A bill requiring mandatory condom usage on adult film sets in California died Thursday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, but backers plan to re-introduce it next year.
AB 1576, authored by Assemblyman Isadore Hall III, D-Los Angeles, sought to expand statewide restrictions put in place on adult filming in Los Angeles County in 2012 with the passage of Measure B.
However, committee members voted to not move it out of committee, essentially killing it. The vote followed strong opposition from the Free Speech Coalition, an adult film trade group in Canoga Park, and the Valley Industry and Commerce Association business advocacy group in Van Nuys.
The groups warned the bill would drive the adult industry out of the state at a time when production of mainstream television show and feature films is already on the decline due to production subsidies being offered by other states. Adult film production has already sharply declined in L.A. County following Measure B.
The adult industry also maintained that it follows workplace safety rules and effective protocols to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
“There was wide agreement that this was a lousy bill,” said Michael Stabile, a spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition.
This was the second consecutive year a condom bill has failed to move out of the Legislature.
However, Hall and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Hollywood-based health care provider that was the main backer of Measure B and AB 1576, vowed to bring the bill back next year.
“We moved this legislation farther along in this session than any previous year. We are prepared for a long haul, if that’s what it takes,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
There were only 20 permits for on-location adult filming this year through July 29, and 40 permits issued in all of 2013. That amounted to a decrease of 92 percent from the estimated 480 permits issued in 2012, according to FilmL.A., the Hollywood non-profit that handles production permitting in the city, unincorporated county neighborhoods and other jurisdictions
