Los Angeles City Council has approved an ordinance mandating condom use on porn sets. The 9-1 vote was given final approval this morning and now awaits signature by the mayor before LAPD and city officials next figure out how exactly to enforce it.

Most of the adult industry currently is in Las Vegas for the annual Adult Entertainment Expo, one of the largest trade shows that unites porn fans with their favorite starlets and studios and remains one of the most significant and essential elements of adult companies' success each year.

Most producers, performers and other major players in the biz argue that the market not only vetoes condoms in the porn they illegally download buy, their rejection may also drive studios to shoot their stuff elsewhere.

Whether or not L.A. County would feel the financial effects of this potential action – or that a move of this magnitude would even happen – is unclear, but industry leaders are adamant that porn consumers simply don't want to see condoms on the screen.

Requiring condoms has been a hot button topic for years, and with past reports of fear-inflated AIDS “outbreaks” groups of proponents – including the media-friendly AIDS Healthcare Foundation – have made it their initiative to put an ordinance like this into effect.

(For the record there hasn't been a reported AIDS infection as a result of sexual activity on an adult film set since 2004.)

“There is a major battle underway for money and status of overseeing the adult industry,” adult industry attorney Jeffrey Douglas told AfterDarkLA in a previous article. “L.A. County Department of Health wants to be the czar of the adult industry because that would require additional funding, and of course naming oneself the appropriate overseer of adult industry is a great distraction [from other county issues.]”

It makes sense, however, that condom supporters simply want to add another level of safety into the world of sex work, and the barrier method (aka wrapping it up) is logically the best AIDS and sexually transmitted infection prevention method there is.

But in an industry that's already self-regulated – all performers are required to provide STI/AIDS test results from within the previous 30 days before having sex on set – is forcing these consenting adults to wear jimmy hats really making anyone safer?

For all we know, these adult film stars to whom we fap and diddle very well might be “cleaner” than the first 30 OKCupid matches we've got waiting in our inboxes.

Representatives from adult advocacy group Free Speech Coalition and leading adult news media outlet AVN were unavailable for comment at press time.

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