How We Can Make the Porn Industry Safer

alison hart — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:42:03 +0000

Like the outbreak in 2004, this instance of a porn performer testing positive for HIV and possibly spreading it to other talent has spurred a lot of discussion about changes that need to be made to protect people in the future. The three main suggestions being put forward are mandatory condom use, more testing and overhauling AIM. While HIV may be one of the risks of working in porn, I believe the last two options could significantly improve the chances of preventing future outbreaks.

Mandatory Condom Use
On the surface, condoms seem like the obvious answer to this problem. In fact, several people and organizations that I hold in the highest regard have endorsed this policy. I simply cannot.

Whether it’s true or not, porn producers are very certain that condoms lower sales. Which means legislating the use of condoms in California will have two effects: some producers will move to more hospitable states (Florida, for example) and others will flaunt the law. John Stagliano (himself HIV+) has said, “The market determines whether or not this will be shown. A government agency the size of Los Angeles couldn’t stop it. It’s not going to change.”

Perhaps topping that, condoms could put female performers in more, not less, danger of contracting STIs. According to veteran director (and partner of the lovely Nina Hartley), Ernest Greene:

As a director, I allow two and a half hours to shoot a typical boy-girl sex scene. That’s over two hours of intercourse in various positions with constant stops and starts during which male performer’s erections rise and fall, condoms frequently tear or unravel and the degree of latex abrasion on the internal membranes of female performers’ vaginas lead to micro-abrasions that make them more vulnerable to all kinds of STIs. Most condom-only female performers eventually abandon condom use, not under pressure from producers, but rather because of the constant rawness and end-on-end bacterial infections produced by countless hours of latex drag.

While the folks who suggest legislation certainly have the best interests of the performers at heart, in my opinion, mandating condoms simply won’t work.

More Testing
In yesterday’s post, I talked about the factors that make the current system untenable. Thirty days is a long window and in the porn business, a person can have dozens of partners in that time. Even with the PCR-DNA test that AIM uses, the window between contracting the virus and it showing up on a test is at least 12 days.

In an unlikely, but entirely possible scenario, a male performer (males are more likely to pass on the virus than females) could contract HIV from a non-industry sex partner on May 1st, receive a negative test on May 10th and go on to infect any number of partners in that 30 days until his next test. At least with a 15 day testing window, only half of those people would be exposed. Obviously not perfect, but I’m sure the people he would’ve worked with in the second half of that month would appreciate it.

Additionally, testing for all life-threatening STIs needs to be conducted on a regular basis. More on that below.

Overhaul AIM
Long-time industry veteran and commentator Mike South put forth a five-point plan for bringing AIM up to the level that it needs to be to adequately protect performers:

AIM needs oversight, first and foremost and that oversight should come from a board of directors that consists of mostly health care professionals, real ones, not associated with anyone in porn.

Second Sharon Mitchell must step down, her credibility is lower than that of George W Bush, The whole Doctor thing bit her in the ass, it’s time to fix it.

Third we must start testing not only for HIV but also Hep A and B Hepatitis kills way more people every year than AIDS does. We also must do a full panel, it doesnt matter if 75% of porners have herpes the 25% who don’t have a right to know if the person they are working with does.

Fourth we should be doing both a viral load test for HIV and an antibody test, one without the other is not sufficient. You may say fine South but where will the money come from? I tell you what we can do it a lot cheaper now than it will cost should the county/state get involved…find the money you can pay now or you can pay a lot more later.

Finally we need to implement a system of full disclosure, if someone has been exposed or tests positive everyone must know. The people who were quarantined from the Darren James situation didn’t suffer ant [sic] long term bad results. porn people are fine working with you if you test clean for the required length afterward.

Likewise if you do gay porn or have done gay porn (and yes tranny is gay) that should be disclosed as well, it puts you in a higher risk group and your potential partners have the right to know that. If that bothers you don’t sign up to be talent. When you perform in this business you have no private sex life, other peoples lives depend on making informed decisions and if you are hiding things they cant make informed decisions. If you don’t like that tough shit, stay out of the biz.

While I don’t always side with Mike, I think he’s put a lot of thought into this and it would almost certainly help make AIM more reputable and effective.

I realize my stance may be relatively controversial, but I honestly think something needs to be done before we’re back in this same position again.

As a final note, it’s very important to remember that when we talk about Patient Zero and those who are under quarantine, we’re talking about real people going through a dark and frightening time in their lives. While medical advances have improved the quality of life of those with HIV tremendously, the sad fact is that contracting this disease changes your life forever. My heart goes out to them and I truly hope to never have the occasion to write post like this again.

New HIV Infection Reported in Porn Industry: The Facts as We Know Them

alison hart — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:55:57 +0000

As many of you are likely already aware, a case of HIV was reported in an active performer in the adult industry. I’ve been following the news very closely but have waited until now to write about it so as not to make hasty proclamations before the real story is known.

Now that nearly a week has passed, I’m comfortable giving a rundown of what most likely happened and what I think about it. Today’s post will go over the sequence of events that have transpired over the last week. In a subsequent post, I’ll talk about why I think the way porn performers’ health is protected needs a well-thought-out overhaul.

What Happened

The news was first made public on an industry message board by actress/producer Nina Vain. Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM) was contacted by several people to confirm or deny the report of a positive HIV test and all were initially told that it was untrue (including Peter Romero, an early and vocal supporter of AIM). Only after the outcry reached a critical mass did AIM finally admit that it was true. In a statement, AIM founder and former performer Sharon Mitchell said that it was their policy not to make the news public because it was “not a major event.”

Almost immediately after AIM publicly confirmed the story, it was picked up by the LA Times. The newspaper contacted the LA Dept of Health and broke the news that 22 individuals have tested positive for HIV at AIM since 2004 – approximately 18 more than most people in the industry were aware of. This caused a firestorm of controversy in industry circles as well as the mainstream press.

If AIM is to be believed (and no factual evidence has contradicted their story so far), of that twenty-two,

One is Patient Zero who tested positive on June 6th
Four were straight performers who became infected in the outbreak in 2004
One was a transsexual performer who tested positive in 2004
Ten were male performers who have sex with other men (Gay talent is not tested because they are generally assumed to have the disease. This is why the gay industry uses condoms in 99% of their movies.)
Six were people receiving their first AIM test so that they could enter the adult industry

AIM also asserts that it did not make any mistakes in giving MILF/Patient Zero her results. Their timeline is:

April 19: Patient Zero receives her first HIV test at AIM. The test is negative.
June 4: Patient Zero is tested at AIM again. No results are given on this date.
June 5: Patient Zero performs in a boy/girl scene.
June 6: AIM notifies Patient Zero that she has tested positive for HIV.

This means that Patient Zero had gone 36 days without a test and was allowed to work. The standard period between tests is 30 days. It’s alleged that the director who hired her despite knowing that her test was 36 days old was Tom Moore, aka Tranny Dundee. The identity of Patient Zero and the two males she has had sexual contact with since June 4 is still unknown and all are under voluntary sexual quarantine.

Patient Zero is said to have performed in three scenes between her first and second test and although it is technically possible that one of those performers either exposed her or was exposed by her to HIV, they are not being quarantined at this time.

At the present time, both critics and supporters of the industry are calling for change. Some in the form of different testing regimes, others supporting mandatory condom use. The public reaction from most performers and directors has been relatively muted, with most pointing out that there are risks inherent in the job that a condom requirement may only exacerbate.

Stay tuned for part two of this series on HIV in the industry and what changes I think need to be made for the protection of the performers and of the business overall.

pornochromatic » aids in porn

How We Can Make the Porn Industry Safer

New HIV Infection Reported in Porn Industry: The Facts as We Know Them

What Happened