The Los Angeles Times reports that 40 permits for adult productions were issued across the city and county last year, a 90% drop from 2012 when the measure was passed. The law, called Measure B, was pushed by HIV/AIDS activists arguing it would prevent disease outbreaks. Only 20 permits have been issued so far this year as of July. Porn crews are now mostly traveling to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami, and Eastern Europe in order to film under less restrictive conditions. In San Francisco, porn power-house Kink.com continues to reign from its multi-million dollar Armory Building headquarters, and is still the home to the biggest gay porn companies in the world: Colt, Falcon, and Treasure Island Studios. Regardless, the San Francisco based porn-pushers have recently come under pressure from Cal/OSHA (California Occupational Safety and Health Administration): Kink.com was fined $78,000 for maintaining dangerous workplace conditions, among them allowing performers to have sex on camera without using condoms; Treasure Island was fined $9,000 for a similar citation. In reality, to these multi-million profiting companies, these fines are practically meaningless. Yet, according to Kink.com owner Peter Acworth, regarding reports that the company may leave San Francisco: “I would still think of Kink.com production moving out as a question of if as opposed to when,” he wrote to us in an email. “If the various regulations that are being considered currently in Sacramento and by Cal-OSHA become law, we will likely have to move production out of California to Nevada.” The regulations he’s referring to are a statewide version of the recent Los Angeles condom law, AB 1576, as well as new Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards legally requiring porn actors wear protective goggles to protect their eyes from STDs that may be present in ejaculate. In San Francisco, particularly where the gay community is involved, these laws will inevitably prove moot: at both the Dore Alley Fair and the Folsom Street Fair, including the more secular Gay Pride Parade, all sorts of public sex acts, including water-sports, can be viewed as well as electronically recorded. As for myself, back in the mid-1990s, I participated in a shoot at the Folsom Fair that took place inside the cramped quarters of a portable toilet. Recently, I returned to many of these venues, to offer Christian outreach, and have found that very little has changed.
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