Plaintiffs Desi and Ellie Foxx filed the suit today in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The mother and daughter team, whose birth names are Diana Grandmason and Bess Garren, held a press conference this morning at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation offices attended by AHF attorney Brian Chase and AHF President Michael Weinstein.
“Once I was in the adult industry for a while, I realized there were several issues that weren’t being addressed,” Grandmason said.
Grandmason says that in order to work, she was tested several times at AIM. She was required to pay for those tests and had to sign release-of-information forms. She says AIM then made her test results available online for adult producers.
“With this lawsuit,” Grandmason says, “we hope to stop AIM from violating our and other patients’ legal rights.”
The suit claims, “AIM violates the privacy rights of performers in the adult film industry by allowing the producers of adult films online access to workers’ health care information without the individual consents and releases required by federal and California law. AIM knowingly and intentionally provides this private information to producers of adult films in order to facilitate the production of adult films.”
The plaintiffs are part of a movement being pushed by AHF to change state health code to require adult performers to use condoms.
The suit claims, “AIM further jeopardizes the health and well-being of performers in the adult film industry by discouraging the use of condoms and other safer-sex practices known to prevent and dramatically reduce the spread of STDs,” and “The actions of AIM violate Grandmason’s and Garren’s rights to privacy, the rights of individuals similarly situated to Plaintiffs, and further constitute an unfair and deceptive trade practice under California law.”
However, Paul Cambria, an attorney for several production studios, told XBIZ that requiring the use of condoms will have a severe impact on adult business and could force companies to go out of state or even overseas.
“There’s no doubt that if steps are taken that producers can’t be competitive, they’ll be forced to outsource or even get out of production and that would amount to the least amount of protection for adult performers.”
Cambria added that producers were doing good using AIM’s adequate testing procedures.
“The whole system was working well. There should be an emphasis on testing and prevention rather than condoms,” he said.
The lawsuit also seeks class action status to include claims by other current and former adult film actors whose health information may have also illegally been released by AIM to adult film producers.
“AIM’s program of voluntary testing of adult film performers for some, but not all, STDs has failed to protect those performers. STD’s remain rampant within the industry,” the suit says.
The suit further states that AIM’s interest in testing adult film performers isn’t to protect their health and privacy, but to facilitate the production of adult films and maximize profits.
Calls to AIM went unreturned by post time.