Women Drive Support for Adult Film Condom Measure, Poll Shows

LOS ANGELES, CA -- A majority of Californians support an initiative on the November ballot to require performers in adult films to use condoms during sex scenes, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll of registered voters conducted by SurveyMonkey.

Fifty-five percent said they would back Proposition 60 if the election were held today, the survey found, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The measure, which was proposed by Michael Weinstein, the president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is based on a similar initiative in Los Angeles County, Measure B, which voters approved in 2012 with 56 percent of the vote, according to The Times.

The county measure, which was sponsored by five people affiliated with the foundation, requires porn actors to wear condoms during scenes depicting anal and vaginal intercourse. The measure survived a legal battle over its constitutionality earlier this year.

Of those polled in the latest survey, 32 percent said they would vote against the statewide measure, while 13 percent had no answer. The online poll of 1,909 registered California voters was conducted Sept. 1-8 in English and Spanish and has a margin-of-error estimate of 3 percentage points.

The poll found a 20-point gender gap among respondents, according to The Times: 64 percent of women polled supported the measure, while only 44 percent of men did. The measure had strong backing from minority voters, with 58 percent of African Americans and 63 percent of Latinos supporting it.

The initiative would also require adult film producers to pay for vaccinations and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, The Times reported. Producers would have to get a state health license every two years and notify the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health whenever they shoot a film. Violations could result in fines of up to $70,000.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock