SAN FRANCISCO — Siouxsie Q, the Free Speech Coalition’s policy director, faced off yesterday against John Schwada, the “Yes on Prop 60” communications director, on Northern California public radio station KQED.
The debate between Siouxsie Q and Schwada, moderated by KQED’s Michael Krasny, hit the usual points made between the two adversarial groups this past summer over Proposition 60, the porn-condom measure that is slated be placed on November’s general election ballot.
Both Siousxie Q and Schwada held their ground with respective stances — Schwada remarking that the porn industry’s logic to “regulate themselves” is from the 19th century, while Siouxsie Q noted that Prop 60 was “poorly written” and developed without input from the industry.
After covering the key controversial issues of Prop 60, Krasny took several calls from listeners.
To hear the KQED debate over Prop 60, click here.
The FSC, the adult entertainment trade group, has been fervently against Prop 60 because it could hand over power to regulate the industry to outsiders, including the Yes on Prop 60’s sponsor, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
The adult trade group also notes that frequent testing protocols have been the reason why there has not been an HIV transmission on porn sets for more than a dozen years.
Meanwhile, the AHF and its president, Michael Weinstein, in those dozen years have been trying to increase regulation for adult film productions either through legislative attempts or through ballot initiatives, including Los Angeles County’s Measure B, which was approved by voters.
Prop 60 is their latest attempt. If condoms are not visible in films, Prop 60 would allow Cal/OSHA to pursue enforcement action and allow any California resident to sue porn producers and distributors if Cal/OSHA doesn’t act.
Many believe that Weinstein would take on that role to sue producers and distributors.
Pictured: Siouxsie Q
