Porn filmmakers see 'condom raid' by health officials as erosion of rights

A taskforce of police, nurses and aids campaigners could soon raid pornographic film sets to ensure performers comply. If they don't, filmmakers' licences will be revoked.u00a0The legislation is the culmination of a bitter six-year battle between producers and the LA-based Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world's largest community-based Aids care provider.

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"We don't want Nike shoes made by child labour or workers dying on construction sites, so why would we want to sacrifice adult performers on the altar of the porn industry?" the Independent quoted Michael Weinstein, AHF's president as saying.

The porn industry's response to the decision is that the condom law is an erosion of rights.u00a0"We are in favour of choice and against government regulating sexual behaviour between consenting adults. The public is tired of the government intruding in their lives and their bedrooms, real or fantasy," Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a pro-porn lobby that opposes censorship and obscenity laws, said.

For several years, pornographers have self-regulated, insisting on 30-day STI tests for workers. If a performer contracts gonorrhoea or chlamydia they are sent home with pills until it clears up. Infections such as herpes are not screened.

"Herpes comes with the job. Everyone gets it," Derrick Burts, a former adult actor, said.u00a0The bisexual performer worked in the industry for a few months at the age of 24. In 2010, he tested positive for HIV.u00a0"Testing is a broken system. It does not protect the performer; it only notifies the performer of what they have," he said.

u00a0He was infected on a gay set where performers generally wear condoms for anal sex and HIV-positive men are permitted to work.u00a0Burts claims adult actors feel powerless. Conditions on heterosexual sets are significantly worse, with producers refusing to work with performers who insist on condoms.

The Aids Healthcare Foundation says since 2004 there have been 10 cases of HIV and more than 4,000 incidences of gonorrhoea and chlamydia in the adult industry.u00a0The boundary between the LA porn industry and the city's sex trade is extremely porous, with many performers also working as escorts. If workers are tested every 30 days they can catch an infection in their private lives and spread the disease on adult movie sets for a month before it is detected.

LA porn was legalised in 1988 and, to its champions, it represents a triumph for liberalism.u00a0"I'm an artist, educator and philosopher, and sex is my subject," Nina Hartley, a veteran porn star, said.u00a0She caught infections, which made her feel "annoyed", but she rationalises it with "cooks risk cuts and burns, construction workers risk breaking bones".

Pornographic producers fear sales will nosedive if their stars are sheathed.u00a0"The viewing public is condom-phobic," Stevie Glasser, producer-director, said.u00a0However, the adult entertainment business has seen its revenues steadily diminish as the internet takes over. Glasser believes the industry is so opposed to rubber that it will uproot and relocate somewhere with less stringent laws

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