ESPLERP Opposed to Prop 60

SAN FRANCISCO—The Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project announced its opposition to California ballot Proposition 60, which will go before the state’s voters in November. “It is really perverse that Proposition 60 claims to be about adult film industry worker safety,” said Maxine Doogan of ESPLERP. “Whereas it exposes workers to individual lawsuits of up to $1.5M, and creates a huge privacy loophole where they will become the targets of legally sanctioned stalking and trolling.” ESPLERP joins a long list of organizations opposing the measure, including the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, the Free Speech Coalition, and uniquely both the California Democratic Party and California Republican Party.  This proposed initiative will not make adult film workers safer, ESPLERP officials said; instead it threatens their safety and violates their privacy, by incentivizing any private citizen to file lawsuits against individual workers, and, most disturbingly, expose their home addresses and legal names. “Proposition 60 also allows the proponent of the proposition, a private individual who is bankrolling it, to enforce the law as a sworn in state employee,” added Claire Alwyne of ESPLERP. “This sets a dangerous precedent whereby wealthy individuals can in effect buy legal power through ballot measures and circumvent the normal democratic process”. In March 2015 ESPLERP filed a court case, ESPLERP v Gascon, arguing that California’s anti-prostitution statute 647 (b) is unconstitutional. On May 24, ESPLERP filed a Notice of Appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. ESPLERP is a diverse, community-based coalition advancing sexual privacy rights through litigation, education, and research. For more, find them on Twitter @esplerp or at DecriminalizeSexWork.com.