“Last week, Los Angeles County officials revealed that there have been at least 16 previously unreported cases of HIV among porn performers in the past five years.”

The title of this article at Salon is awful, but it does report the following:

Unfortunately, some sad news out of Porn Valley has made that particular feminist (and humanist) angle especially relevant: Last week, Los Angeles County officials revealed that there have been at least 16 previously unreported cases of HIV among porn performers in the past five years. That amounts to a total of 22 cases since 2004, when five porn stars tested positive. The explanation is simple: As anyone who has ever caught a glimpse of an X-rated film knows, condoms are entirely optional. Sure, there’s an industry standard requiring performers to get tested for STDs every 30 days, but it can take two weeks for signs of HIV infection to show. Just consider the 2004 outbreak: Porn star Darren James tested negative just a few days before going to work and transmitting it to three female costars.

The industry swears up and down that its voluntary monitoring is enough and that the number of infections is low considering the thousands of porn actors out there. (That is true when it comes to HIV, but it certainly isn’t when it comes to every other STD known to man.) Still, as Dr. Jonathan Fielding of the Los Angeles County Department of Health told the Los Angeles Times, “I don’t know of any other industry where people are subjected to that kind of risk.” There have been efforts in recent years to require condom use by law but, whaddaya know, lawmakers are apprehensive about having their name attached to legislation that protects porn stars. Newsflash: People who have sex for a living aren’t considered a sympathetic or family-friendly demographic. There’s no doubt that many sick and twisted people in this country believe X-rated stars are getting exactly what they deserve.

The author’s assertion that lack of health and safety regulations in porn production is because “lawmakers are apprehensive about having their name attached to legislation that protects porn stars” seems ridiculous to me. She is trying to blame prudishness for a problem that is clearly caused, and easily solved, by pornographers. The porn industry generates billions in profits for corporations like Google and Fox News. Any effort to regulate porn leads to massive lobbying and “education” campaigns about how requiring condoms compromises free speech, will eviscerate the First Amendment and play into the hands of censorious foreign terrorists, putting our very democracy at stake, etc. That’s why porn is the least regulated industry in the nation.

And as far as the author’s assertion that: “There’s no doubt that many sick and twisted people in this country believe X-rated stars are getting exactly what they deserve” she is absolutely right, and the vast majority of them are men who consume porn.

–Ann Bartow