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Dr. Lindsey Doe: Recently Sexplanations was given the amazing privilege to talk with Dr. Hernando Chaves, a therapist and Human Sexuality professor about pornography in California. If that wasn't already amazing, he connected us with adult film performers, who invited us into their home - a model house - where they split rent, and live safely, and no one evicts them for what they do. What I quickly learned is that they all love their jobs and the people they work with.

Dr. Doe: how do you feel about your job?

Woman 1: I love it.

Skyler Nicole: I love my job!

Cristi Ann: I love the liberation!

Amara Romani: I love my job.

Sarah Banks: I would do almost anything for my job.

Alec Knight : I love my job.

Venus Lux: I love porn.

Dr. Doe: I also learned there's a proposition on the November 8th ballot that's really scary to them. 

Dr. Hernando Chaves: Prop 60 is on the current November election ballot here in California. 

Venus Lux: It's a bill right now that is attacking the porn industry in a way where anyone who has a financial interest or stake in a production of a scene that does not have a visible condom, is held liable, and can be sued by any California resident.

Siouxsie Q: It incentivizes harassment of our people and it allows people to access our information, when like.... my legal name is not Siouxsie Q, you know? Shocking, I know! 

Dr. Hernando Chaves: I mean it's incentivized bounty hunting, and that to me is scary, especially because a lot of these performers in the industry already are going through issues on social media with shaming, with stalking, with harassment - this is just opening a door for more of that to occur, and that's not what our laws should be doing.  They should be trying to protect us rather than harm us. 

Dr. Doe: So if Prop 60 passes, it would accomplish the opposite of what they need from us. First of all, condoms - while great - are one of many preventative and protective measures. They're an option and everyone deserves to experience them this way.


Dr. Doe: How do you feel about condoms?

Sarah Banks: It's a case by case type of thing.

Cristi Ann: I don't have a problem with them, but you know, I like feeling contact - I want that intimacy.

Skyler Nicole: I feel like porn is their fantasy, that's what they like.... that's what fans want. And fans feel like, "oh it's not very personal" when there's like a condom.

Alec Knight: Condoms um... they may work for civilians a lot, but the amount of time that we're on set, they have to go beyond the regular condom use at, you know, home, where you can go at your own pace. Because we have to be extreme and push the limits and that, typically, causes those condoms to break. So, it's not safer - not in this aspect of  it.

Dr. Doe: Yeah, I'm a huge fan of condoms, but I think I'm an even bigger fan of choice and autonomy, and an ability to look at a situation and at options.

Alec Knight: Oh, I'm a big fan of condoms too! If I'm doing anything outside of the adult industry, and they're not .... yeah, it's a ... all condom... so yeah. Condoms are good! ... in certain aspects, but not necessarily in our industry. It's not really going to help the situation. I don't see it. 

Dr. Doe: The second problem with Prop 60 is that it allows spectators to pursue legal charges against the industry and its performers if they suspect there isn't a condom being used.

Dr. Doe: If someone were to sue you, they would have access to your actual name, address...

Cristi Ann: Yeah. My actual name. And you know, not only does it affect me, I'm also a daughter, I'm also, you know an aunt, I'm a sister...

Venus Lux: As a trans woman, you know, it's very difficult to fathom that people who may... who may not like me, may have a chance, an opportunity, to obtain my personal information and put that in public.

Siouxsie Q: They don't realize what's at stake. I think that they think that maybe we're hyperbolizing this idea. It's like, "Hey, our legal names and home addresses will be put at risk under Prop 60. Maybe it's not the best piece of legislation to do what you're trying to do."

Dr. Doe: The third issue I see with Prop 60 is that the performers in the industry at large know what they're doing! They're safer sex practices produce incredibly successful results, compared to the general public, who's trying to regulate their safety...

Alec Knight: We have been able to police ourselves, and we've done very well. Over these... over a decade, that no one has actually contracted HIV (in 12 years) that's... that to me is a testament right there. I think that shows, right there that we know what we're doing, we don't need the government to come in and try to regulate it.

Dr. Doe: You need to teach the rest of us - all the civilians - you should be in charge of the civilians.

Alec Knight: Right. Exactly.

Dr. Doe: *Laughing* rather than the other way around!

Skyler Nicole: People think that "oh, porn, sex, Oh they're being nasty." But when I go and like I ask oh like a guy friend "when was the last time you tested?" "Oh, Umm..." "What is Um?" like "When was the last time you tested?!" You know? I can provide like a history of who I had sex with, and all my testing, but like the general public can't do that.

Dr. Doe: There are seven different STIs the performers in the adult industry, who participate in partnered sex are tested for every 12 to 14 days.

Amara Romani: Outside the industry, I rarely got tested, and never knew what I had... like if I had anything.

Dr. Doe: In the porn industry, you have been safer?

Amara Romani: Yes. Because I know my partners' status,  and they know mine. 

Sarah Banks: With the frequency we get tested in, and with how quickly the results come back, it's so - to me - it's effective. Because if (God forbid) I did have something, my test results are next day. I don't have to... it's not uh... even with being a civilian, you don't get that type of system, even at your own doctor.

Dr. Doe: What happens if Prop 60 passes?

Alec Knight: I mean we've already had many production companies leave Los Angeles, and it's just, it's just really hard to keep things afloat, with the what (to me) feels like a witch hunt, honestly.

Sarah Banks: Where I am now, still establishing myself, it would completely ruin me in a way.

Dr. Hernando Chaves: If this passes, what would happen if your favorite porn star retired? You no longer have new content. What would happen when performers, who don't want to, you know, do anything illegal and shoot in California, move to other states where they don't have the same testing protocols, the same industry standards when it comes to worker safety - we can actually be putting people more at risk by driving this industry underground or out of state.

Dr. Doe: Proposition 60 isn't the solution. So what is?

Dr. Hernando Chaves: You know, if it was up to me, I would want to invite porn performers, California Health and Safety, which is Cal OSHA, and also maybe sex educators and sexual health advocates to work together to find what would be the best possible ways for us to protect everybody.

Siouxsie Q: I think the porn industry needs to be at the center of conversations around regulation. Anytime an outside - especially a government organization - comes in, and tries to like, make all these rules, when they don't have any insight as to what the realities of what our lives are like, they're not going to do well. As soon as I entered the adult industry, and figured out that everything that I had been told about the people who work in it was a big fat lie -  that actually the people who work in this industry are some of America's, and the world's, best and brightest, most innovative, most caring, most empathetic people I've ever met; I basically like vowed to spend the rest of my life, like until I am in the ground, fighting to make this world a better place for all of us. Because we deserve that.

Dr. Doe: To learn more about Prop 60, check out Stop60.com and the other resources in the description. And to everyone who shared their experiences and to all of you who stayed curious, thank you.