Today is a really bad day for porn. Two of California’s largest porn production companies have halted all filming after an adult film star tested positive for HIV this week. The case was confirmed by officials at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, known as AIM, a Sherman Oaks clinic that primarily serves porn industry workers.
Vivid Entertainment and Wicked Pictures both suspended production Tuesday, citing the positive HIV test. “We did this as a precaution and will continue to monitor the situation,” said Steven Hirsch, the founder of Vivid – the world’s largest producer of adult video content. “We will wait for all of the facts to emerge before resume production.”
According to a report in the LA Times, local AIDS activists, who have petitioned the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health and unsuccessfully sued the county Department of Public Health to mandate condom use by performers, demanded that public health officials investigate the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation immediately.
“How many more people have to be infected with HIV before Los Angeles County steps in to do its job and protect performers’ and the public’s health?” asked Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Ironically, ever since AIDS came into the social consciousness in the Eighties the adult entertainment industry (at least the professional organisations) has maintained strict regulations for performers to undergo regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and as a result it’s likely the porn community has a lower rate of STDs per sexual encounter than the public at large. It is a real blow for the porn industry to come under scrutiny as a disease-spreading sleazepit considering the efforts they go to regulating it.
On the topic of mandatory condom wearing, one commenter made the valid point that in the construction industry people are required to wear a hardhat when stepping on site and as such adult entertainment performers should have to wear condoms as an occupational health and safety requirement.
Via LA Times
Title Image- Still from Zack and Miri Make a Porno
