A group of porn producers for the third time has issued a temporary production moratorium after a performer tested positive for HIV.
Porn industry expert Mike South reported Friday that the infected performer is a male on the “straight side of the biz” but not a “high level performer.”
The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) called for the production halt on Friday after a STD testing center for adult film actors in Los Angeles reported the positive HIV result.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein, a vociferous critic of porn companies, called for L.A. County to better enforce an ordinance requiring porn produced within the county to require the use of condoms during anal and vaginal intercourse that was passed by voters earlier this year.
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Whether this performer was infected in L.A. County or not, this latest news begs the question: how many people need to become infected with HIV for the County of Los Angeles to engage actively in implementing the will of the voters of LA county to protect these performers?
The willful disregard by the County of Los Angeles and the Industry for the health and welfare of people is becoming more and more apparent. The industry as a whole, and the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health should be ashamed.
In September, Diane Duke of FSC was quoted as saying: “People have personal lives. All the evidence suggests that these infections were not workplace-related. We’re not against condoms. We’re against condoms being mandatory.”
“Our performers,” she added, “prefer not to use condoms.”
2eo
TJ Cummings.
Fitz
Doesn’t matter. Were all HIV equal, right?
brodymontag
Oh Fitz. That’s super shady lol
Daniel-Reader
Think how many have herpes which transmits with or without a condom. Approaching half of straight people having it.
Stache1
Well, at least it shows that not only gay people get it. Take that religious right.
Stache1
Btw. if it’s a straight porn star why show gay porn. Maybe that’s all Queerty had on hand I guess.
Caleb in SC
Why is this being reported at all if Queerty is about gay news. Just because it is HIV-related does not mean that it is gay news.
Deepdow
@Caleb in SC:
Agreed.
tardis
@Caleb in SC: Were you all asleep in the 80s? HIV is not a gay disease, but it does affect our community and thus still relevant the lgbt culture.
Deepdow
@tardis:
True, but this news item isn’t relative to what you’re referring to. It’s about a sloppy porn star.
Deepdow
@tardis:
Diseases and viruses aren’t specific to sexual orientation. I personally am tired of the idea, in gay media and non-gay media, that our sexuality is indicative of HIV/AIDS. Yes, spread the word. Make it go away. Fund research…but the idea that homosexuality is continually tied to disease and viruses…when anyone can get it, is kinda odd. It makes our demographic look perverse.
The only reason why our demo gets hit the hardest in some subsets, and did in the past in many ways, is because of the ignorance of straight people.
Deepdow
@Deepdow:
I’m not saying we don’t have to own up to our own responsibilities…safe sex is important, but because aids was relegated to celebrity smooch fests and non governmental support—- nobody really cared…..it made it – still makes it – a gay disease…which is really the effect of the stigma made by breeders.
btw Obama how about a billion. ok.
Pistolo
If pregnancy weren’t a possibility the way it is with gay people, the human race would be extinct because soooo many straight people just do not use protection at all.
Pistolo
*would not.
I didn’t mean to say “just don’t”
Deepdow
@Pistolo:
Syphillis, the Aids of the Heterosexuals in the 19th and 20th century..which killed millions and destroyed lived…But Heteros are clean and virtuous !
Meanwhile, gay people today are referred to as disease riddled demons. Yeah, no.
Joetx
@tardis: Well said, tardis.
Joetx
@Deepdow: “The only reason why our demo gets hit the hardest in some subsets, and did in the past in many ways, is because of the ignorance of straight people.”
No, it’s b/c of the ignorance of gay men.
Cue the rationalization for unprotected sex as well as bareback gay porn.
Chris-MI
It’s gay news. It’s only a matter of time before someone claims the guy was bi. If he wasn’t bi, then he got it from a woman (or drugs), and it’s only a matter of time before someone traces it back to a gay or bisexual man.
The industry will then claim that they would have been perfectly safe all along had they not been infiltrated by gay men. Wait and see. It’s how they handled the last outbreak.
jimbryant
Isn’t it funny how they call it ‘straight porn’ and yet it contains tons of homosexuality between women?
There is one company based in San Francisco called ‘kink’ which pays real-life lesbians to whip and smack other women in front of groups of hollering men and women. Can lesbians get any more repulsive? Sell-out sisters, you’re not welcome in the GLBT movement.
GeriHew
@2eo: It isn’t confirmed for certain yet that it’s him but if it is he has been doing porn since 1998 and has done gay, bi and trans as well as straight porn in the past. Sometimes used the stage name Nick Steel or Steele or Steal for gay work. And he’s rumoured to have continued to have done gay escort work since switching to straight porn only in around 2008.
So it seems quite possible he contracted HIV from another man. And even if he got it from a woman she probably got it from a bisexual man. Sorry guys.
jimbryant
Geri Hew,
Your prejudiced comment is typical of the straight porn industry. It’s trash.
The straight porn industry will always lay the blame at the feet of bisexual men and never straight men, straight women or bisexual women. Bisexual women are considered precious commodities who can’t be blamed for anything.
Bisexual men are being scape-goated by the creeps who work in straight porn. They’re using bisexual men as a cover for the fact that many of the female performers are IV drug users. They inject on the sets of some of the major porn companies in LA.
Dixie Rect
But if we are all HIV equal as the marketing campaign tells us, then why does this matter? Maybe Nick Gruber or Colby Melvin can explain?
jimbryant
Combine rampant promiscuity with IV drug use on porn sets, and you have a perfect recipe for HIV and STD transmission in general. It’s as simple as that.
The straight porn industry’s attempt to blame bisexual men for spreading HIV is laughable at best. Why stop at the bisexual male? He must have caught it from someone. He could have caught it from a straight female. He could have caught it from a bisexual female. Why not blame straight and bisexual females?
Wanna know why? Because straight and bisexual females are considered gorgeous and sexy by the straight male pimps who make straight porn. Bisexual women in particular are considered “hot”. If the pimps blamed straight and bisexual women for spreading HIV, they would go out of business. They wouldn’t have an industry.
What we in the gay community should do is to tell sleazy straight guys and their female enablers (straight and bi) to take a hike.
GeriHew
@jimbryant: I’m not being prejudiced at all. Just realistic. You on the other hand are being extremely prejudiced as usual.
GeriHew
@jimbryant: Not that it should really matter, but most of the “real-life lesbians” who work for Kink are really real-life bisexual women. Perhaps you’re a little confused by the fact that several of them identify specifically as queer.
But regardless of whether they’re actually homosexual or bisexual in real life I am personally all for more queer women in porn. Who the hell wants to see straight women faking it in lesbian porn? Not me, that’s for sure.
And why are you not cussing all the gay and bisexual men who work for Kink?
Cam
““Our performers,” she added, “prefer not to use condoms.”
_________________________________
Yeeeeaaaahhhhh, I’m SURE they prefer to be put at risk. Doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that the studio TELLS the performers “We’d like to hire you, here is how much you will get paid.” And since the straight industry doesn’t use condoms in films, the performers have no choice if they want to work.
the other Greg
@GeriHew: “jimbryant” (a.k.a. brian / jason) thinks ALL women “fake it” and he thinks that’s icky! He has said that ALL women ONLY have sex for… well let’s say “material gain”… not necessarily money but, oh, jewelry, chocolate, yogurt, chocolate yogurt or whatever.
That’s really how he thinks. I suspect his mommy did not like wire hangers, if you know what I mean.
On the other hand, “jim” believes that heterosexual men are naturally “superior” (his word) to gay men because (a) they can make babies and (b) they are not as promiscuous (because those icky women won’t let them, and overcharge them on CL and at the brothels).
I hope this explains his “logic” for the uninitiated!
krystalkleer
IDIOTS!…period!…TOTAL IDIOTS! wrap yer junk up…it’s not like condoms are made outta concrete fer christ sakes!
http://getoffmydress.blogspot.com/2013/12/textnsextnperplexnoh-my.html
robirob
Supply and demand. A vicious cycle for greedy people.
AuntieChrist
So sad…I guess this will really hurt all the out of work actors and actresses in LA and around the world who need to keep paying for acting coaches, gym memberships, and rent…There is just so little porn out there to be had…What is going to happen to all the pathetic overweight middle aged men eagerly waiting to toss one off..???
CaptainFabulous
I come for the LGBTQTLMDKFGHD news, I stay for the commentary floorshow!
Let the batshit crazy continue! It’s Monday, I need MORE!!!
jimbryant
Geri Hew,
You are prejudiced, period.
The real-life lesbians who work for the porn company “Kink” in San Francisco are disgusting sell-outs who get paid to hit, choke and sexually penetrate women in front of a group of equally disgusting straight guys and their female enablers. Pigs, the lot of them.
The last thing the gay community needs is these sell-out lesbian prostitutes.
jimbryant
Geri Hew,
You also haven’t explained why the chain of blame for HIV transmission stops at bisexual male porn actors. They must have caught it from someone, sweetheart. Perhaps a straight woman. Perhaps a bisexual woman.
Why not blame a straight woman or a bi woman?
cosettaxfc735
my buddy’s ex-wife makes $83 an hour on the computer. She has been out of work for 9 months but last month her payment was $12946 just working on the computer for a few hours. published here …. http://www.Tec202.com
Chris-MI
@GeriHew: I don’t know anything about Mr. Steal, but it’s very hard for a man to work on both the gay and straight sides. Performers who do gay are usually shunned on the straight side and never work straight again. It’s possible to make the jump from straight to gay but it rarely works out because the gay audience is turned off by the concept.
There’s also a sort of weird hybrid where gay performers have sex with women for a gay male audience which is considered “gay.” This is the industry that considers lesbians to be straight, remember.
GeriHew
@jimbryant: I’m not prejudiced at all. Queer women have as much right to be porn performers as queer men do.
Many straight (& otherwise) men watch lesbian porn and quite a few straight (& otherwise) women watch gay male porn. Big deal. So what? You shouldn’t be in porn if you’re going to get picky about who watches you.
Geeker
I saw the guys Twitter photos,almost every shot was of his huge ass and him sticking it out like a Playboy playmate so I’m guessing that’s his big selling feature as an escort.
jimbryant
Geri Hew,
A prostitute is a prostitute. Lesbians who perform for straight guys are prostitutes.
seaguy
Weinstein uses these situations to do one things promote his agenda and line his pockets with $$ He is a crook!
GeriHew
@jimbryant: Porn performer and prostitute are not the same job. Some porn performers do both jobs, others don’t.
Also, you’re the guy who says:
“This is my theory, and its based on research:
About 5% of men are exclusively same-sex oriented.
About 5% of men are exclusively opposite-sex oriented.
About 90% of men are somewhere in between, with various degrees of same versus opposite-sex orientation.
Full story here: http://www.queerty.com/study-at-least-5-of-american-men-are-gay-millions-closeted-many-married-to-women-20131208/#ixzz2n4CuOGAM
So if your theory is correct most of the men who watch lesbian porn and hot girl-on-girl action aren’t straight, most of them must be some kind of bisexual. Right?
GeriHew
@jimbryant: If a female performer is known to be HIV+ her career as a performer is over. And the testing system used by all the straight studios means that her HIV+ condition will generally be detected within a matter of a few weeks at most.
Male bisexual porn actors are more likely to get infected with HIV through having sex with other male performers than with females if only because some gay studios allow known HIV+ men to continue to work as performers and many gay only male performers don’t get tested regularly. Whereas full time straight performers (and transgender performers) have to get tested every 14 days now. It used to be every 28 days. Or if they are not full time performers they still have to get tested before they can work.
jimbryant
GeriHew,
Oh, go away. A whore is a whore. There are tons of promiscuous lesbian whores who perform for the benefit of straight men. These women are vile, disgusting prostitutes who do a disservice to gay people everywhere.
As for your apparent attempt to blame bisexual men for spreading HIV, it’s homophobic nonsense in my view. Take your trash elsewhere. If you’re going to pretend to be intellectual, at least put some oomph into it.
jimbryant
Oh, and since when do straight porn studios care about the health of their performers? For starters, they frequently permit the performers to shoot heroin on sets. They also refuse to introduce condoms despite the new laws in LA. They are more interested in money.
Money, money, money…the ultimate goal of prostitutes everywhere.
Tyler100
JimBryant, Rick, Kev C, whatever you choose to go by: do you have a job? It seems that all you do every day is go to gay websites and post horrible and offensive comments filled with bogus statistics and bigotry. By your reasoning, if porn stars are whores, you’re a slut. You offer your awful opinions for free, to anyone who will listen. At least whores are smart enough to charge. Perhaps if you had a job and a life you could afford to get a decent education/perspective and maybe even some friends.
bigrawtop
Everything stops when a straight guy gets HIV, but they can’t handle it. Gay men have been handling it without throwing big hissies, demanding the industry shut down. Many real gay pornstars have it and the industry was never shut down for them. Gay porn is always blamed when more straight porn is produced without condoms by far. It’s time we kick out the whiny straight men from gay porn. They can’t handle it.
GeriHew
jimbryant: In reference to porn performers and prostitutes you can say “a whore is a whore” if you like. But it’s really no more meaningful than saying a f*g is a f*g in reference to gay and bisexual men. Actually I think it’s probably less meaningful, if anything. Also, if all female porn performers are “whores” then so are all male porn performers.
Whatever, the fact of the matter is that some porn performers do escort work (i.e. prostitution) and other porn performers do not. Those are two different jobs. And if someone does both those jobs in the state of California (still the biggest center of porn production in the world) then they have one legal job and one illegal job. Prostitution is illegal in California, being a porn star is not. Fact.
GeriHew
@jimbryant: I’m not blaming bisexual men as a group for anything. I’m sure most bisexual men don’t work in the porn industry. Those that do need to be aware of the risks and potential pitfalls.
It’s not “homophobic nonsense” to point out some facts about the porn industry which have a bearing on why people who work on the straight side of porn tend to be quite cautious about working with men who work on the gay side and some just point blank refuse to work with them at all. Everybody in the industry knows there are men working as performers in gay porn who are HIV+. Nobody denies it. Nobody.
On the straight side you can’t work as a performer anymore if you are HIV+. You can’t work in bi and trans porn either. You can’t do lesbian porn if you’re female (even though female to female transmission of HIV is practically unheard of) and you can’t do the “straight porn for gay eyes” which some gay/bi studies make if you’re male or female. But if you’re male you can still get work doing gay sex scenes with some gay studios. Not all gay studios, Some gay studios. And some of those studios specialize in bareback. Fact.
GeriHew
@jimbryant: And what evidence do you have that performers shooting heroin on straight porn sets is a frequent occurrence? At least name some names – or just shut up.
GeriHew
They lifted the moratorium Friday 13th. Seems to early to me. But it means that all the female performers he officially had sex with since his last clear test have tested negative for HIV. If he had sex with anyone else, male or female, during this period he apparently isn’t owning up to it.
He has denied that he does escort work.