Sexual and Reproductive Health

Porn's 4th Case of HIV Confirmed, With a 5th Possible, Group Says

Even as the porn industry says an HIV-related production shut-down was scheduled to end Friday, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation today said it has confirmed that a fourth performer has come up HIV-positive. See also: Porn's Latest HIV-Related Production Shut-Down to End. The group, which has spearhe ... More >>

Porn's 4th HIV Doubted by Adult Biz Group

The adult video industry's lobbying group last night cast doubt on reports that a fourth performer has come up HIV-positive following an outbreak affecting at least three porn stars. See also: Porn Biz Sees Fourth Case of HIV. The Free Speech Coalition called it a case of "rumors" and accused the ... More >>

Porn's HIV Case Didn't Originate On-Set

The porn industry's lobbying group said last night that a performer who has initially turned up positive for HIV did not contract the virus on-set. As the Free Speech Coalition set out to ease fears of an STD outbreak, its leader, CEO Diane Duke, said " ... there is no indication of on-set transmis ... More >>

Porn Stars Face New Testing For Hepatitis

Following a performer's claim that a man she was scheduled to work with might have tested positive for Hepatitis C, the organization in charge of the industry's STD testing protocols announced the addition of Hepatitis tests starting today. That means performers who work for legit, mostly L.A.-base ... More >>

Porn's Syphilis Scare is Bunk, Adult Group Says

That hoopla over a porn star who might have tested positive for syphilis and then possibly exposed 15 others (damn, porn stars really do get around) turned out to be much ado about nothin,' at least according to the adult industry lobbying group known as the Free Speech Coalition. The organization ... More >>

Oral Sex & Cancer: Should You Go Down?

So can going down cause cancer? You better hope not, because it would be the greatest excuse ever for your partner to stay off his knees. After Michael Douglas announced that cunnilingus was to blame for his throat cancer, it set off a storm of media coverage. We talked to an expert at UCLA who say ... More >>

Porn's 'Mr. Marcus' Jailed for Exposing Co-Stars to Syphilis

Spread an STD, go to jail? In this case, the answer is yes. The man widely believed to be behind the porn industry's syphilis scare last year, adult performer Mr. Marcus, was sentenced today to 30 days behind bars for "knowingly exposing at least two co-stars to syphilis after testing positive for ... More >>

The Meth-Gay Sex Nightmare

Daniel Robison barely escaped the deadly addiction

Porn's Condom Mandate Okay With A Majority Of Adult Video Watchers, Says Online Poll

One of the porn industry's main arguments against mandatory condoms on-set is that you, the consumer, won't by videos where they're visible. It's just not a part of the bow-chicka-bow-wow fantasy where a pizza delivery guy shows up to get down but pauses just to be safe, they seem to be saying. Ex ... More >>

Porn Condom Law Unconstitutional, Says Scholar Antonio M. Haynes

Measure B, the L.A. county initiative that passed last week with nearly 56 percent approval, is all about worker safety in adult video, say its backers. But some folks, including porn industry leaders, say the requirement to use prophylactics in porn is a restriction on free speech. Some lawyers s ... More >>

300 Porn Stars Treated for Syphilis

The porn industry's official STD service announced this week that 300 adult performers have been tested following a syphilis scare started by one Mr. Marcus. That's a lot of porn stars. But it doesn't appear to be nearly enough for the industry to be able to say all performers have been tested. ... More >>

Porn Production Back This Weekend as New Syphilis Test Saves The Day

The porn industry has a new syphilis test that just might save the day. After a nearly two-week ban on production, adult video shoots are clear to restart this weekend, an industry official told the Weekly. Following a syphilis scare that L.A. county health officials say has infected as many as 9 p ... More >>

Porn Star Mr. Marcus Admits He Started Syphilis Scare, Masked STD Test

A performer who works under the name Mr. Marcus came forward this week as the self-admitted patient zero in the industry's latest STD scare, this one over syphilis. Mr. Marcus met with representatives of Adult Video News, news site XBIZ, his studio, Evil Angel, and the porn industry lobby known as ... More >>

Porn Shutdown Likely Following Syphilis Reports

A reported outbreak of syphilis among adult video performers has prompted industry leaders to call for a temporary production shutdown. Adult Production Health & Safety Services, the industry's STD testing arm, has called for a "temporary moratorium" on film shoots after it says at least one perfor ... More >>

Entire Porn Industry Treated For Syphilis as Adult Video Production Shuts Down Today

The porn industry went dark today. The Free Speech Coalition, the adult video industry's lobbying group, told LA Weekly that Porn Valley's major studios were complying with the Adult Production Health & Safety Services' call for a production moratorium following an apparent syphilis outbreak. The ... More >>

Sex Disease Up in California; Young People Across U.S. Having Risky Oral Relations, Too

Teens and twentysomethings are having lots of oral sex, it seems, partly because they think it's safer than the other kind, according to a new Centers for Disease Control study. It's not true that oral is safer, of course, and this might explain why American kids are coming up with increasing rates ... More >>

AIDS Healthcare Foundation Turns 25, Continues to Grow Globally

The HIV/AIDS advocacy group that brings you those condom and HIV-testing billboards all over Los Angeles turned 25 over the weekend, as first reported by LGBT POV. Founded by the feisty Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been on the front lines of battling HIV/AIDS since 1987 -- a p ... More >>

Porn Condom Mandate Supported by Majority of Angelenos

You love them, you really do. Condoms, that is. A majority of Angelenos are down with condoms in porn, as spelled out in a proposed countywide ballot initiative by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation that would mandate such a precaution for the adult video industry.

Condoms Still Suck, No Matter What Joycelyn Elders Thinks (She's on Trojan's Payroll)

By Dr. Paul R. Abramson & L.J. WilliamsonThe good news: Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States, reads L.A. Weekly!The bad news: She's pissed at us. We made Dr. Elders mad because we said that condoms suck.Maybe if we hadn't said anything, no one would have noticed. Maybe inste ... More >>

Why Porn Stars Won't Be Using Condoms, Despite City Law's Debut Today

Condoms are coming to porn shoots in Los Angeles today. Well, that's the theory, anyway. A Los Angeles city ordinance that requires condom use at on-location adult video shoots within the city is the law starting today. But like a lot of things coming from City Hall ...

Porn Condom Ballot Initiative For L.A. County Gets Half The Signatures it Needs

The people behind Los Angeles' mandatory condoms rule for on-location porn shoots in the city say they have more than half the signatures to put a similar law before countywide voters. And they still have until June 5 to get the rest. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation today announced it has obtained ... More >>

5 Crazy Sex Myths You Learned in High School

Once upon a time, I taught sex ed to high schoolers. Not to brag or anything, but I could roll a condom onto a banana in front of a classroom of 15-year-olds and maintain my composure. No big deal. What I had a harder time maintaining composure about, though, were the egregiously misguided myths a ... More >>

Condoms Suck

We're spending billions to develop an HIV vaccine. Why not also focus on building a better condom?

Men Have Dirtier Mouths Than Women

Some of you have really dirty mouths. And we're not just talking about the performers in Porn Valley who now have to use condoms on location shoots under a new city of L.A. law. A new study published this week in the journal JAMA says that seven percent of the folks in the U.S. aged 14 to 69 have t ... More >>

HIV Infections in Los Angeles: There's a Map For That

So you want to know how many of your neighbors have HIV or where the hotspots for the virus are in L.A. County? There's a map for that. A new location service developed with the help of Emory University called www.aidsvu.org will help you fined "zip-code-level" info on HIV cases. L.A. will be one ... More >>

Ready for Some Action?

UCLA Scientists Invent HIV-Blocking Anal Gel

cure.med.ucla.eduDr. Peter Anton, who led the study.​In the worldwide race to cure HIV, researchers out of Los Angeles have made some of the biggest recent breakthroughs. By late 2009, UCLA had discovered human blood stem cells could be used to fight HIV-infected cells. And by this August, USC ... More >>

Eating Junk Food May Lower Sperm Count

Flickr/ebruliMore fries, less sperm?​ Eating a diet high in junk food could make sperm sparse, slow and obese, a pair of studies presented Monday at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. suggest. The research highlights an apparent link between nutritio ... More >>

Porn Defends the Money Shot

Critics gain ground, demanding condom use to control AIDS

South L.A.'s Rampant Chlamydia Problem to Be Tackled by... Local Church Ladies?

South L.A. gets tested.​Another "don't ask, don't tell" policy is being trampled today in the Southland: The backward, Palin-vetted, abstinence-only approach to sex-ed that's long plagued popular Christian culture. About 18 churches throughout L.A. County Supervisor Mark-Ridley Thomas' STD-ri ... More >>

Porn Industry Gets Back to Work as Performer Thought to be HIV Positive Apparently Isn't

Star ForemanDearth Vader look-a-like at Exxxotica convention last month.​It was the HIV case that set off a war of words between the porn industry and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. And it turns out it wasn't an HIV case at all. The adult video trade group Free Speech Coalition (FSC) announc ... More >>

Criticism of Porn's HIV Scare Sparks Outrage at Manwin, the Adult Video Juggernaut That Employed Performer in Question

mofos.com​Updated at the bottom with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's response. First posted at 5:09 p.m. The company that employed a porn star who might be HIV-positive today said the man did not continue to work, nor did he work with other performers, after a test indicated he might have th ... More >>

Born to Act Up

Richard Zaldivar: The Man Behind the Wall

AIDS Isn't Over, People, So Stop Acting Like it Is: A Warning From HIV's First Responder, UCLA's Michael Gottlieb

michaelgottliebmd.comDr. Michael S. Gottlieb.​A lot of you kids out there just don't remember the days when sex could kill and condoms weren't just optional. It's unfortunate, because as the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS approaches in June, it's still a full-on, official epidemic, ... More >>

Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Activist Mourned By Non-Profit Leaders in Los Angeles

HIV/AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor​Elizabeth Taylor's passing is mourned by HIV/AIDS activists in Los Angeles. Taylor had worked on the front lines of HIV/AIDS activism for decades, especially after the 1985 death of her longtime friend, movie star Rock Hudson. "She was a singular champion ... More >>

L.A. Porn Lobby Claims L.A. County Public Health Officials Demanded Blood Test From Adult Performer

Put 'em up and give us your STD test results.​Freeze. Now give us a blood sample. Scary enough if the people asking are carrying a badge. But in this case they weren't. At least according to the Free Speech Coalition, the L.A.-based porn lobby. The group claims this week that L.A. County ... More >>

L.A. Officials Consider Mandatory Condom Use for City-Permitted Porn Shoots

joanna8555Porn-turned-indie star Sasha Grey.​L.A. leaders are pondering a law that would make mandatory condom use a condition of permitting porn shoots inside city boundaries. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation on Monday hailed the City Council's recent vote to have the L.A. City Attorney's offi ... More >>

Derrick Burts, Porn Actor Who Sparked Latest HIV Scare In San Fernando Valley Industry, Speaks Up For Condom Use (But Offers Strange Story Of How He Came Up Positive)

MySpaceDerrick Burts.​A performer who set off the latest HIV scare in adult film has turned against his employers and is speaking out against the adult video industry and its resistance to mandatory condom use. Derrick Burts teamed up with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which unleashed his t ... More >>

California, Federal Laws Already Mandate Condoms In Porn: State Has Been Citing Adult Video Makers For Allegedly Failing To Protect Performers

Steve LaThese people are fighting for something that is already a part of state and federal law: Condoms in porn.​The fight over condoms in porn took a serious turn last week when an adult performer tested positive for HIV. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation used the result as another bullet in th ... More >>

San Fernando Valley Porn Actor Tests Positive For HIV; AIDS Activists Who Want Mandatory Condoms In Porn Say We Told You So

Steve LaAIDS Healthcare Foundation protested outside Larry Flynt Publications recently. ​A porn actor has tested positive for HIV, the industry's health care foundation has told reporters. It doesn't come as a surprise: Several actors in the San Fernando-based biz have tested positive in the ... More >>

Movie Review: The Other City

State Investigate's Larry Flynt's Porn Productions After Complaint About Lack Of Condom Use

​Larry Flynt's eponymous porn empire was under investigation by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) following a complaint by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation decrying the lack of condom use in Larry Flynt Production's adult videos, the AHF announced late Thursday. In ... More >>

AIDS Activists Target Larry Flynt For His Condom-Free Porn

hustlermagazine.com​An HIV/AIDS health-care organization that's been on a tear against the porn industry for its lack of condom use will target Larry Flynt and his Hustler empire at a press conference outside his offices in Beverly Hills Thursday. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation announced (NSF ... More >>

Desmond Tutu Criticizes President Barack Obama's AIDS Strategy

Rev. Desmond Tutu​AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein isn't the only person slamming President Barack Obama's AIDS strategy, which L.A. Weekly reported last week. Now Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu has spoken out. "I appreciate that tough financial times require the ... More >>

Was George Bush's AIDS Strategy Better Than Barack Obama's?

AIDS Healthcare Foundation​AIDS Healthcare Foundation founder Michael Weinstein came out swinging yesterday at a Washington D.C. press conference, offering up that President Barack Obama's AIDS strategy measures up poorly to his predecessor's, former president George W. Bush. "The New York T ... More >>

Feds Investigate Porn Healthcare Organization For Allegedly Releasing Stars' Medical Records

The AIM crew, with founder Sharon Mitchell at bottom, right.​The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has opened an investigation of the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Health Care Foundation, the Sherman Oaks nonprofit organization that handles STD testing for the porn industry, it was a ... More >>

AIDS Activist Richard Zaldivar Puts Archbishop Jose Gomez on Notice

AIDS activist Richard Zaldivar​AIDS activist Richard Zaldivar put Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez on notice the other day -- firmly, yet respectfully demanding that the church play a more vigorous role in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Latino community. "Roughly 70 percent of our ... More >>