LOS ANGELES — A prominent HIV/AIDS advocacy organization issued a press release today renewing its call for state legislation mandating the use of condoms in adult movies.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has publicly advocated legislation that would require the use of condoms in adult movies since 2004, when a cluster of HIV-positive performers became international news and temporarily brought the adult industry to a production standstill.
The organization released a statement today in response to Wednesday’s disclosure by the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation that an unidentified 42-year-old female performer had tested positive for HIV.
“This most recent HIV infection found in an actress working in California’s booming porn business has prompted AHF to renew our call for state legislation requiring the use of condoms in all adult entertainment productions,” Michael Weinstein, president of AHF, said in a statement.
Weinstein classified the issue as one of worker safety, suggesting condoms were safety gear along the lines of hard hats that construction workers are required to use. He chastised legislators, saying that they needed “to put aside their squeamishness and draft a bill as a worker safety provision of California’s Labor Code akin to how the Labor Code currently requires the use of hard hats and other garments and barriers as safety precautions on certain California work sites and locations.”
AHF acknowledged that they have had difficulty finding a legislator willing to author and carry the potentially controversial legislation but they are continuing to look for someone to introduce such legislation this session.
In October of last year, a representative of AHF testified in front of the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV that the organization supported a proposal that the county was considering mandating condom use. The AHF representative also argued for the need to protect HIV-positive performers from employment discrimination within the industry.
The AHF release appears to state that condoms are standard procedure in the gay porn industry, although in fact non-condom, or "bareback" gay videos have a steady following.
