Thursday, Jun 18, 2009    Text size: 

The demands made by the Los Angeles-based AIDS advocacy organization came after news surfaced last week that a female adult film performer tested positive for HIV. The performer had worked despite lacking a clean test within the last 30 days, required under AIM Healthcare’s voluntary guidelines.

Michael Weinstein, president of the Hollywood, Calif.-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation — one of the largest community-based HIV/AIDS medical providers in the nation — said that health officials “have been asleep at the switch with regard to monitoring HIV and STD prevention and testing in the region's porn industry.”

He also said that Los Angeles health officials are “afraid of the industry."

“The industry wraps itself in the 1st Amendment,” he said. “It has much too much power in the halls of Sacramento and the county defends them, or they just don't want to take responsibility.”

Weinstein said that his organization is calling on county health officials to immediately institute a requirement for condom usage in the production of adult films.

“Something already far more widespread voluntarily in adult gay films,” he said. “If not, county health officials should shut down production sets that refuse to comply with the California code."

Weinstein said that the county has ammunition under its belt. He pointed to California's §120175, which essentially empowers officials to take action relative to the prevention or spread of communicable diseases.

On Monday, Cal-OSHA performed a surprise inspection of AIM.

State officials said they also will issue subpoenas demanding AIM patient records.