Porn Worker found HIV+

[BgMstr4u]

Gender so far undetermined, let alone identity:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/porn-actor-has-tested-positive-for-hiv-industry-clinic-officials-confirm.html

 

Does anyone else know more?

[leigh.bess.toad]

Gender so far undetermined, let alone identity:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/porn-actor-has-tested-positive-for-hiv-industry-clinic-officials-confirm.html

 

Does anyone else know more?

 

Well I assume they're not talking about Mason Wyler because we've know about his status for a couple of months. Unless somehow that just filtered out to the "mainstream" press. That's the only gay porn performer I know who has recently announced a positive status. My guess it's onthe straight side, but that may be wishful thinking. But this certainly illustrates what has been talked about in here recently. ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION CORBIN FISHER AND HIS MODELS??????? Enough is enough. I think this romanticization of barebacking has got to be stopped and people need to be called on the carpet and ostracized from our community for a while until they get it. Porn is great. I take a back seat to no one on these boards in their love of porn. But it just isn't worth someone maybe dying from it. It's time to either tent up or not go camping. I know the young guys don't remember the fear and terror that wracked the gay community during the early days of AIDS. But for those of us who do, we do not want to go back. Would I love fucking bareback again? You betcha. But my life is worth more than that. How about yours? Is fucking bareback worth dying for to you? Because the question is that simple. At least it is IMHO.

[JT Brooklyn]

Is anybody really Surprised about this Revelation? Nobody I know is.....

[josephga]

LOS ANGELES—AVN.com has received confirmation from AIM Healthcare that an adult industry performer has tested positive for HIV.

 

“AIM has confirmed that an adult industry performer has tested positive for HIV,” AIM’s clinical administrator Brooke Miller told AVN. “We are currently quarantining and testing all exposed partners and we will have no further information until the end of the week. We are contacting everyone that might have been exposed. Please check the AIM database to confirm all tests.”

 

 

AVN.com has learned from sources that Patient Zero is a male performer who performed in both straight and gay adult videos. Additionally, we received word that an undetermined number of first and second generation adult performers who may have been exposed have been quarantined at this time.

 

Seeking to confirm the number of people in quarantine, Miller cautioned that it’s in flux as the clinic learns of new potential new exposures or eliminates those that test negative.

 

Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Diane Duke provided the following quote to AVN: "Clearly it is too early to know the facts of the case. The responsible thing to do is to wait for AIM to come back with their results. I applaud AIM for quickly identifying the risks and addressing the physical and emotional needs of those involved."

 

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the organization that's leading the drumbeat on a mandatory condom requirement for porn produced in California, has chimed in with comments attacking what it deems as the industry's inadequate testing requirements.

 

“That a performer tested positive for HIV today—and that more may be infected—was totally preventable,” AHF President Michael Weinstein said in a statement. “It is also living proof that testing is not adequate protection against HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases among porn performers. 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 and AIM stops being a ‘fig leaf’ for the industry?”

 

AVN also has learned that at least one production company has postponed its scheduled production this week in order for proper quarantine procedures and performer clearances to run their course.

[josephga]

I figured it was someone primarely in str8 porn. Thats the only reason they see it as newsworthy because the performer works in straight porn and is subject to testing.

Gay porn is full of HIV + gay performers who perform with no testing what so ever. And everyone thinks thats just fine and dandy. If A str8 performer tests positive the whole industry shuts down and that performer doesn't work again.

[AdamATL77]

I figured it was someone primarely in str8 porn. Thats the only reason they see it as newsworthy because the performer works in straight porn and is subject to testing.

Gay porn is full of HIV + gay performers who perform with no testing what so ever. And everyone thinks thats just fine and dandy. If A str8 performer tests positive the whole industry shuts down and that performer doesn't work again.

 

Another reason why you should keep it wrapped. If the straight porn industry used rubbers like the majority of the gay porn industry, this would not be newsworthy. This is also proof that everyone can get tested all the time but you still at a higher risk getting infected if you don't use rubbers.

[Jaker27]

Yeah, but they (straight porn) get tested all the time. Once a month. It's a good system. If the gay porn companies did that half the pornstars today would be out of work. Simple economics.

[AdamATL77]

Yeah, but they (straight porn) get tested all the time. Once a month. It's a good system. If the gay porn companies did that half the pornstars today would be out of work. Simple economics.

 

STD testing in Atlanta runs $120 or higher. Most gay guys go to the free Men's clinic for testing. Either way someone is paying an awful lot over the course of a year for MONTHLY testing. Monthly testing is a waste of resources when you know the test isn't a 100 percent guarantee you didn't just get infected by your last partner. There is always the possibility of getting infected if you are having sex PERIOD.

 

An economy-size box of Lifestyles condoms (24-40 count depending on the selection) is under $20 at Walmart or online.

 

Simple economics and common sense says sex workers should have a supply of rubbers on hand.

[Steven_Draker]

About barebacking porn and HIV risk

 

"A lawsuit has been filed against California's Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board challenging the lack of condom use among pornography performers. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) charges that pornography sets that allow barebacking -- unprotected anal, oral or vaginal sex -- expose workers to hazardous work conditions: in this case, the exchange of bodily fluids that may contain HIV or other STDs.

 

AHF is also confronting Florida's growing adult-film industry, which includes productions featuring people of color. In January the group filed a "sanitary nuisance" complaint with the state's health department for the lack of condom usage on many sets.

 

Most heterosexual, and an increasing number of gay, adult-film companies opt not to use condoms, with some saying that safer sex doesn't fit viewers' fantasies. But with African Americans accounting for 49 percent of all HIV/AIDS infections despite making up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, and HIV rates among Black gay and bisexual men approaching 50 percent, the implications of unprotected sex in pornography for Black communities cannot be ignored. Some experts even believe that the media, including porn, cause viewers to engage in riskier behavior.

 

 

 

Is Sex Safe on the Set?

 

In 1998, after a porn actor tested HIV-positive, former sex worker Sharon Mitchell founded the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation to provide HIV testing to help decrease performers' HIV-infection risk. But while actors now take a mandatory HIV test every 30 days, any performer infected off-set within that time frame can still spread the virus to other performers. Mitchell has tried to convince pornography companies to make condom use mandatory, to no avail.

 

In 2004, African American adult-film star Darren James tested positive and unknowingly infected three actresses. After a media maelstrom in which his identity and status were revealed to friends and family who hadn't known of his work, James attempted suicide, survived and later became an activist, advocating condom usage among adult performers while they are on the job. Twenty-two performers are reported to have tested positive since James, including an unidentified female performer, who tested positive for HIV last year. A state advisory committee is now exploring mandatory on-screen condom use.

 

In gay pornography, unprotected sex -- once stigmatized in the post-AIDS era -- is now a growing phenomenon. Websites blatantly market bareback scenes among Black men, and on several on-demand websites, bareback pornography is often rated most watched. With the highest HIV rates occurring among gay and bisexual men, the risk associated with unprotected sex is great. Until recently, gay-porn companies typically mandated condoms for anal sex, since many of the performers are HIV-positive.

 

Non-HIV STD infections have also been an issue. According to a 2007 article in the PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine Journal, between January 2003 and March 2005, approximately 976 performers were found to be infected with 1,153 STDs, including chlamydia and gonorrhea. And according to a 2009 ABC News report, L.A.-county officials have counted more than 3,600 cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea among performers since 2004.

 

 

 

Spreading the Love?

 

Does watching pornography in which performers do not use condoms affect the sex practices of its viewers? There's little data on the effect of pornography on its audience's individual practices, but many health practitioners believe that media play a large role in encouraging high-risk behavior.

 

For UCLA professor Gail E. Wyatt, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, sex therapist and author of the book No More Clueless Sex, the problem is the nature of adult films overall.

 

"Pornography reinforces risky behaviors, so whether the person is using a condom or not is picking one small detail out of generally exploitative, high-risk behavior," Dr. Wyatt says. She notes that viewers can watch movies depicting extreme, often violent, sex acts that tear performers' rectal, oral and/or vaginal tissues, thereby increasing the risk of HIV transmission. According to Dr. Wyatt, several years ago her research team tried to inform the clinics that handle testing for the adult-film industry that current testing standards didn't take into account what was happening with performers' sex lives off-set; however, no change was instituted.

 

"You don't know what [performers are] doing in their personal lives ... You have to insist on condom use in these movies," she says.

 

Dr. Wyatt points out that other avenues need to be created to provide more responsible, comprehensive and holistic representations of sex, particularly for young people. She calls for African Americans to follow the spirit of our ancestors in choosing a more responsible path, "to look at sex, to look at what we do individually ... to not promote disease transmission.

 

"We can't expect someone to come into the community to do that for us," she says. "It's our job." "

 

source: http://www.thebody.com/content/art57955.html

 

WRAP IT UP !

[josephga]

I think condoms in porn for anal and vaginal sex should be mandatory.

[josephga]

I remember the 1998 case. It was Marc Wallice There's claims He gave a bunch of women aids because he doctored his hiv testing results

[Jaker27]

The straight pornstars get tested through AIM. Which I use myself. They use the PCR testing method which gives you instant results. Way more accurate since it detects the hiv itself instead of the antibodies. They charged me $100 as a walk in. I think the porn companies get something like half that or $50. So yes very cost effective.

 

I agree that there's no garrentee it's always going to be 100%. However, they also have an incredible track record for keeping their performers hiv free. If one of them does get it it's practically front page news and the whole industry comes to a screeching halt.