Liberty and porn

The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo was held in Las Vegas last month. Pornographic art has existed since prehistoric man drew stick figures with an extra leg on cave walls. Pornography is by far the most popular art form on the planet. Advances in inexpensive video production and the internet’s power of distribution on both free and subsciption platforms allow millions of new watchers access to a dizzying variety of recorded human copulation. The days of men in raincoats whacking in a seedy XXX theatre is over.

Pornography is also constitutionally protected art and speech.

Self-described libertarian porn magnate John Stagliano is the director who invented “Gonzo Porn,” and “Point of View”(POV) porn, which together greatly increased the market in America for inexpensive HD camcorders. He was recently on trial in a Los Angeles court for violating California occupation and health (CAL/OHSA) regulations because his performers do not use condoms. Proposition B, a Los Angeles city initiative approved by the voters in 2012, mandates condoms and even dental dams and goggles be worn during porn productions. The initiative has been hard to enforce. CAL/OHSA withdrew its fine during Stagliano’s court appearance. Other companies have settled for a slap on the wrist.

Sex work is under bipartisan attack. The religious right is as always involved in legal actions against porn. But increasingly the enemy of the industry has been the left. The left doesn’t want to save working girls’ souls, but rather protect their bodies from being exploited by the army of leeches the laws against sex work have themselves created, the pimps and “sex traffickers” who have “enslaved” them. The left sees sex workers just as they were portrayed in 19th century Virginia City, as “fallen doves” who today need the tender care of the therapeutic state instead of a good prayer meeting.

Proposition B is largely the product of one man, Michael Weinstein, and his organization, the Aids Health Foundation (AHF). The mission statement of AHS is to Stamp Out Aids. The organization has done much good work informing the public of the dangers of HIV and providing free condoms and assistance to victims. But beware of those who want to “stamp out” anything more than a brush fire.

The religious right often sees things from the perspective of the End Times and teaches preparation for the Rapture. Sometimes these eschatological preparations include using state police power to cleanse sin from the world through laws against sex work, drug use, gambling and other vices.

The left is also prone to religiously apocalyptic visions of government redemption. Climate change is their statist religion, with dire prophesies of “tipping points” and “peak oil” and other impending doomsdays that never materialize.

AHF’s vision was forged in the awful 1980s when so many gay men tragically just suddenly got sick and died. But HIV infection is no longer a death sentence. Gay people are no longer threatened with apocalypse.

Ironically, Weinstein’s puritanical zeal causes him to oppose the first HIV prevention drug, Truvada. Only turning sex into an occupational hazard is acceptable to him. Weinstein wants to be California’s porn czar. The very idea invites a XXX parody.

Weinstein plans to bring his occupational mandates to Nevada. Libertarians see his regulations as violations of the right to contract and free expression. Sex workers know of the increased rates of sexually transmitted diseases in their profession. But that is one reason why it pays well. The American porn industry provides excellent private testing and medical help. Those infected with HIV can’t work.

LA is having problems implementing Weinstein’s law. Let’s hope Nevada never passes it.