protests, as well as its announcement of the ballot initiative, somehow spurred CalOSHA into faster action on the issue—when in fact, nothing had changed. What did happen, however, is that a week after AHF's press conference, Standards Board Executive Officer Marley Hart sent a letter to AHF president Michael Weinstein, and according to AHF, the letter stated, "The matter pending at this time is the development of regulatory language," and that in its "…July 17, 2014 Standards Board Business Meeting, Dave Thomas, Standards Board Chair, asked the Division to expedite the process so that a public hearing could take place in the near future." AHF also noted that "OSHA also then suggested that it expects the public hearing date '…will be in March or April 2015.' In other words, pretty much exactly what that Amy Martin told the Daily News on for its November 5 story! The letter also noted that the new proposed standards are what CalOSHA concluded from its examination of AHF's 2009 petition and the hearings that followed. What it also stated is far more straightforward than AHF's selective quotes would lead a reader to believe. "The matter pending at this time is the development of regulatory language," the letter's second paragraph reads. "Labor Code section 147.1(c) provides, in effect, that the Division [of Occupational Safety and Health, aka CalOSHA] is to take the lead in developing and presenting proposed health standards to the Standards Board. The Division has committed resources to the development of regulatory language, and in fact, as you state, has conducted numerous advisory meetings over the past few years. The Division has indicated that final rulemaking documents will be sent to the Standards Board by the end of 2014. Once received the Standards Board will prepare the documents for noticing in the California Regulatory Notice Register. The expected Public Hearing date will be in March or April of 2015." That statement seems to be at odds with Martin's statement to the Daily News that the proposed standards had already been sent to the Standards Board—and indeed, that statement would be the only one AHF would have seen before mounting its bogus press conference. "I am grateful that Cal/OSHA has committed in writing to have documents to their Standards Board by the end of the year that will clarify and strengthen worker safety laws on adult film sets in California, but I am also disappointed that it has taken five years to get here," the press release quoted Weinstein as saying, adding, "During those five years, OSHA has had three different Chiefs heading the organization. More critically: in this same timespan, there have been at least four cases of HIV identified in adult film performers found while they were working in the industry—one in 2010, and again last year, during the summer of 2013, when three adult performers were found to have HIV." By now, everyone in the adult industry knows that such wording, "cases of HIV identified in adult film performers found while they were working in the industry," is deceptive at best, an outright lie at worst, since it has been proven that none of those HIV cases were contracted during an adult entertainment content shoot—despite Cameron Bay's claim, as recently as that November 5 Daily News article, that "she contracted HIV last year while shooting at San Francisco-based Kink Studios." But the point is, since AHF had to have known of Amy Martin's statements—the idea that AHF doesn't follow references to itself in the mainstream (and adult) media is beyond absurd—and since its press conference that was supposed to "spur" the agency into faster action was held just two days later—after the proposed new standards had already been delivered to the Standards Board, at least according to Martin—it's clear that both that press conference and today's press release have just one main purpose: To keep AHF's name in the news and thereby attract more donations to its coffers. Good work, Mikey!