HIV-positive porn performer speaks out

[BobbyV]

This report from the LA Times comes when the issue of the risks of HIV transmission , and other STD's, while shooting adult films is becoming more and more widely discussed.

"AIM likes to state that testing is enough. That's completely false," he said, noting that in the months before he tested positive for HIV, he had also contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes.

I have not formed a strong opinion on this issue. But; it does trouble me. Stories like these are causing me to reflect on my habits as a consumer.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-porn-hiv-20101208,0,5306958.story

 

[belamyi]

That's simply sloppy business as usual, only that in this case the sucker (intend pun if you want) becomes HIV+.

 

[FanofFiction]

It's very sad that he is now HIV positive. You would think that would encourage the studio he works for to change their safety practices.

 

[belamyi]

It's very sad that he is now HIV positive. You would think that would encourage the studio he works for to change their safety practices.

For just another case which again will draw the attention of a mere few dozen people? don't be delusional: that's part of how he got infected in the first place, and the situation will remain as it is now until economy and social morals and, therefore, politics and legislation, start lurching in the opposite direction.

 

[FanofFiction]

It's a matter of personal responsibility, isn't it. Any other employer goes to great lengths to ensure the safety of their employees. Porn should be no different. If I were a porn producer, I'd do everything in my power to ensure the safety of my stars. I think what this really implies is how the upper management at this particular studio really regards their stars as cheap prostitutes. It's a very sad mentality to have.

 

[palemale]

It's a matter of personal responsibility, isn't it. Any other employer goes to great lengths to ensure the safety of their employees. Porn should be no different. If I were a porn producer, I'd do everything in my power to ensure the safety of my stars. I think what this really implies is how the upper management at this particular studio really regards their stars as cheap prostitutes. It's a very sad mentality to have.

The sad truth is that American employers generally have a pretty abysmal record when it comes to worker safety. Porn producers are probably better than average. I agree, though, that condom use in pornography should be mandatory (but it wouldn't have prevented this guy from getting herpes).

 

[belamyi]

It is not even about condom-in condom-out... like in any other business or institution, workers should (ought, would...) be selected and monitored so that the risk is reduced to as close to zero as possible. In fact, what I am talking about is as fairytale as running porn industry as exclusive escorting services.

However, like in any other business or institution in daily life, good, responsible practices, deemed too costly, are sacrificed in the name of maximum profit with minimum of work.
Even luxury brands aspire to sell as much to as many as possible. That's the difference between luxury (which merely means costly or expensive - which are not the same either) and exclusive.
If you run porn industry like pimps would run alley whoring, you must be ready to have all the alley dirt getting in. If your morals and your business plan is just profits, you will have lots of profits and nothing of the rest, unless you are craftily playing with a secure double code: that's how big money is made, with no morals-attached business but a solid moral and intellectual backup, and then you can get to pay for good, safe, out-of-wedlock condomless sex while others just get some HIV+-stained pale reflection of it.

BTW, do any of all the escort-hating people out there realize that their demand for porn is actually, even as minimally as reduced to the lives of a couple of performers, fostering those sloppy practices by merely helping to create general prospectives for good profits with their demand for porn, even if they actually do not end up consuming most of all that porn? Not to speak of the fact that porn stars adored on stage usually feel compelled to work as escorts, be it for personal laziness or out of social stigma.
It's the same hypocrisy that traditionally would worship whores on stage but throw their dead bodies to the roadside ditch.

 

[star-warrior]

SOMETHING DOESN'T ADD UP

AIM claimed he caught AIDS via one of his film partners who was a "known positive", it turns around and claims he must of caught it in his sexual relations in his private life.

AIM said it would put Cameron Burt/Reed/Reid in touch with a AIDS specialists to get care. After 6weeks, he didn't get any help.

Burts said AIM staff had warned him not to contact the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose officials have been among the clinic's chief critics.

Why is AIM fearful of criticism? If it knows it can be criticised, why leave a new HIV+ guy without follow up care for so long? The moment Burts went to find help outside of the industry, he got it within 24 hours.

Questions, questions...

 

[Beachguyj]

Burts says he may have contracted the disease during a gay porn shoot in Florida. He said the performers used condoms during intercourse but not during oral sex.

Contrary to Burts' account of what he was told, clinic officials released a statement last month saying "Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity."

He's lying. I bet he was bareback escorting.

 

[star-warrior]

^ even if he was lying, shouldn't AIM have given him immediate health followups with some AIDS clinic?

 

[belamyi]

SOMETHING DOESN'T ADD UP

AIM claimed he caught AIDS via one of his film partners who was a "known positive", it turns around and claims he must of caught it in his sexual relations in his private life.

AIM said it would put Cameron Burt/Reed/Reid in touch with a AIDS specialists to get care. After 6weeks, he didn't get any help.

Burts said AIM staff had warned him not to contact the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose officials have been among the clinic's chief critics.

Why is AIM fearful of criticism? If it knows it can be criticised, why leave a new HIV+ guy without follow up care for so long? The moment Burts went to find help outside of the industry, he got it within 24 hours.

Questions, questions...

It's the Adult Industry Medical HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION, for fuck's sake, what would you expect...
Working with and for the porn industry makes them even more sensitive to criticism, it's just normal that they try to present themselves as more blameless than the rest of medical organizations.

 

[JasunStrikesBack]

He's lying. I bet he was bareback escorting.

He claims he only had sex with his girlfriend.

He also seems to be suggesting that he caught HIV through oral sex without getting cum in his mouth. (which is unlikely to say the least)

But I've been told by MANY people that he had a Rentboy profile saying he was "AIM Tested."

I don't know any facts. But it looks like he's being used by CalOSHA.

We all know that the media is going to go apeshit for a story like this..... Straight guy infected with HIV making gay porn, possibly infecting lots of beautiful women.

"Facts" are going to be lost in the shuffle.

 

[JasunStrikesBack]

It's the Adult Industry Medical HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION, for fuck's sake, what would you expect...
Working with and for the porn industry makes them even more sensitive to criticism, it's just normal that they try to present themselves as more blameless than the rest of medical organizations.

OK but they ARE blameless. They did their job. They tested him and told him he was HIV+. They got the names of the people he'd worked with, they stopped the infection from spreading.

I question the rest of his story.

I feel he's being used as a pawn in an effort to force porn to use condoms.

 

[roadtripboy]

I'm not a fan of bareback and I'm not going to buy porn anymore from companies that produce it.

That being said.

This guy's story is full of holes. Since it appears he was escorting on the side, it's more likely he was infected doing that. It's very hard (not impossible) but very hard to get HIV from oral sex. And even less likely if the cum didn't go in his mouth.

 

[belamyi]

OK but they ARE blameless. They did their job. They tested him and told him he was HIV+. They got the names of the people he'd worked with, they stopped the infection from spreading.

I question the rest of his story.

I feel he's being used as a pawn in an effort to force porn to use condoms.

I won't question whether they just, blamelessly, "did their job" or not, simply because I can't possibly decide in a couple of minutes, from Barcelona, what others in America would need days, weeks and months of legal paperwork to try to clarify. But it is true that their business, apparently, is medicine, not porn.
The problem is that they present themselves as the INDUSTRY's medical association, not even the workers', and whatever they do and whatever their intentions are, will always appear more suspicious than if they were just a healthcare foundation working with the adult industry as with any other sort of professionals. So the case about that guy's infection could very easily derive into a case about "smut peddlers and their attendants".

 

[Beachguyj]

 

[belamyi]

Is that considered to be "personal" or "business" life? That pic doesn't show what his actual services have been, and even if it did, you could never rely on a profile to know what actually happens. However, your post only shows in paperwork form what we already knew (cf. my post above), just like with Wikileaks.

 

[Ninja108]

Sorry, I don't buy his story at all. While what he says about stronger standards is true, the rest of his story is filled with holes.

 

[belamyi]

Sorry, I don't buy his story at all. While what he says about stronger standards is true, the rest of his story is filled with holes.

That's right, he apparently has been leading a life with lots of loopholes and now that he got stuck in shit keeps going the same way.
I still believe that if AIM want to help people and foster healthy practices, they should be more closely related to healthcare than to adult industry or any other sort of public or private institution. It's not about what you do so much as about how you are perceived, you can't ignore the millions of stupid people out there. If they were more independently settled, they would not be targeted and used as they are now.

 

[Ninja108]

He stated he only had sex with his girlfriend off camera and did not distinguish between personal/business life. If his ad stated AIM tested then its obvious that he was advertising for more then just companionship or a massage. In other words, he was having sex with men off camera.

And perhaps women too. Hard to tell other than the fact judging from all the STDS he said he had he clearly didn't care about using protection.