Panel Orders Audit of CSUN Pornography Conference

A legislative committee voted unanimously Tuesday to order an audit of the 1998 “World Pornography Conference,” a controversial event co-sponsored by Cal State Northridge’s Center for Sex Research and a Canoga Park-based pornography trade group.

“For the first time in 18 years I’m embarrassed to be a graduate of Cal State Northridge,” said state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), a committee member. “To get in bed with the porn industry is a big mistake.”

Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside) had accused the university of using state funds for a “pornography trade show” and asked the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in Sacramento to direct the state auditor to review the center’s books.

“Pornography is a very big business and it doesn’t need taxpayers’ money to promote its products,” Haynes said.

CSUN spokesman John Chandler said no university funds support the Center for Sex Research, which is headed by longtime CSUN sociology professor James Elias.

“The center is self-supporting--it raises its funds from its conferences,” he said. “The money goes into a university foundation account kept for the center--a non-university account. The center is housed out of Elias’ faculty office.”

Some 600 people attended the conference last August in Universal City, including 180 media representatives.

Haynes, who describes himself as a Christian conservative, said the conference was one-sided and “part of a concerted effort on the part of the pornography industry to legitimize itself.”

Haynes also took issue with a discussion titled “Child Pornography: Forbidden Thoughts and Images in an Erotic Landscape,” saying that the presentation encouraged pedophilia.

Chandler said the presentation did not promote child pornography.

“University professors study the widest range of topics from anthropology to zoology, and human sexuality is part of that,” Chandler said. “The fact that they’re studying or discussing the issue [of child pornography] doesn’t mean they’re endorsing or promoting the topic.”

Gloria Leonard, president of the Free Speech Coalition, the pornography industry’s largest trade group, said that the industry strongly opposes the sexual exploitation of children and offers a $10,000 reward leading to the arrest of child pornographers.

Elias said he had invited several high-profile critics of the industry like feminist attorney Gloria Allred and Christian conservative Ralph Reed, but that none had shown up.

Elias, a CSUN professor since 1971, started the center 18 years ago and has written more than 150 papers and articles and produced 12 documentary films about sexuality. He has also been the coauthor of two books--”Gender Bending” and “Prostitution: On Whores, Hustlers and Johns.” He won CSUN’s Distinguished Teaching Award last year.