Voters in California rejected “condoms for porn” law
Condoms will not be made compulsory in the porn industry's capital, California.
HIV prevention groups have spent years lobbying for legislation to criminalize unprotected sex on screen to curb the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases.
One in four performers in the porn industry have an STD such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, HPV, HIV or syphilis - far more than the national average - according to the For Adult Industry Responsibility (FAIR) Committee which backed the bill.
"The diseases contracted in the porn studios don’t always stay in the studios or in the porn industry,' FAIR said in its bid to pass Proposition 60.
'In one widely publicized case last year, a porn actor had sex with 17 people outside the industry (and with five others inside the industry) in 22 days before it was discovered he had HIV.'
If Proposition 60 had been passed, actors could have been subjected to criminal charges for not wearing protection on screen.
Many performers and public health experts claimed the new rules would have been less safe than the existing industry standard called 'Performer Availability Scheduling Services'.
Under that system, porn stars are tested fortnightly for STIs and the results are kept in a private database.
Producers then pick actors who are deemed 'available' by the database.
But under the new legislation, they would only have been tested every three months.
Opponents had argued porn stars should wear condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis or human papillomavirus.
Michael Weinstein, president of Aids Healthcare Foundation, claimed the law was 'about protecting the performers'.
He added: 'Many young people get their information from these films, and the message they get is that the only hot sex is unsafe sex.'
In another election day ballot, California voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
The initiative allows Californians who are 21 and older to possess, transport and buy up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and use it for recreational purposes.
It comes six years after California voters narrowly rejected a similar measure.
Activists said it was an important moment in the fight for legalization across the country.
Massachusetts and Nevada also approved recreational pot, while voters in Florida, North Dakota and Arkansas supported medical marijuana measures.
Voters in California also decided on tougher gun laws, requiring people buying ammunition to undergo background checks.
The vote - which came nearly a year after two terrorists gunned down 14 people in San Bernardino - also outlawed possession of high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Golden State voters also decided to speed up the death penalty process rather than repealing it, as well as raising tobacco tax, extending income tax rates for the wealthy and introducing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
