Porn Actor's Positive HIV Test Follows Condom Ruling
The porn industry halted production because a performer tested positive for HIV.
Aug. 23, 2013— -- A porn actor's positive HIV test, which prompted an industrywide shutdown, comes less than a week after a federal judge rejected the porn industry's claim that a measure mandating condoms in pornography production was unconstitutional.
The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed by popular vote in Los Angeles County last November.
Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.
"There is no indication of on-set transmission," Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement. The Free Speech Coalition is the adult film industry trade group that runs mandatory STD testing for actors every 14 or 28 days. If they aren't tested, they can't perform.
"Because of the rigorous APHSS [Adult Production Health and Safety Services] protocols, the situation was accessed [sic] quickly and – most importantly – action was taken to ensure the protocols were followed," Duke said.
The Free Speech Coalition has said that its rigorous industry testing eliminates the need for condoms during vaginal and anal sex. It says the Los Angeles County porn industry hasn't had a performer test positive for HIV since 2004, and that performer didn't contract the virus from the porn community.
Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, spoke at a news conference in support of Measure B following its passage last November. He said recent surveys and studies found that adult performers are eight to 15 times more likely to contract an STD than anyone else.
The positive HIV test also comes less than a month after another performer's false positive syphilis test created an industrywide scare, and less than two weeks after porn star Lisa Ann took to Twitter to say that she was outraged that a performer tested positive for hepatitis C and planned to work anyway.
Christian Mann, the general manager of Evil Angel Productions, which played a role in creating the sexual health database, said he had a great deal of empathy for the performer who tested positive for HIV. Although he called it a "perfect storm" of bad news, he said words like "epidemic" and "outbreak" aren't appropriate.
"I still take the point of view that we are likely in the know as a result of adult industry testing protocols," Mann said. "There's nothing that indicates that the transmission came from within the industry."
He said the industry leaders would likely know "pretty quickly" whether the performer became infected with HIV on a porn set because Adult Production Health and Safety Services is testing everyone she's worked with since even before the performer's most recent negative test, which was in July.
Several other scares have shut down the porn industry in recent years.
In August 2012, a performer tested positive for syphilis, and the industry underwent a similar temporary shutdown.
Read about the syphilis outbreak here.
In September 2011, another patient tested positive for HIV, resulting in an industry shutdown, but a follow-up test a week later revealed that it was a false positive.