from www.laweekly.com – The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (a.k.a. Cal-OSHA) is investigating a July 31 porn shoot in which the patient zero of porn’s recent HIV scare, Cameron Bay, allegedly performed without condoms.
The investigation into kink.com’s “Public Disgrace” shoot, apparently part of a series under that title, was confirmed to the Weekly by a Cal-OSHA representative.
The Division is responding to a complaint filed Monday by the L.A.-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has spearheaded a mandatory condoms-for-porn law in L.A. and has been behind efforts to get state and local authorities to enforce workplace safety rules in adult video.
The shoot happened before Bay realized she was HIV positive, which inspired a production shut-down on Aug. 21. The industry’s health organization says no other performers have turned up positive. On Tuesday night lifted a voluntary moratorium on production.
AHF says in its complaint that “a large group estimated at 10-12 individuals, including production staff, are likely to have been exposed” during the kink.com shoot.
It goes on to say that …
… the Division may, and should require kink.com to take immediate measures for the protection of employees, including the use of condoms during the production of adult films.
Interestingly, Bay indicated after the kink.com shoot that she might have a workplace safety issue of her own. She tweeted that “one of the extras did not listen to the rules and hit me to [sic] hard.”
Peter Akworth, owner of San Francisco-based kink.com, issued a statement on the matter that says, in part (NSFW link):
This particular performer performed at Kink.com on July 31st. She tested negative on July 27th via the most sensitive HIV tests available, and was thus shown as cleared for work in the PASS database, as were all those persons she performed sexually with. Additionally, those same people she performed sexually with tested negative for HIV again after that July 31st shoot.
Anytime someone tests positive for HIV — whether an adult performer or not, whether through sex work or not — it is devastating for the person concerned. However, that doesn’t mean it should be a reason to demagogue from either side, to blame the victim, people’s sexuality or what they choose to do for a living. We work hard to protect our performers, and it’s important to us that anyone in the Kink family — fans, performers or staff — know the truth about our protocols and standards.
Meanwhile, the industry seems be saying, via it’s trade group the Free Speech Coalition, that the scare is over and everyone should get back to work.
The business argues that consumers don’t want to see condoms and its monthly testing can nip HIV scares like this one in the bud. So far the industry has resisted L.A. county’s mandatory condoms law, approved by voters in November.
AHF president Michael Weinstein:
The landscape around adult film has changed dramatically in the last two weeks, to the point that action to protect adult film performers from disease is more urgent now than it has ever been.