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Porn Industry Faces Mandatory Condom Act

In the upcoming June elections, Los Angelenos will be asked to vote on whether or not to pass a new measure that would force porn producers to agree to wear condoms in all adult shoots in the Los Angeles area. Failing to do so would give governing body FilmLA cause to deny shooting permits and could potentially cripple the now thriving adult entertainment industry. Initiated by For Adult Industry Responsibility (FAIR), a front group for AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the measure has obtained almost double the 35,000 signatures required to place a measure on the ballot. The superficial elements of the condom issue aside, the details of the proposed ordinance, called “City of Los Angeles Safer Sex in The Adult Industry Act,” are largely unknown to the public. You, dude, you’re the public! The porn watching public, no less, so don’t you think you should know what’s has the potential to go down come June 2012? Here’s a breakdown of the two main issues:

– All adult producers would be required to have performers agree to wear condoms and to”maintain engineering and work practice controls…sufficient to protect employees from exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials,” in order to receive a FilmLA shooting permit for LA City productions.

– FilmLA would be required to ask a higher fee of adult productions companies in order to cover the costs of “periodic inspections,” and considering how frequently and widely porn is shot in LA, that’s a ton of money leaving the hands of adult producers.

Opponents of the proposed ordinance are saying it infringes on the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression – the right of consenting adults to fuck on camera sans rubbers – and have decried it as imposing healthcare responsibilities and the policing thereof on what is essentially an administrative department. Me, well, I don’t see folks fucking any way but bareback in my fantasies, so why would I accept condoms in porn? Of course, in real life everyone should be practicing safe sex, but porn ain’t real life, is it?

One Dick, Two Dick, White Dick, Black Dick – Sasha Grey Reads

“There once was a dog named Hally, who lived with the Tosis family. Hally Tosis was very good dog, but she had a big problem. Hally Tosis had horrible breath. Whenever Hally Tosis opened her mouth, horrible things happened.” This excerpt from Dog Breath by Dav Pilkey doesn’t just tell the story of a stinky-mouthed pup, it also tells the story of pornstar Sasha Grey. No stranger to controversy – this is, after all, the woman who, in her first hardcore scene, requested a mid-coital punch to the stomach – Ms. Grey last week landed herself in rather hot water by giving a performance of a notably different kind: reading to the students at Emerson Elementary in Compton. Parents who learned of Ms. Grey’s porn past complained to the Emerson PTA, who subsequently contacted the principal. After a school spokesperson flatly denied that Ms. Grey was even present at the reading, photos surfaced online at TMZ showing the tastefully dressed multiple AVN Award winner reading Dog Breath to a floor full of students. Sprung!

Amidst the chaos that followed these revelations, both in the Emerson and greater Los Angeles school communities, on tabloid media sites, and across the pornosphere, were indignant calls for Grey to withdraw from the reading program. Apparently unwilling to do so, Grey insists that porn is her past and that she is now focusing her attention not on double-penetrations and blowbangs, but on solidifying her career as an author (Neu Sex), musician (aTelecine), and mainstream actress (Entourage). She seems intent on fashioning herself as a provocative, intellectual, pseudo-feminist artiste. Who but a serious intellectual could fashion a modest and humble response to the Read Across America debacle containing such ready-made pull quotes as “I am an actor. I am an artist. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a partner,” and “I have a past that some people may not agree with, but it does not define who I am. I will not live in fear of it. To challenge non-profit education programs is an exercise in futility, counter-productive and anti-educational.”

You go, grrrl.

Moving Towards a Trans-Friendly America

It has been a big week for transgender Americans, with a landmark U.S. Tax Court ruling and the passing of a bill in Massachusetts that will grant legal civil rights protection to transgender individuals. The Transgender Equal Rights bill, approved by the State Senate Wednesday, will, when signed by supportive Governor Deval Patrick, grants transgender MA residents protection against employment, education, housing, and credit discrimination, as well as include gender identity and gender expression to the state’s hate crimes law. Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Gavi Wolfe, stated: “This bill is about giving transgender people an equal shot at obtaining everyday basics we all need — a job, a place to live, an education. It’s a major step forward for fairness, and we urge the legislature to pass it right away.” The fight for transgender equality is not over, however, as a key clause calling for protection against discrimination in public accommodations was dropped two days before the vote after heavy criticisms from House Republicans.

In the U.S. Tax Court, a ruling may now force the Internal Revenue Service to allow transgender individuals to deduct unreimbursed medical expenses from federal tax returns, as any other citizen would a non-gender related medical expense. Rhiannon O’Donnabhain changed her sex from male to female and attempted to deduct hormone therapy and surgery from her 2010 tax return only to find the IRS disallowing on the basis that these procedures “did not treat a medically recognized disease or promote the proper function of the body.”

The Tax Court, however, saw things differently citing four bases for its ruling in favor of Ms. O’Donnabhain: “1) the disorder is widely recognized in diagnostic and psychiatric reference texts; 2) the texts and all three experts testifying in the case consider the disorder a serious medical condition; 3) the mental health professionals who examined Ms. O’Donnabhain found that her disorder was a severe impairment; and, 4) the Courts of Appeal generally consider gender identity disorder a serious medical condition.” Although she was not able to claim a deduction for her breast enhancement surgery – the court said her tits were fine without it – and although the ruling notes that it is “not to be relied upon or otherwise cited as precedent by taxpayers,” the IRS has agreed to no longer hold the official position of denying gender reassignment patients and those having treatment for Gender Identity Disorder the same tax rights as cisgender citizens.

Babewatching on Wall Street

Whether you’re a Tea Party fan, one of the nation’s richest, or an attendee either physical or spiritual at the current wave of Occupy Wall Street inspired protests sweeping the planet, the fact that you’re reading this blog means you appreciate the beauty of the feminine form. So too does documentary filmmaker Steven Greenstreet, whose ‘Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street’ video has aroused both ire and admiration from 99%-ers around the world. With some women finding Greenstreet and cohort Brandon Bloch’s 4-minute video tribute to a selection of attractive, intelligent, proactive protesters of New York’s Zuccotti Park to be nothing but the sexist work of two lecherous heterosexual ignoramuses, the video has inspired so much debate that Salon even published a 2,500 word discussion amongst its staffers as to whether or not ‘Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street’ was sexist. The outcome? Maybe, maybe not.

What seems to be missing from so many of the ad hominem attacks on Greenstreet (as well as a wordless arson attempt at his apartment) is that the vast majority of the videos runtime is devoted to showing protesting women celebrating their common ground together and rather lucidly expressing their reasons for attending the Occupy Wall Street protests. Isn’t that what political activism is all about, getting your point across in a clear and emphatic way? Whatever your stance on Greenstreet’s alleged sexism, you have to admit that his video is drawing a huge amount of attention – from such international news sources as Le Monde (France), Folha (Brazil), Index (Croatia), and, uh, The Salt Lake Tribune – to an increasingly popular cause.

Just be thankful these are Urban Outfitters-wearing hipsters and not the muddy, hairy hippies of the 60s! Well, unless that’s your thing. No judgment here at Mr. Pink’s.

Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street from Steven Greenstreet