Prop 60 was rejected , with 53.9% of California voters voting against the proposition, which would have required porn performers to wear condoms or risk legal action by any viewer in the state.

Tina Horn is a nonfiction writer and journalist whose work investigates sex work, queer identity, kink communities, and cultural criticism. The views expressed here are her own.We can all agree that, as a tool for safer sex, condoms are a good thing. But imagine if you were legally required to wear one every single time you had sex. Even if you were having sex with your monogamous partner. Even if you and your partner had updated STI tests or used Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) . Now imagine that anyone — any person — in your state could sue you for not wearing a condom during sex. This is exactly what Proposition 60 wants to do to California adult filmmakers.“Prop 60 claims to be a worker safety bill, but was written entirely without the input of workers and by people who apparently have no understanding of how we actually work,” Lorelei Lee, a porn performer who has worked in the industry for over a decade, told me.If passed, Prop 60 would make condom use mandatory in all adult films, taking away each performer’s agency in making the health decision that’s right for them. But the fine print is where things start to get really dangerous for workers: Prop 60 would also permit any state resident who sees a condom-less porn scene to file a complaint with California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA), and then, after three weeks, sue the filmmakers. If the resident wins the case, they could stand to collect a quarter of the penalties.Siouxsie Q, a porn performer and journalist who is also the director of policy and industry relations for the Free Speech Coalition, put this in perspective: “Prop 60 will also introduce new risks around personal privacy and harassment by deputizing and incentivizing every California resident to come after adult film workers and gain access our legal names and home addresses,” she told me, adding, “For a workforce that already faces disproportionate amounts of harassment, discrimination, and violence, this simply cannot stand.”