Western Exposure

Suit: porn industry allowing AIDS to spread

By August 20, 2009March 19th, 2015No Comments

What will it take to make condoms common in California porn?

Apparently, knowing that colleagues are infected with HIV isn’t enough. 

Since 2004, about twenty adult film stars have tested positive for HIV at the Southland porn industry’s primary health clinic.  Still, unprotected sex remains the norm in porn.

The laws are in place but are unenforced, according to a lawsuit filed  by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation against L.A. County in mid-July.

The L.A.-based AIDS advocacy group now plans to sue 16 California porn companies for violating workplace safety laws and endangering the health of their performers, according to  Kimi Yoshino of the Los Angeles Times.

The proof is in the porn: condoms appeared in only 3 percent of the films reviewed by the advocacy group.

Porn industry representatives say that monthly voluntary tests suffice to protect porn stars.  Make them wear condoms, as required by law, and we’ll take the industry elsewhere, they say.

In mid-July, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation sued the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for allowing sexually transmitted diseases to flame through the porn industry through lack of enforcement of existing regulations.

At the time, the AIDS advocacy group filed a petition asking Los Angeles County Superior Court to order county health officials to prevent the spread of AIDS by enforcing their requirements that porn stars use condoms in their films.

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