Florida: A Call for Safer Sex in the Porn Industry

South Florida is the latest battleground in the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's crusade for safer sex in the porn industry. Under Florida's sanitary nuisance law, AHF in January filed a formal complaint with the Miami-Dade County Health Department (MDCHD) over some actors' failure to wear condoms while performing for the camera.

The law in question, FS 386, bans any act that might spread disease. MDCHD has announced it will look into the allegations.

The complaint identifies film producers Bang Brothers Films, Josh Stone Productions and Reality Kings Productions in Miami, and Beverly Hills' Hustler Video.

The Florida complaint follows actions by AHF in California to mandate the use of condoms throughout the porn industry. In 2009, AHF filed similar complaints against 16 porn film producers. In addition, it has pressured Cal/OSHA, the state-level workplace safety agency, to hold public hearings on a proposal requiring the use of condoms in California-produced porn.

AHF's expansion to Florida is merely following the industry, said Michael Weinstein, AHF's president. "We're getting active in Florida in part because they said they would move to other states. We said, 'We will follow you.'"

AHF's effort seeks to educate as well as to prevent infection. Condom-free porn films "set a bad example," Weinstein said. "A lot of young people get their sex education from porn."

Successfully prosecuting film producers under the Florida sanitary nuisance law would require more than just proving a filmed sex act did not incorporate a condom. The prosecution would have to establish that the particular sex act depicted was the one that transmitted a disease.

"We really need victims to testify," said Mort Laitner, MDCHD's chief legal counsel, acknowledging that seeking to identify such patients raises medical privacy concerns.

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