Pornography production was temporarily put on hold in Los Angeles after an anonymous performer recently tested positive for HIV.
The Free Speech Coalition—a lobby and PR arm of the pornography industry—said that the performer is currently being re-tested and that everyone should remember: “Fear, shame, and stigma are preventable.”
“You know what else is preventable? HIV,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“I have the utmost compassion for the individual who is facing a possible HIV diagnosis, but I have no compassion for the industry that consistently prioritizes profits over its employees’ health,” Hawkins continued.
This latest HIV scare is a direct result of the pornography industry’s campaign to remain unaccountable to common-sense safety regulations.
Last year, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation sought to pass requirements for pornography performers to use condoms and other protective gear while on set. Unfortunately, this initiative failed to pass amidst pornography industry claims that such regulations would put them out of business.
What restaurants are granted lower health code standards because high standards would impede their business? What medical office handles bodily fluids without protective gear?
Pornography producers and PR agents try to promote themselves as a mainstream business venture, but when it comes to protecting their performers the truth comes out: the pornography industry is all about profiting from the sexual use its performers, no matter the cost to individual lives.
