April 15, 2004
The Plague Years
In case you haven’t heard about it by now, the porn industry is in the grip of an HIV crisis. The short form is that a male actor, Darren James, tested postiive for HIV antibodies around April 12th. He had tested negative on March 17th. Since the standard test used for HIV in the industry can take up to 60 days to be 99% accurate, and quite a bit of porn production happens without condoms, anyone he worked with from January 17th onwards could have been exposed to HIV, and thus could contract it.
Most of the major porn production houses have halted production. The performers who worked with James in that period (the “first generation”) and anyone who worked with them (the “second generation”) and so forth are being sought so they can be tested. The date currently being thrown around for restarting production is June 8th, 60 days after James last worked.
But, you ask, isn’t this kind of thing just to be expected in the industry?
It doesn’t have to be.
The adult movie industry went through a period of tremendous denial about HIV, lasting until the early to mid 90’s. Then, in the wake of several high-profile HIV-positive performers, the industry did, in fact, clean up its act. Mandatory HIV tests became de rigeur. AIM, a not-for-profit testing facility, was set up. Without an HIV test less than 30 days old, you just didn’t work.
Amazingly, this self-policing has kept HIV from tearing through the performers. The last confirmed case of HIV in an active performer in the mainstream adult industry was in 1999, four years ago. The fact that many of the major production houses have condom-mandatory policies helped a great deal, too.
That being said, the industry still has its head in the sand (or, more accurately perhaps, up its collective ass) about STDs in general, and HIV in particular. Far too many production companies are condoms-optional, or in some particularly stupid cases, bareback-mandatory. The usual sets of whines accompany any call for mandatory condom use: “It’s not required, the customers won’t buy it, it’s an overreaction, etc., etc.” The time for that kind of mendacious crap is over, done, gone. A production house owner would have to be less than human to look in the eye one of the women who are in James’ first generation of exposure, especially any that turn out to be positive, and repeat that garbage.
The captains of the industry likes to spout the rhetoric of caring for the talent; it’s time to put up, or shut up and admit that they really just think of the talent as one more disposable prop. I have no doubt whatsoever that’s exactly what many of them do think.
This latest crisis comes at a particularly bad time. The DoJ, after a few years of slumber, is finally waking up and starting the prosecution machine. Los Angeles, the homeland of the business, is getting very impatient with it. If the industry does not adopt a strict condom-mandatory policy, the government will do it for it. Is that what it really wants?
Self-policing has worked well, but not well enough. Mandatory condom use is an idea whose time is far overdue. If the captains of the industry are not smart enough to see that, the government will be more than happy to educate them.
posted 18:26