In 1998 industry insider and former porn star Sharon Mitchell launched the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), a nonprofit where performers could get tested and treated. By the next decade, it was the epicenter of the industry's official testing protocol. Performers working for major production companies such as Vivid, Evil Angel and even the more online-focused Manwin are tested monthly and must show proof of negative HIV results when they arrive on set.
In recent years AIM even began posting the results of porn stars' tests on a restricted website, which producers could check to see if an actor was good to perform.
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That all changed last spring, when a website called PornWikiLeaks put online, for the world to see, performers' medical records, apparently culled from AIM's database and sometimes matched with addresses that are federally required to ensure movie performers aren't underage.
At about the same time, AIDS Healthcare Foundation was filing complaints against the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation as part of its mission to get condoms required in porn. In AHF's view, testing service AIM was the new enabler in the industry's denial about condoms.
On one front, AHF alleged that AIM was violating performers' federal privacy rights by making their test results available online to producers; on another it said AIM wasn't properly registered as a clinic, which was true.
Legal action by AHF ultimately toppled AIM last May, when the organization closed its doors. The Free Speech Coalition stepped in with a replacement system called the Adult Production Health and Safety Service, which promised to honor privacy while administering the once-a-month testing protocol.
The industry argues that its testing system works by quickly alerting it to new HIV cases, leading to shutdowns of production, preventing HIV from spreading on set.
Of the 10 HIV cases in the porn industry that both the AHF and the Free Speech Coalition agree have cropped up since 2005, the industry says nearly all were contracted off-set, the implication being that many of the original virus carriers didn't work in the industry. FSC chair Douglas says, "In all of the tens of thousands of unprotected sex acts [since 2005], there is only one documented occasion where someone transmitted HIV on the set. That's a regret. It should never have happened."
STD rates for performers are "much lower" than those of the general population, says FSC executive director Diane Duke. Such numbers are hard to calculate, however, because porn's population of workers is transient and changes by the month, a fact Johns Hopkins M.D. Lawrence S. Mayer noted in an industry-commissioned report that debunks studies claiming high STD rates in adult video, which he called "without basis in science."
One of the industry's more unsavory arguments against using condoms is that some of its HIV cases occurred when male straight-porn actors engaged in unprotected "crossover" work in gay porn, or had relations with gay men in their personal lives.
In 2004, when James contracted HIV after his visit to South America, Ron Jeremy suggested with a metaphorical wink to this author that there are a lot of beautiful women in Brazil, "and some of them have dicks."
Derrick Burts, the performer who tested HIV-positive in 2010, was quickly outed by industry insiders as not only a crossover actor — he did both gay and straight porn — but also as a prostitute whose "escort" services were advertised on gay site Rentboy.
"I do believe that there should be strict rules for crossover," porn star Shay Fox tells the Weekly. "That's where the problem is."
A former porn star who did not want her name used says that many who work in adult video believe "HIV is hard to get." And, she added, "It really is."
The subtext among some straight actors is that it's hard to get — unless you're gay.
At a summer press conference, AHF's Weinstein called criticism of crossover performers "just code" for gay bashing. He told the Weekly, "There's a myriad amount of dangers" for all performers "and the reality is you can get tested today and get infected tomorrow."
Indeed, some porn insiders admit that run-of-the-mill STDs are common — so much so that outbreaks are sometimes "covered up with makeup so it doesn't show up on camera," says former performer Gina Rodriguez.
The industry's testing system "is a joke," she says. "Think about it. This is the truth. If I took my test 29 days ago, I'm OK to work with you because I have a valid test."
The "dirty secret" of porn isn't "crossover," says Weinstein. It's taking escorting jobs, or what some in the business call "making appearances" with fans such as Charlie Sheen. (Sheen seemed to have no problem tracking down some of his favorite adult performers during his famous meltdown last winter.)
"I said 50 percent of the women in porn were 'escorting' back in the late '90s," says adult filmmaker Whiteacre. "The number is certainly higher today."
Escorting is porn without the lights and cameras but definitely with the action. Whether it's safe is a question for its practitioners. Some experts say, ironically or not, condoms usually are required by the individual women themselves for such off-set activity.
