Nevertheless, since 2004, there have been no reported cases of on-set seroconversion. How much more clear does it need to be, self regulation is working… and well. Let’s turn the question around: if the government was mandating the use of condoms on porn sets, would there be fewer (than one) such cases? Or, are the proponents of mandatde condom use taking this as an opportunity much the way Leon Pannetta says Dick Cheney would use another terrorist attack… i.e., the condom-fanatics would rather be right, but run the porn industry out of California, than accept the adult nature of the industry and allow adults to make adult decisions?

I heard from a friend in the industry who saw my post last week on the matter, and who pointed out that other than jesus_mary’s attempt to draw me into an straw-man argument (and to be direct, I’ll take the Titan Media approach and say that what I do in my personal life is inconsequential to this matter), there were no responses to my contention that the “unreported” cases of seroconversion remain so for suspicious reasons. He thinks I hit the nail on the head… that these cases were on safe-sex sets and such a revelation would destroy the mandated condom use argument. And, he suggested, that my supposition shut down the thread, because no one wants to talk about the reality of the decisions made regarding condom use, reliability, and all of the mitigating factors surrounding on-set safe sex.

I’m not trying to deflect responsibility for these statements as I wouldn’t be putting them in writing here if I didn’t see the possibility that these contentions may be true, but I also think the underlying rationale is that there is a great deal of condom fatigue, not to mention that I still believe we should wait for more information before jumping to any conclusions. Let’s hope that unlike the “unreported” cases, if this turns out to be a false-positive report, it will not be swept under the rug as well.

But philosophical objections aside, the reality is this law would not have the effect of making producers stop filming bareback porn, it would simply drive them into making it elsewhere… I have a hard time imagining state lawmakers uniting to drive the porn industry into moving to Florida or NYC or Europe, etc… but I do understand this is the California legislature we’re talking about so I suppose anything is possible!

It’s not always that easy. People don’t always have the choice.

It’s clear that self-regulation isn’t working.