LA Now
For years, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein has sought to persuade elected officials to protect the health of porn actors by forcing adult film companies to require condom use.

This week, Weinstein celebrated his first major victory after the Los Angeles City Council voted to require condom use as a condition of getting film permits in the city. Now Weinstein wants to take his fight to Los Angeles County.

“This is a case study in the power of persistence,” Weinstein said in an interview. He noted that the concept of allowing drug users to exchange needles, once seen as untouchable, finally gained acceptance as a way to protect people from HIV.

Weinstein has pushed state legislators and the County Board of Supervisors to back mandatory condom use, but has received little support. No state lawmakers have been willing to sponsor legislation, Weinstein said, and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said in 2010 that the state, not the county Department of Public Health, should be dealing with the matter.

Weinstein also lost a court battle to compel the county public health agency to take a stronger position on condom use.

The tide began shifting in 2010, when the California Occupational Safety and Health officials said that rules protecting employees from bodily fluids also apply to porn actors. Adult film performers have said condom use in the industry should be a matter of choice for consenting adults -– and is not an issue for the government.

The big change came last year, when the AIDS Healthcare Foundation decided to seek a voter-approved ordinance mandating condom use as a condition for getting a film permit within city limits.

Weinstein said he was surprised that the City Council decided to back the condom measure, thus avoiding a vote of the public, when lawmakers have been reluctant to get involved with the issue.

He’s proposing a similar requirement for county government, which handles health permits for businesses such as tattoo parlors and restaurants.

“We’re going to go through the same drill with the county. We’re going to collect hundreds of thousands of [petition] signatures, we’re going to submit them. They’re going to huff and puff, and then we’ll see whether they’ll want to” have a vote on the issue at the same time as the presidential election, Weinstein said.

ABCNEWS
Los Angeles residents may soon vote on whether condom use should be mandatory for those who work in the City of Angel’s prolific porn industry.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an organization that spearheaded the proposal, collected more than 70,000 signatures, which were certified by the city clerk Tuesday. The number of signatures is far more than the 41,000 needed to have the measure considered for city voting.

Under current law, porn stars must test negative for HIV and other STDs within 30 days of filming. Many argue that even the current law should be modified because HIV often does not show up in tests until months after a person contracts the virus.

“There are thousands of STDs in this industry,” Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told Reuters. “It’s the ick factor. They don’t want to deal with this because it’s sex, and because it’s porn.”

Many in the adult entertainment industry argue that mandatory condom use would destroy the fantasy associated with pornography.

While L.A. residents would vote on the issue during the presidential primary in June, the Los Angeles Times reported that the proposal still faced legal challenges.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich filed court documents earlier this month that said the state, not the city, had the only legal authority to impose condom use on porn sets.

But Ellen Widess, head of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said the proposal is a legal possibility.

In a news release on the AIDS Healthcare Foundation website, Widess said: “We remain convinced that the City of Los Angeles is not pre-empted by Cal/OSHA from asserting its authority to protect the health of employees and others, including volunteers, who may be exposed to health hazards in L.A.’s adult film industry. We believe that cities and counties can regulate under their police power unless specifically restricted by something else, and our blood-borne pathogen standard does not provide that restriction.”

Thedailybeast
There was a time when porn was a clubby little industry. The studios were all in Southern California. The filmmakers knew their performers, and the performers, to a large degree, knew each other. Through databases and word-of-mouth, everyone was fairly aware of who they were working with. But in the past few years, this familiarity has vanished—and taken the industry’s sense of security with it.
Click here to find out more!

This week the porn world suffered its latest HIV scare. It was the second such incident in less than a year—in December, male porn star Derrick Burts tested positive for HIV, sending fear rippling through the industry. Few had heard of Burts when he was identified as “Patient Zeta,” and when this newest patient is identified, there’s a good chance that few will know him or her very well, either.

It’s a sign of the changing nature of the industry. As porn continues to expand in nearly every way—from the number of performers to the variety of studios to the increasingly far-flung locations of the shoots—the people involved have less and less idea of who they’re working with.

“Just a few years ago, I would know any guy in the business,” said one female performer who asked that her name not be used for fear that she would lose work. “And if I did not, I could find out about him with a phone call to friends. I knew if he was sketchy and I didn’t want to work with him. There used to only be a dozen big-name guys in the business, and I’m talking less than 10 years ago. But the Internet, the crossovers (guys who do both gay and straight porn), and the move of the industry away from California has changed that. Now, I show up and it’s all these druggy-looking 18-year-olds who no one knows anything about.”

Another performer who used to shoot exclusively in California now finds she travels as far as Brazil to work. She says it’s reached the point where she no longer knows any guy she works with before the day she meets him to shoot a sex scene.
Of course, the explosion in new male talent began years ago, but at least there was a relatively well-trusted database that performers could rely on to help keep them safe. But that database was maintained by the Adult Industry Medical clinic (AIM) in Los Angeles. AIM, which was the medical testing center for virtually the entire industry, closed in May under the financial strain of lawsuits after the Derrick Burts scare. When AIM was open, if a performer tested positive, a quarantine list could be swiftly generated showing who that performer worked with, who those people he worked with had worked with in turn, and so on.

This shuttering of the AIM database caught the industry with its proverbial pants down, and this is the source of much of the current confusion and fear, according to the adult-industry trade group Free Speech Coalition. “We are putting a system into place to replace AIM, but it is not fully functional yet,” says Diane Duke, the Free Speech Coalition’s executive director. On Aug. 28 the group called for an industry shut down until further notice.

But according to adult star Kristina Rose, the fears plaguing the industry began before the shutdown of AIM.

“I’ve been in the business four years,” says Rose. “I’ve seen it spread out to Florida, Vegas, and everywhere. Also, I have seen the number of male talent increase dramatically. They are all young, good-looking party guys. Honestly, I prefer the good old days when it was the dream team of a few guys you could trust.”

As for its geographical dispersion, Rose says that directors outside of California often operate more under-the-radar, and male performers are frequently chosen based on who’s willing to work for the least amount of money. Her agent, Mark Spiegler, perhaps the most powerful agent in porn, no longer allows any of his clients to do bookings outside of California.

The current scare provides an illustrative example. The rumor is that between two HIV tests, a negative and a positive, a not-particularly well-known male performer in Florida managed to shoot scenes with as many as 13 women. A well-placed source in the industry told The Daily Beast that the actual number of women may, in fact, be as high as 20. Meanwhile, the advocacy group AIDS Healthcare Foundation has filed a complaint with Florida health authorities over the production company they think is responsible. That company shoots in Miami, has offices in Canada and Los Angeles, and is based out of Luxembourg.

Digitaljournal
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s campaign for mandatory condom use in America’s adult film industry has come under criticism after it was accused of spreading false information, leading to a temporal halt in porno film making in Los Angeles city.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) had filed complaints with federal and Florida state health officials after it was disclosed that an adult film performer tested HIV-positive.
AHF called on the Florida Department of Health and the Administration to investigate the incident and “take all appropriate steps to ensure that worker in the adult film industry are protected from threat of sexually transmitted infections,” Los Angeles Times reported.
But the adult film industry trade group led by Daine Duke has disputed the claims by AHF, saying there is no “authorized information” confirming a positive HIV test result. She also said there was no county public health investigation going on.
“AHF’s campaign for mandatory condoms has done nothing but create controversy and, with the closure of AIM [clinic], has deprived the adult industry of an important health and safety resource,” Duke said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/311048#ixzz1WtkyJwz6

Los Angeles Times

Adult film performers would be required to use condoms to obtain Los Angeles city film permits under a measure local AIDS activists hope to put on the city’s June 2012 ballot, activists announced Monday.

Activists must submit a petition with at least 41,138 qualifying signatures (15% of all votes cast in the last mayoral election) by Dec. 23 in order to place the measure on the June ballot, city election officials said. If they succeed, it will be the first time the issue — which has been litigated and disputed during state regulatory meetings — has come before L.A. voters.

The Times discussed the petition drive with three leading proponents Monday: Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and former porn performers-turned-activists Derrick Burts and Darren James, who both contracted HIV while working in adult films.

Q: Why do you think we need a ballot measure requiring condom use by adult performers as a condition of adult film permits in Los Angeles?

Weinstein: It’s fair to protect performers the same way we protect workers in non-porn films and other workplaces. There’s been a lot of squabbling about whose responsibility it is to enforce these laws. It’s our belief that the city, the county, the state and the federal government have different jurisdictions as it relates to this. The county department of public health is responsible for controlling disease in the community, and the city has the ability to control zoning and issuing permits.

Q: What are the risks of not mandating condoms in porn now?

Burts: My first month I came up with three STDs in a short period of time. I have herpes and that’s something I have forever. It’s not just HIV. My agent told me, when I told him I had herpes, “Well, you might as well continue doing porn, because everybody has it.” That’s the mindset. They don’t care about the safety of performers.

James: It’s just business as usual. When I tell people my story, they always say “You mean you don’t use condoms?” We think by using a test you’re covered, but that’s false. That’s after the fact. It’s just more stuff that’s exposed about how the industry is portrayed. It’s just an open gun waiting to go off for the next person. A lot of people are left in the dark about what goes on in this industry.

Q: Have you tried to gather signatures before in Los Angeles for similar ballot measures?

Weinstein: This is the first time. We were naïve enough to believe the government has to do the work of protecting public health. This should not have to be taken to the ballot box.

Q: Didn’t the Los Angeles City Council consider the issue earlier this year?

Weinstein: They deflected responsibility to the state. This has been the hot potato we have been dealing with for years. Since we couldn’t get the City Council to act, we have decided to take it directly to the people of Los Angeles.

Q: What have state and county regulators told you?

Weinstein: I think that Cal-OSHA is doing a bang-up job. They have cited these companies and made it abundantly clear that the law is that you must use condoms in the making of these films, and they have expressed their intent to come up with rules as to health and safety in these films.

The county said that the state should handle it and there should be a law passed by the state Legislature. We haven’t been able to find one legislator in five years willing to carry this legislation. The lack of spine by legislators and their unwillingness to treat these performers as people is incredible.

Q: What do you say to members of the porn industry who say condoms are not needed because they already have STD testing?

Burts: Testing only notifies you of what you have or don’t have already. There’s still a large time gap where you can catch an STD and spread it. The real protection comes from wearing the condoms. Testing isn’t required. They should be following the law. On top of that, they should also do the testing.

Q: What about those who say mandating condoms would just drive the legitimate porn industry out of California — to Florida, overseas or underground?

James: They’ve been going on like that for years. I predicted something was going to happen after mine and it happened how many times? All they’re going to do is go back to the same thing. We’re losing focus. We’re losing people — young lives. I’m just getting really tired of hearing the same thing. Somebody has to put their foot down. It’s always been underground. That doesn’t matter.

Burts: A lot of producers are worried if condoms are required, they will lose money. But Wicked Pictures is enormously successful and they enforce using condoms. So I don’t see why they use that excuse.

Weinstein: Companies like Hustler and Vivid with their huge buildings, they can’t operate underground.

Q: If you get this initiative on the ballot and it passes, will it be enforceable?

Weinstein: If you take out a film permit on the basis of the fact that you are not going to follow the law and something happens, your insurance will not cover you. There is a provision in this for spot checks. Spot checking is the way that these laws are enforced. The fact that we’re not going to catch everyone or catch everything is not a reason to do nothing. We’ve demonstrated that we’re not going to give up, and this is just the next step in the battle.

Q: Do you think it will pass?

Weinstein: We’d rather take our chances with the electorate than with the cowardly political establishment. In the ’80s, we didn’t consider gay men’s lives expendable. We don’t consider the thousands of people who we treat in Africa expendable. And we don’t think performers should be treated that way. The message that goes out that unsafe sex is hot is unacceptable.

Burts: Our medical care is not being paid for privately — this is taxpayers’ money. It does have an impact on them. Their opinion matters. County officials haven’t been stepping up to do anything about this. I’d rather leave it with those odds rather than those council people who aren’t doing anything.

Q: Some in the porn industry have asked why don’t you just focus on HIV prevention and treatment?

Weinstein: We’re doing that to a great extent. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. This is our hometown. How can we allow this outrage to go on in our own backyard? We are not anti-porn. We have no problem with people making adult films. A little piece of latex has the ability to save lives.

Q: So what’s next?

Weinstein: We have hired a professional signature-gathering entity to collect the signatures. Then they will be certified by the city clerk, then it will be on the ballot and we will have the opportunity to mount a campaign in every city council district. We will expect every City Council member to take a stand for or against.

Q: Where can people go to sign the petition or find out more?

Weinstein: The committee is called FAIR. For now they can go to www.aidshealth.org.