Adult film actor Tasha Reign says a proposed law that would enforce condom use on set is an assault on her rights over her own body

What does a porn star wear when she hits the campaign trail? A smile.

And a black net brassiere with intricate straps. A very short, peach satin romper open to the waist. A whole lot of deeply tanned skin. And a fist full of “No on Proposition 60” pamphlets.

Not familiar with Proposition 60? Neither were most of the students Tasha Reign (her nom de scène) encountered on a sunny Monday at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

The measure, one of 17 on the California ballot in November, would require adult entertainers to wear condoms while filming sex scenes. To the 27-year-old feminist with a fan base she calls her Reigndeers, Proposition 60 is an assault on her human rights, her artistic freedom and the very constitution itself.

Not to mention that it is often anatomically impractical.

“I do acts where I literally could not use condoms, whether that be anal, whether that be double penetration, whether that be multiple guys,” Reign said. “I cannot even imagine having a group sex scene like that.”

I hate the idea that some man is going to tell me what I can and can’t do Tasha Reign

The logistical hurdles are endless. How do you ensure that the same condom doesn’t find itself inside more than one woman? Do you stop filming while an actor swaps latex? What if the condom breaks during a particularly rigorous outing? This isn’t, she notes, regular sex, 20 or so comfy minutes and it’s over.

“It’s extremely difficult for somebody to be able to maintain an erection for 45 minutes, and to be able to pop with a condom, especially,” she said. “The bigger issue for me is that it opens up the gateway to mandate my body. I hate the idea that some man is going to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

Reign is a practitioner of gonzo porn – none of the cuddly couples stuff for her. Her Twitter feed is filled with political activism and waxed genitalia. As she campaigns in front of UCSD’s Geisel Library, she attracts attention, if not always votes.

Ten minutes before every hour, as one class ends and another is set to begin, the tree-lined walkway fills with students. Young women weighed down with heavy backpacks slide their eyes Reign’s way before hurrying off. A young man on a skate board does a double take fast enough to cause whiplash.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tasha Reign talks to UC San Diego students about Proposition 60, which would require adult entertainers to wear condoms during sex scenes. Photograph: Ariana Drehsler/The Guardian

She walks up to student after student, leading with a smile, campaign literature in her outstretched hand. More often than not on this day, her targets scurry by. The young men at the fraternity table across the path rebuff her.

“It’s like a lot of rejection,” Reign says with a pout. “When they say no, I’m not used to it, actually.”

But she is not deterred. “Are you going to vote on Prop 60?” she begins, over and over. “Let me tell you about it. I’m an adult film star.”

The day after her UCSD foray, she arrives at California State University, Long Beach. In her first hour, she gives her pitch 18 times – 19 if you count the guy who said he wasn’t voting but hung around to talk to her anyway – and posed for a selfie with a young man in full Dodgers regalia.

I want to be able to say: I’m a sex worker. I have a choice in the way that I protect my genitals Tasha Reign

“This would take away the choice we have to use condoms or not,” Reign tells them. The measure, she says, “incentivizes people to sue adult film stars, giving them access to their personal names, their personal home address, taking your tax dollars and putting it toward regulating an industry that does a really good job at self-regulating itself.”

“It’s a women’s rights issue,” she says. And “it’s also a freedom of speech issue.” And “it’s something the performers, the majority of us, don’t want passed.” And “we just want you guys to vote no.” And “tell your friends.”

Michael Weinstein, president of the Aids Healthcare Foundation, is the measure’s major backer. Neither he nor his organization responded to repeated requests for comment.

The Vote Yes on Prop 60 website says “condoms in porn is about protecting California employees at work.” Although Reign and other adult film actors undergo regular screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, such testing is voluntary.

The state’s Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties have officially come out against the measure, along with Aids Project LA, Equality California, the Transgender Law Center and the San Francisco Aids Foundation.

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Most major newspapers in the state recommend a no vote. The Los Angeles Times’ editorial against the measure points out that “any resident who spots a violation in a pornographic film shot in the state could sue and collect cash from the producers and purveyors if they prevail in court.”

Reign is a registered Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton for president. She had planned to vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary, but her mother persuaded her otherwise. She lives in the hills above Los Angeles with her Chihuahua mixes, Cinderella and Bambi, and her pot-bellied piglets, Harley and Quinn.

She graduated from UCLA with a degree in women’s studies. And she did not get into adult entertainment, she said, so she could be pushed around by a man like Weinstein “who has never been a sex worker” and doesn’t respect the choices she and her fellow performers make.

She doesn’t believe that such a person “should come in and tell me, on my own adult film set that I’m producing in my own home that I need to use a condom”.

“I want to be able to say: I’m a sex worker. I have a choice in the way that I protect my genitals. This is a huge issue for me.”