The adult industry voice was finally heard as Assembly Bill 1576 remained in suspense today at the Senate Appropriations Hearing. AB1576 was, among other industry damaging issues, a condom mandate bill not unlike Measure B which has proved nothing but a failure for LA County. AB1576 proposed a condom mandate, performer privacy violations and problematic testing protocols which were less stringent that what the industry currently has in place. The troubled bill would have put the industry performers at greater work place risk and moved the larger producers out of California taking millions of tax dollars with it. Ab1576 was drafted without performer input or consent – a point that was continually hammered home by the over 650 performers who openly opposed the bill. Even with the number performers who vocally opposed ab1576, the bill’s author continued to hold the line that he needed to “speak on behave of those who do not have a voice”. Today, performers voices where heard and AB1576 was held on suspense. The industry will continue to enforce its rigorous testing standards using the performer developed PASS system which standards are so well refined we have been able to keep HIV out of the talent pool for over a decade. That is a fact – there has not been a SINGLE on set transmission of HIV in over a decade. The NY Times labelled the adult industry as the “unlikely model for HIV prevention” and throughout the last few weeks, the LA Times has published several articles including an editorial on why AB1576 is a bad bill. Today, sex workers can celebrate an albeit small, but solid victory of validation.
