With news cameras flashing, adult fílm performer Cameron Bay told reporters that in her last pórn shoot before testing positive for HIV, her partner's pénis was bleeding -- and he wasn't wearing a cóndom.
After stopping momentarily, the cameras continued rolling, she said.
Bay,
whose positive HIV test sparked the first of two pórn móratoriums in
the last month, spoke Wednesday at a Hollywood press conference with
other adult fílm performers, including two who said they also contracted
HIV this year. The press conference was coordinated by the AIDS
Healthcare Foundation, which advocates for mandatory cóndom use in pórn.
Five
current and former pórn performers spoke about the dangers and
uncertainty of life in the adult fílm industry. While the performers
said they can't be sure when and where they contracted HIV, they agreed
the industry is not adequately protecting its performers.
Choking back tears, Bay continued to describe her last shoot, fílmed at a public bar in San Francisco for Kínk.com.
"There
were up to 50 people in the room with us. And we were laying on top of
them. And they were touching inappropriately," Bay said. "It all
happened so fast. I didn’t realize how unsafe it was until I saw the
pictures ... You're on a whole other level when you're doing something
so extreme."
Last
week, Bay revealed that cóndoms were available, but not required at the
shoot. She said she didn't think she needed to use a cóndom because her
male costar had recently tested negative for séxually transmitted
diseases, and she left the choice up to him. Kínk.com confirmed to HuffPost that Bay was offered a cóndom, but it was not used.
Pórn
performer Patrick Stone told reporters he was asked to perform in a
shoot even after he tested positive for HIV. He said he was told he was
HIV-positive in an email on Sept. 10 from Performer Availability
Screening Services, which handles STD testing for the industry. Stone
said he never got a follow-up call or email from PASS, or from his
employer Kínk.com,
to discuss the results or schedule follow-up testing. Instead, he got
an email from Kínk.com two days later inquiring about scheduling a shoot
this week, he said.
Since
then, Stone has taken two additional tests that he said show him as
HIV-negative. He said he's awaiting results from a fourth and final
test.
"It's
been kind of a whirlwind week for me emotionally," Stone said. "I feel
that the testing process for PASS is not working. If I was allowed to
fall through the cracks like I did, who else is out there?
"I mean, they had me scheduled for a shoot tomorrow and as far as they knew, I was HIV-positive," Stone said.
Kínk.com said that it did not know about Stone's positive HIV test when it scheduled him for the shoot.
"He
had tested negative for us previously. Because of the moratorium, tests
were not updated on the PASS system for producers (because no one was
cleared for work)," Mike Stabile, spokesman for Kínk.com, said in an
email to HuffPost. "He would have been required [to take] a new test
regardless before shooting."
Another
man who identified himself as a pórn performer joined the press
conference by phone, saying he wanted to remain anonymous. He claimed to
have contracted HIV working in the industry and tested positive in the
last six months. That would make him the third performer to test
positive for the virus this year.
About
two weeks after a shoot, he said he developed acute symptoms and tested
positive. He said he had tested negative for HIV two weeks earlier.
A
fourth performer, Rod Daily, said he learned he was HIV-positive
earlier this month. Daily, who has been in a romantic relationship with
Cameron Bay for about two years, has performed in gay pórn since 2005
and said he always used cóndoms.
"That's
12 years that I've shot with HIV-positive people, used cóndoms and
never been HIV-positive," Daily said. "If anything, I know that condóms
do work. I was a guinea pig for that.
"I
just don’t know how an industry stands here and says they care so much
about their performers and, a week after someone tests positive, they're
out there shooting without cóndoms," Daily said. "Ultimately, it’s a
business, and their main concern is money and not their performers."
Daily thanked the AIDS Healthcare Foundation "for everything they've done," including helping him and Bay get medication.
Former
performer Derrick Burts said he became infected with HIV in 2010
working as a pórn performer. Burts said that, like Bay, he had only
worked in the industry for a few months before contracting HIV. In his
four-month pórn career, he said, he contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea and
herpes as well.
"To
me this is one huge flashback," Burts said. "What's the acceptable
number of cases of HIV or herpes or HPV or syphilis or any other
dangerous STD before people step up and do something about this?"
Another
former performer, Darren James, who said he became infected with HIV in
2004 working as a pórn performer, said he "almost lost it" listening to
Bay tell her story.
"I
didn’t want to see a whole army of people sitting at this table," said
James, who now works for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "This industry
has failed and continues to fail. We all need to wake up."
When
Bay found out she had HIV on Aug. 21, the Free Speech Coalition, which
oversees a database of all adult fílm performers' STD tests, placed a
moratorium on pórn shooting. Six days later, the organization lifted the
moratorium.
A
week after pórn shooting had resumed, Bay's boyfriend, Daily, announced
that he had tested positive for HIV. Two days after Daily said he was
HIV-positive, another performer, who wasn't identified, tested positive.
That prompted the Free Speech Coalition to impose a second moratorium.
The
Free Speech Coalition announced this week that it would lift the second
moratorium on Friday. It also said it will begin requiring STD testing
of performers every 14 days, twice as often as before.
The
Free Speech Coalition maintains that the three performers who recently
tested HIV-positive -- Bay, Daily and the anonymous man -- did not
contract HIV on a fílm set.
LA
voters in November passed a measure mandating cóndom use in pórn,
despite a large, coordinated campaign against it by the pórn industry.
Industry insiders say there has been no enforcement of the new law.
The
law was authored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which maintains
that no amount of testing is safe without cóndom use. "It's like trying
to prevent pregnancy with a pregnancy test," said foundation
communications director Ged Kenslea.
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