HIV Déjà Vu For Straight Porn Industry
On Friday, industry trade group Free Speech Coalition confirmed that an adult performer had tested positive for HIV. FSC called for the standard moratorium on filming, some straight performers blamed everything on “AIDS-infested fags” (because the positive performer is said to have previously worked in gay porn), AIDS Healthcare Foundation blamed everyone, and if any of this sounds familiar, it’s because the exact same thing happened two months ago when Cameron Bay and Rod Daily tested positive.
FSC posted an update late last night:
Understandably, the larger performer pool is concerned about whether they’ve been affected or exposed. Due to HIPPA regulations, the PASS doctor working with the performer can not discuss any specifics of the performer’s case with the public, or even with us, so be wary of rumors. We can, however, tell you this:
All first-generation contacts (people with whom the performer had contact, on-set or off, that could have transmitted the virus, within the window of the last negative test) have been contacted and tested. We should have all results of those tests by early next week. We’ll alert you as we know. The positive performer is working with the testing doctors to determine a timeline and genealogy of the virus, and to determine if the performer pool was exposed.
The assertion that all first-generation contacts have been tested is being challenged by some, and rightly so, given that there’s no way to know, for sure, who the positive performer slept with off set, especially if he or she worked as an escort.
While the performer’s name has been posted by other bloggers on the straight side of the industry, I won’t publish (or link to) the name until or unless the performer self-identifies and releases a statement. Releasing a name does NOTHING to help ANYONE, and merely incites panic while rallying the pitchfork-wielding trolls. If the performer is who some are saying it is, I can tell you that he hasn’t worked in gay porn for at least the past three years, so he clearly didn’t contract HIV on a gay set.
Porn studios are always complaining about how using condoms hurts their bottom line, but isn’t shutting down production for weeks at a time whenever someone gets an STD costing them money, too? Also, while I disagreed strongly with L.A. County’s passage of AHF’s ridiculous mandatory condom law, straight studios might be wise to start adhering to it, if not for the sake of complying with the law, then at least to prevent their performers from contracting and spreading a virus every two months.
Developing…
