from www.huffingtonpost.com – Amid an ongoing nationwide moratorium on shooting pornography, an AIDS health care advocacy group said Monday that a fourth performer has come forward as HIV-positive.
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told HuffPost that a male porn performer approached the group saying he had tested positive for HIV.
“I think he wanted to check out everybody that could be of any help to him. We gave him information but he’s not ready to come forward,” Weinstein said, adding that it’s not clear whether the performer contracted HIV on set or not. Weinstein declined to say when the performer approached AHF and when the performer found out he tested HIV-positive.
However, the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that oversees a database of all performers’ STD tests, accused AHF — which advocates for condom use in porn — of being untruthful.
“We have no evidence of a fourth performer testing positive for HIV,” FSC spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero said in an email. “This information came from AHF who is currently trying to push regulation on the industry and has, on many occasions, reported false information to the media to advance their political agenda. It is extremely likely that this situation is more posturing for AHF’s political agenda.”
The LA County Department of Public Health said it has not received a report of a new HIV case. “Because of medical confidentiality and privacy, Public Health will not comment on the details of individual cases or their contacts,” the department said in an email.