Porn Producers Sue LA County Over Condom Requirement; Adult Stars Kayden Kross, Logan Pierce Join Lawsuit Against Measure B

Adult film entertainers were upset before California announced it would make illegal the absence of condoms in their films. Now that the initiative has passed, a major porn producer is suing Los Angeles County.

Vivid Entertainment, joined by porn stars Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce, has taken the county to court, claiming the condom requirement impedes on the adult industry’s First Amendment rights. Measure B, as it came to be known, was approved by a 56-percent margin by California voters on Election Day last November.

Reuters reported that the lawsuit filed Friday also is seeking an injunction to halt Measure B, which would allow adult entertainers to continue performing without condoms. Vivid alleges the mandate restricts freedom of expression and places an undue burden on the porn companies.

The new law was enacted in December, but Los Angeles legislators have not yet found a way to enforce it.

“You don't have to win an Oscar to be protected by the First Amendment,” said Paul Cambria, lead attorney for Vivid Entertainment and the assorted actors. “They're telling the production house that, in order to produce legally protected expression, you have to first get government approval, and you have to agree to shoot it in particular way, namely with condoms.”

One of the main supporters of Measure B is the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which cites the decreased risk of HIV and sexually transmitted disease that comes with the use of protection. A recent syphilis outbreak derailed the adult film world for a number of weeks.

Vivid has resisted a suggestion to have performers use condoms then digitally remove the image in production because of the potential editing costs, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Despite what the adult industry's lawyers are claiming in this lawsuit, Measure B is not directed at speech, and as such their First Amendment claims will likely ring hollow with the court,” Tom Myers, general counsel for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said.

“However, as soon as an adult performer accepts money for performing in a film, a whole host of worker safety laws kick in. In nonadult films, we don't let people take chances that can harm themselves or others, with pyrotechnics, for example, just because they feel their creativity or expression would be stifled otherwise,” Myers continued. “The same reason one requires condoms is the same reason a stunt man or woman would have to use a net or be tied to a harness.”

Cambria has alleged that such impediments on the porn industry would encourage producers to leave Los Angeles, hurting the southern California economy and indirectly putting performers at an increased risk, because they’ll be in a situation with even less safety precautions than they have now.

“I can tell you they are leaving L.A. County in droves," he said. "It's a multibillion dollar industry that employs thousands of people, and ever since this all started they have been leaving and filming in places other than L.A. County.”