Questions about how porn industry handled HIV scare

In Advocacy by AHF

By: Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles, CA – September 6, 2011

A filming moratorium in the porn industry was lifted this weekend after an adult-film performer whose HIV-positive test prompted a weeklong shutdown of Los Angeles-area productions was retested, with negative results.

But questions remain about how the case was handled.

Local production companies were notified Aug. 29 of the test outcome and agreed to hold off on filming. Those who had been in scenes with the performer were contacted and urged to get tested.

The performer’s subsequent test was administered by Adult Performer Health and Safety Services, which is run by the Free Speech Coalition and recently launched a database that will allow porn industry agents and producers access to results from testing facilities.

“Industry self-regulation and best practices are alive and well in the adult entertainment industry,” the group’s executive director, Diane Duke, said in a statement.

But Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said that although he is glad to hear about the performer’s negative results, he takes issue with a health-screening process that does not include public health officials.

“Subsequent tests showed the person to be negative, but in terms of validating how all of this was being handled, we still don’t really know,” Weinstein said.

“We don’t know how they validated it,” he said. “It’s like if you were dealing with mine safety or construction or food contamination, and we would have to be satisfied with what the company involved is telling us about it. The whole scare around this and the confusion that it’s generated just reinforce that relying on testing to protect the performers is wrong.” Weinstein’s organization has been pushing health and safety officials to mandate condom use in adult films and is gathering signatures for a petition to put a measure on the June 2012 ballot that would force filmmakers to submit to periodic city inspections and limit Los Angeles filming permits to companies whose performers use condoms.

California industry standards request that adult film performers get tested every 30 days and show proof of a negative test before production.

 

– Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/questions-about-how-porn-industry-handled-hiv-scare.html

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