In jobs recruiting, Florida might have to draw the line at porn industry

Frank Cerabino

Monday, Sept. 16, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It’s time to calibrate our job-relocating pitch to California.

I know we’re all about luring out-of-state jobs, jobs, jobs to Florida. But the AIDS Healthcare Foundation would like Florida to be a less appealing suitor for Southern California’s embattled pornographic movie industry.

The foundation has led an effort in California to require condoms in pornographic movies, a move that the industry said would only drive those jobs in this $8 billion-a-year industry to other states.

“We’re well aware that there is porn production in South Florida,” said Michael Weinstein, the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “And according to the industry, it’s the second-most popular location to make pornography.”

The foundation started leaning on the Florida Department of Health three years ago to take a more active approach to regulating the unsafe-sex practices in these movies.

“We sent them a bunch of tapes which, based on the titles and scenery, were made in Florida,” Weinstein said. “Being naive, we thought this was enough documentary evidence.”

But after studying the films, the state declined to act, deciding that it wasn’t enough evidence.

More recently, the foundation filed a complaint against San Diego Boy Productions, a California-based gay pornography company that was producing movies that featured unsafe sex. The company responded to the complaint by saying that the movies were being filmed by an affiliate company in Florida, not California.

“Now we have documentary evidence in Florida,” Weinstein said.

So the foundation has asked again for Florida’s health department to act by using the state’s “sanitary nuisance” law, which can be invoked when a business threatens the “health or lives of individuals” in a way that directly or indirectly may cause disease.

Four pornographic movie actors have contracted HIV in the past month, Weinstein said, in an outbreak that has caused the quarantining of a dozen female actors while demonstrating that the monthly testing used by the industry isn’t enough to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

“We’re not trying to get rid of porn; we’re trying to make it safer,” Weinstein said. “I don’t know any industry that can regulate itself. You shouldn’t be able to put an employee at risk of a blood-borne disease because of his employment.”

Ashley Carr, a spokeswoman with the state health department, said the agency is waiting for more information from the foundation about its complaint.

“The Florida Department of Health will then be in a position to review the information provided and determine its authority to act on the request,” she said.

If Florida acts, it will be a rare acknowledgement of both the value of government regulation and the realization that our mission to steal jobs from other states might not involve all jobs, which in this case might involve performers employed in the future sequels of the “College Boy Physicals” series.

“The issue about losing jobs was prominent in California,” Weinstein said. “But it didn’t sway many people. Whatever revenue is gained by those jobs is offset by public health costs.

“Most of these producers don’t offer workers’ comp or health care,” he said. “We’re using public funds for that.”

So will Florida follow California’s regulatory lead?

“My experience with Florida is that things grind slowly there,” Weinstein said. “There’s a big ick factor. People are uncomfortable with it, but it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. It should be regulated like everything else.

“It makes politicians and bureaucrats uncomfortable, but health matters are more important.”

Frank Cerabino writes for the Palm Beach Post.