Porn filming on hold as third actor tests HIV-positive
Much of the adult film industry was halted over the weekend after the third performer in a month tested positive for HIV.
And on Monday, an advocacy group said a fourth performer had come forward as HIV-positive, although adult industry officials dismissed the report as a “rumor.”
The Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry trade group, called a weeklong filming moratorium last month after actress Cameron Bay tested HIV-positive.
A second performer, Rod Daily, who is romantically linked to Bay, announced his status on Twitter and to the Daily News shortly after filming resumed — but that case was not officially reported to the industry group and did not result in a new moratorium. Friday’s call to stop shooting came after a third performer tested positive and was reported to the Free Speech Coalition by an industry-affiliated doctor.
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation — a group that pushed for a voter-approved mandate to use condoms in filming in Los Angeles County last year and is now backing a bill currently on hold in the state Senate that would extend the mandate statewide — said another male performer contacted the group in the last week and said he had tested HIV-positive.
Weinstein would not give further details. He said he did not know if that case had been contracted on set but added that he thought “parsing” that question missed the point.
“Whether or not [Bay] was infected on set, she performed with HIV between her tests,” he said. “If you think that Russian roulette is a great way to protect workers, then the present system is perfect.”
Free Speech Coalition said in an update sent to performers that the group had not received confirmation of the fourth case and that it believed the report was “more posturing for AHF’s political agenda.”
The trade group said the performer whose test results prompted the current moratorium had not worked with either Bay or Daily and had not worked on a film since before the first moratorium was issued Aug. 21.
The coalition said it was awaiting test results from one of that performer’s on-screen partners — expected Tuesday — before discussing next steps for the moratorium and for testing performers for sexually transmitted diseases.
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