LOS ANGELES, CA — An AIDS charity has filed a lawsuit attempting to force the Los Angeles County Health Department to mandate condom usage on all porn sets.Filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the petition seeks a court order requiring the health department to enforce condom usage and take all other “reasonable steps” to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among adult performers.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation initiated the suit after seeing little response to its mid-June demand that state and county legislators codify condom requirements into state and local regulations. AHF is a mainstream organization providing medical care and advocacy to more than 100,000 people in 22 countries. The organization claims to be the largest non-profit HIV-AIDS healthcare provider in the U.S., providing more than 14,000 free HIV tests annually.
The organization’s stand on condoms in the adult film industry followed by two weeks the revelation that a female adult industry performer tested positive for HIV but reportedly worked in an explicit production without a current “clean” certificate from Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, the porn industry’s primary health-testing resource. It is unclear why the woman was allowed to work outside accepted industry practices that require a health certificate issued within 30 days of filming. The standard is voluntary.
Shortly thereafter, county health officials released data indicating AIM reported 18 cases of HIV infection and 3,700 instances of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis among the people it has tested since 2004. The health department did not break down the statistics into “inside the adult industry” and “outside the adult industry,” but AIM does testing for both sectors. AIM has said none of the HIV infections were discovered in “active adult performers.”
AHF President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Weinstein said his organization filed the lawsuit because officials do not seem to be taking the situation seriously. Health department officials have admitted none of the HIV or other STD infections uncovered by AIM’s tests were investigated.
“We’re the porn capital of the world, and it’s clear that the county has no intention of making these sets safer or of protecting the rest of the community from the diseases that are being spread in the production of these films,” Weinstein told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday. “You cannot conduct public health in a fashion where you won’t speak publicly about an issue.”
The health department on Thursday issued a statement reaffirming its commitment to protecting public health.
“The county continues to strongly support state legislation and the regulatory role of Cal/OSHA as the most appropriate means to regulate the practices in the adult film industry that expose performers to unnecessary and preventable occupational risks of acquiring and transmitting these diseases,” the statement noted. “The department does not believe that litigation is the best means to deal with this issue.”
