Sex workers decry passage of â??paternalisticâ?? Measure B

[neebleton 2940]

Los Angelesâ?? burgeoning adult entertainment industry was reeling on Wednesday after more than one million residents voted Yes on Measure B, which requires porn performers to wear condoms and mandates random inspections of porn shoots.

The ballot measure was touted as way to protect sex workers from sexually transmitted diseases, but adult performers have been some of Measure Bâ??s biggest critics.

Earlier this year, the adult entertainment trade group Free Speech Coalition called for a temporary halt to porn shoots in Los Angeles after several cases of syphilis emerged. Last year, the Los Angeles adult film industry temporarily shut down after an unidentified sex worker tested positive for HIV. In 2010, porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as being HIV positive. Burts went on to become a vocal advocate for the mandatory use of condoms in porn.


Burt joined forces with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and helped to put Measure B on the November ballot, claiming it would protect sex workers by preventing the spread of STDs.

But those in the adult industry have said the measure was driven by the prejudicial sentiment that sex workers were themselves â??dirtyâ? people â?? rather than being driven by public health concerns. New York-based photographer Paul Sarkis told Raw Story that Measure B was â??nothing more than another effort to marginalize the performers in the adult film community.â?

Sarkis, whose book Off the Set delved into the private life of ten porn stars, added that stereotypes about sex workers are â??often used to dehumanize them.â?

â??In the years that we spent documenting performersâ?? stories, we were consistently faced with the commonly accepted stereotypes that performers are victims, substance abusers, or damaged individuals who need to be saved or rehabilitated,â? he explained. â??In contrast, what we found when we actually took the time to listen to performersâ?? stories was an acutely self-aware community of individuals struggling to express themselves on their own terms.â?

After Measure B passed with more than 55 percent of the vote, the porn actor known as James Deen told The Huffington Post he was â??disappointedâ? that sex workers were being â??continually bullied and used by others.â? Deen added that most porn producers would probably move out of Los Angeles and film elsewhere.

Other adult performers have noted that sex workers in Los Angeles are regularly tested for STDs, a self-regulation most porn producers impose on themselves. At least one adult performer feels that intercourse with a sex worker is far less risky than having sex with a stranger at a bar.


â??Studies have shown (and AIDS-transmission specialists have agreed) that the self-reporting system in the adult industry is effective at preventing infection,â? Sarkis said. â??However, the squeamish mainstreamâ??s paternalistic attitude toward performers has once again shut out performerâ??s voices, and deprived them of the right to make their own choices.â?

The No on Government Waste Committee, a coalition formed to oppose Measure B, announced Wednesday it planned to challenge the ballot measure in court.

â??After being heavily outspent by a well-financed AIDS Healthcare Foundation which poured millions of dollars into passing Measure B, the adult film industry will not just stand by and let it destroy our business,â? said Diane Duke, executive director for the Free Speech Coalition. â??While the misinformation and outright distortions made by AHF during this campaign may have deceived voters, we believe in the calm, serious deliberations of the legal system we will find that Measure B is in fact unconstitutional.â?


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An interesting story where freedom of personal choice is weighed against safer sex practices.

[Kathryn Bardot 99339]

[quote]An interesting story where freedom of personal choice is weighed against safer sex practices.[/quote]
I wouldn't say that's an accurate reflection. Professional porn scenes are not equivalent to "civilian" sex - these are often long shoots with lengthy sex scenes. Many performers report that while they may use condoms in their personal sex lives, their use in porn productions may actually be causing more damage than preventing it.

"And female porn star Noname Jane, who has also been working in the industry for 10 years, argues that condoms cause health problems for women whom â??outsidersâ? like Weinstein donâ??t fully understand.
â??Condoms are good if youâ??re doing a nice, romantic sex scene because [viewers] donâ??t seeâ? the condom, explains Jane. â??But most porn thatâ??s shot is â??gonzo porn,â?? when the guy really pounds away. When youâ??re getting pounded like that, no amount of lube stops the friction burn. And you tend to get more infections when your vagina is damaged.â?
Porn star Stone also says he experiences friction burn and condoms rolling down or breaking. Stone and Jane say they feel safe under the porn industryâ??s current policy that mandates performers be tested by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation every 30 days for sexually transmitted diseases. Without a clean bill of health, actors and actresses canâ??t work." ([url]http://www.aidshealth.org/archives/news/la-weekly-profiles-ahfs-adult[/url])

And why I love Stoya...

"Testing vs. Condoms in Pornography Monday, Sept 17th:
I woke up. I showered, washed my hair, and carefully shaved my underarms, legs, and genitalsâ?¦ avoiding any cuts or razorburn. I gently brushed my teeth and skipped flossing as dental floss can cause small cuts on gums. I went to the location where we were filming my newest pornographic movie for Digital Playground.
My test hadnâ??t been uploaded to the APHSS database yet. The APHSS database replaces the extremely difficult to tamper with STD/STI test viewing system that the adult industry lost when AIM was shut down. We were already transitioning over to this database when Mr. Marcus recently became infected with Syphilis and faked his test results, and most of the major production companies are now requiring that all performers be listed in the APHSS database as cleared to work before performing a scene. Even though my test (which was negative for HIV, Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia) had been emailed directly from the testing facility to the production manager, we waited about an hour until my test results were uploaded and the database showed a green check mark next to my name before shooting anything.
Makeup was applied to my face and things involving a straightening iron were done to my hair. I was dressed by wardrobe. We began shooting the story part of the movie. [URL="http://www.jamesdeenblog.com"]James Deen[/URL], the male performer I was working with that day, arrived on set. Manwin is the company that owns Digital Playground. Their PR person arrived on set with a science correspondent from the New York Times named Donald McNeil and his photographer. Mr. McNeil was there to observe what we do before shooting a sex scene. He said he was interested in the adult industry because we havenâ??t had a single case of HIV transmission within the industry in 8 years and there is no other community he knows of that has that low of a transmission rate. A couple of performers have been infected with HIV outside of the heterosexual oriented porn industry and been identified as positive before passing it on to anyone else. Others who wanted to enter the adult industry have been identified as positive before entering it. Since the infections of Darren James, Miss Arroyo, Jessica Dee, and Laura Roxx in [URL="http://business.avn.com/articles/Viral-Load-Results-Indicate-James-was-Patient-Zero-38403.html"]2004[/URL], there has not been a single transmission of HIV on an adult film set in the US.
After we had filmed everything James Deen and I were needed for aside from the sex scene, we filled out our paperwork. This includes a performer release, tax forms and 2257 documentation to prove we are over 18. The production manager printed out a copy of each performerâ??s page in the APHSS database. I signed my own copy and Jamesâ??s, indicating that my results were mine and accurate and that I had seen Jamesâ??s and was comfortable working with him and his clean test which had been taken less than 14 days prior. He did the same. Then the production manager performed an inspection. He looked in our mouths, at both sides of our hands, and at our genitals to make sure there were no visible sores or open wounds. There was another paper to sign stating that we have no sores or open wounds on or in our mouths, hands, and genitals and had been inspected. We also looked at each others genitals, mostly for fun but if either of us had seen (or smelled) something odd we would have called off the scene ourselves. Then we said goodbye to the reporters (who didnâ??t seem interested in sticking around for the fun part) and had fun, uninhibited sex together while the camera crew filmed it.
We were able to have fun, uninhibited sex with each other without a condom because we both knew that the chances of either of us being infected with an STD are very low. Far lower than, say, a stranger at a bar or a person who hasnâ??t been tested in a year or more. Our frequent STD testing, the APHSS database (and AIM before them), and the skin inspections are self-imposed. The adult industry created these procedures to keep themselves safer. I follow these procedures to keep myself safer, and because it is required in order to be able to work. When any performer tests positive for HIV or Syphilis, we stop production voluntarily. When I (fairly rarely) have sex with someone outside of the adult industry, I use a condom (Full disclosure: unless we have both been tested very recently, I am on a hiatus from the adult industry, and we are only having sex with each other - also known as monogamy) because I donâ??t want to catch anything and bring it into our talent pool. I donâ??t want to catch anything and be unable to work.
Measure B claims to be attempting to fix a problem that doesnâ??t really exist, and ignores the highly successful health and safety measures that the adult industry already has in place. If everyone in the world got tested every 14 to 28 days, was as educated as we are about the risks they take when they have sex, and called a halt to sexual activity any time one person tested positive for an STI until the incubation period had passed and everyone had been re-tested, there would probably be a lower rate of infection outside the adult industry as well." ([url]http://stoya.tumblr.com/post/32205235912/testing-vs-condoms-in-pornography[/url])