Tommy Gunn and Luscious Lopez, as well as other porn film performers, must now wear condoms if they shoot films in the City of Los Angeles, according to an ordinance passed by the city council and signed into law by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in January.
The first of its kind in the nation, the ordinance affects L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, the capital of the multibillion-dollar porn industry. Porn film producers oppose the law, claiming that adult performances that use condoms do not market as well as unprotected sex.
The ordinance doesn't apply to film shoots in certified sound stages that don't require permits. For now, porn film studios, which often use private homes in San Fernando Valley, can choose to film in the county's other 87 cities or in its unincorporated parts.
A pro-condom initiative got on the ballot for a special election in June but the City Council, certain of voter approval for the measure, passed the ordinance to avoid spending $4 million on the special vote.
AIDS prevention groups are gathering signatures to put a countywide measure on the ballot for November, but they also want to put pressure on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to pass its own law mandating condom use in the adult film industry.
