California Prop 60 would require condoms in all porn — here’s why that’s controversial

This November, California voters will decide whether porn stars should be required to wear condoms during filming in the state.

The ballot, Proposition 60, would also require adult film producers to get a state health license, and pay for "vaccinations, testing, and medical examinations related to sexually transmitted infections" for their performers, according to Ballotpedia. It also would allow any California resident to sue producers if they don't comply with the law.

Critics of the measure say the law would put producers and performers at risk of being sued by California residents who could unfairly target them. "If the proposed initiative were to pass, adult performers would immediately be targeted by stalkers and profiteers, who would use the initiatives' sue-a-performer provision to harass and extort adult performers," Diane Duke, chief executive of the Free Speech Coalition, told the Los Angeles Times. "This is an unconscionable initiative that would take a legal and safe industry and push its performers into the shadows."

They also criticize the bill for requiring married couples who produce porn to wear condoms. And there is concern that the porn industry, which generates tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for the state, will leave and film elsewhere.

Earlier this year, the state Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board rejected a plan to impose regulations requiring porn stars to wear condoms and protective eyewear during filming.

Recent polls show that more than 70% of voters support Proposition 60.

A similar bill was passed in Los Angeles County is 2012, backed by Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Weinstein proposed this new statewide law, arguing that adult film workers' need the same safety and health protection that other industries provide.

"There is no area of employment where safety is optional," Weinstein told the Los Angeles Times.  

Eric Paul Leue executive director of The Free Speech Coalition, says the industry already regularly tests its workers for sexually transmitted diseases.

"Weinstein has called the adult performers 'a public health crisis' and stoked fears that they are bringing sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, into the larger population. There's no evidence to support that — in fact, adult performers are possibly the most regularly tested population on earth, and there hasn't been an on-set HIV transmission in the regulated adult industry since 2004," he wrote in a recent op-ed for the Advocate.