The adult film industry coalition has announced that shooting can begin again this Friday.
A two-week moratorium prompted by bisexual adult film performer Rod Daily testing positive for HIV shut down production for the second time this summer.
The first industry shutdown came after Daily’s girlfriend, adult film actress Cameron Bay, tested positive for HIV in July.
The couple is expected to hold a joint press conference later today at an event in Hollywood hosted by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an advocacy group that has long pushed for legislation requiring condom use on set.
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Last year, AIDS Healthcare Foundation backed a Los Angeles County measure passed by voters to require that actors wear condoms during shoots. They also backed a state bill that would have done the same. That bill died last week, however, after it was held up in the state Senate’s Rules Committee as being too similar to another bill that had previously been held in the Assembly.
Daily and Bay will be joined by another performer who tested positive for HIV this year but whose case has not been officially confirmed by the industry, as well as two other former performers, Derrick Burts and Darren James, who contracted HIV in 2010 and 2004, respectively.
In addition to lifting the moratorium, the industry coalition announced a revision to its STD testing protocols: Performers will now be required to test every 14 days as opposed to every 28. They will also be required to test again on or after Thursday to be cleared for work.
Condoms, however, are off the table.
For years the coalition has strongly opposed mandates that require the use of condoms on porn sets, and they will not let the recent HIV outbreak influence their stance on the issue.
In regards to the performers who tested positive for HIV this summer, the industry coalition maintains that all of the performers’ on-screen partners had tested negative for any STDs, and that none of them contracted the infection on set.
This has many people unhappy.
“Whether or not [Cameron Bay] was infected on set, she performed with HIV between her tests,” AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein pointed out. “If you think that Russian roulette is a great way to protect workers, then the present system is perfect.”
Photo credit: LA Times.
Teleny
Condoms please- it’s not worth your life.
Dxley
I don’t need those. We’re all gonna die, anyway!
Alton
@Dxley: And hopefully, you’ll die before having sex with anyone ever again.
technicolornina
I’d like to know why, exactly, condoms in porn are a no-no.
I’m serious. Are they seen as less sexy? “Ugh, they’re PROTECTING EACH OTHER AND MAKING CLEANUP EASIER. How gross.” What’s the logic here? Can somebody enlighten me? Because as a lesbian who considers actual gloves in my porn to be a complete nonissue, I don’t understand this.
tardis
@technicolornina: Basically, the sensation is better. It’s a more intense experience, in the real world that is.
In the porn world, I’m kinda puzzled like you. I don’t really understand why condoms in porn are a no no considering that it’s fake and the purpose of it is to simply get you off. Personally, I’m for condom use in porn. These sex workers are putting their lives on the line. Granted, it’s by their own volition, but the circumstances on why some performers are there is quite sketchy. It’s a bit exploitative, but I say that without conviction. The situation is what it is. So, having said that, perhaps some viewers find bareback sex in porn more stimulating and tuned to their sensibilities. They enjoy the thought of it, like some people enjoy the thought of a muscular man as opposed to a ordinary flabby man.
damon459
This will continue unless the “actors” refuse to work without condoms, but even then as long as people are willing to buy condom free porn companies will make it. Stop blaming the business for giving consumers what they want.
tardis
@damon459: By that logic, we should encourage recreational drug use that funds Mexico’s drug conflict that leaves countless dead because it’s “giving consumers what they want.”
TxHeat
I find the idea that bareback porn can’t be stopped to be foolish. I think after a set date any production of bareback porn should be treated the same as child porn with long prison sentences for the companies that produce it and for companies that import it. I think that will stop it or at the very least put a huge dent in it.
CaptainFabulous
Condomless porn sells better, and is easier on the performers, who typically work very long hours, and constant contact to latex can cause irritation for the women and difficulty in maintaining an erection for men. And since the chance of catching HIV as a porn performer is already well under a fraction of a percent, requiring condom use is unlikely to have any significant positive impact, but will surely introduce negative ones.
Dxley
I’m NEVER downloading porn that’s not bareback. Quite frankly, they chose to have sex for a living and this is part of the package. I don’t give a fuck what’s done, as long as I get my GAY BAREBACK porn, then I’m happy 🙂
DonW
@CaptainFabulous</a"the chance of catching HIV as a porn performer is already well under a fraction of a percent" — source, please?
Jerry12
It has been said: “What fools these mortals be!” Do these bottoms think so little about their own lives that they do not care if they get HIV from some top? BETTER THEY SHOULD PUT A BULLET IN A GUN; SPIN THE CARTRIGE; PUT IT TO THEIR HEADS, AND PULL THE TRIGGER. At least they will not hurt anyone else.
CaptainFabulous
@DonW: http://www.openmarket.org/2011/09/02/a-condom-mandate-is-no-benefit-for-adult-film-actors/
CaptainFabulous
“This means that the rate of HIV infection among the LA porn population is somewhere around 0.0007%…”
tardis
@CaptainFabulous: I’m not sure I’m buying the article’s argument. The porn world and the real world are two different things. Porn is a very controlled environment. Standards and precautions may be attributed to low HIV rates. There’s factors on both sides. Not saying that a condom mandate would solve things, but porn is a controlled environment so comparing it to the outside world, where safe sex is at the hand’s of the individual is quite futile.
CaptainFabulous
@tardis: But that’s the whole point. Because the porn environment is so tightly controlled there is no need for mandating condoms as it’s not going to offer any significant benefit as the risk is already miniscule. Factor in the detriment it would place upon the performers and one can easily see how it will only create problems and solve nothing.