LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly three years after Southern California’s porn industry filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County seeking to block implementation of Ballot Measure B, the County of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, the so-called "condoms in porn measure" spearheaded by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) which Los Angeles County voters passed with an overwhelming margin of voter support—57% to 43%—in the November 2012 election, the adult industry now appears unwilling or unable to defend its own voluntary STD & HIV testing program, which the industry has long asserted negates the need for condom use.
The lawsuit [Case No. CV-13-00190 DDP (AGI)], with Steve Hirsch’s Vivid Entertainment as lead plaintiff, was first filed January 10, 2013 in United States District Court, Central District of California. The suit names the County of Los Angeles, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, (then) Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and County District Attorney Jackie Lacey as Defendants and seeks to block the law primarily on First Amendment challenges. Since then, in a landmark December 15, 2014 ruling, the U.S. Ninth District Court of Appeals upheld Measure B, ruling that the law does not infringe on producers’ or performers’ First Amendment free speech rights by compelling condom use—which is technically already required under California state and federal OSHA statutes.
However, now, after AHF, as an intervenor in the case, sought data from adult industry testing programs—the numbers of HIV and STDs tests done, subsequent test results, but NO personal information or identifying data—through the legal process of discovery, the adult industry has been crying wolf over privacy rather than defend its testing program, with producers and industry backers falsely alleging a potential for HIPAA violations of performers personal information.
“In its lawsuit, Vivid put porn's testing program up against Measure B and condoms. Through legal discovery, AHF recently requested industry testing stats to prove—or disprove—claims that testing works, NOT for the identities of those individuals tested—so HIPAA is not an issue here. When the rubber hits the road, it appears the porn industry is unwilling or unable to defend its testing program,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Steve Hirsch and the industry can’t have it both ways: you can’t sue to block the law and also be unwilling to prove your case as to why condoms should not be required. The ‘privacy’ fig leaf here is hiding critical STD data. And as a reminder: testing is simply NOT prevention.”
About AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 465,000 individuals in 36 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare
