AIM Losing Support Among Adult Performers

Mike South - When porn star Bobbi Starr learned of the possible positive HIV test of a fellow performer in her industry on Tuesday, she went straight to the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation clinic in the San Fernando Valley. She was there to get retested, but also to find out which adult performers were on the HIV quarantine list, so that she could avoid working with them in movies. The clinic, which conducts mandatory monthly testing for porn actors in the Valley, told her only that if she was quarantined, she would have been notified already.

“I am frustrated, to be honest,” Starr says. “I want to know who is on that list. And AIM won’t tell us, because AIM is only looking out for themselves, despite what they say about being there for the talent.”
Performer Courtney Cummz echoes Starr. “AIM should let us know who is impacted, because we could have shot content with them and they forgot to add to the list,” she says. “Or they could be one of my friends’ booty calls. You just don’t know.”
So, far little is known publicly about the latest HIV scare to embroil the adult industry beyond the clinic’s confirming to the Los Angeles Times that a performer tested positive there on Tuesday. UPDATE: The actor in question has been identified as a male performer who appeared in both gay and straight adult films. As a result, more than half a dozen companies have temporarily suspended shooting films. It’s an eerily familiar situation for the industry, which attracted media attention last year when an aspiring female performer tested positive, also at the AIM clinic.
As with previous HIV scares, many in the adult industry are questioning the status quo of AIM controls. But some others, whose numbers include performers, agents, producers, and directors, are far more worried that the result of the latest positive test will be a government intervention in the lucrative porn business via the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration or Los Angeles County, where the industry is largely based.
Adult director John Stagliano, owner of Evil Angel, one of the largest distributors of porn in the country, notes: “I worry about the government stepping in and driving the industry out of the state.” Adult talent agent Mark Spiegler has even wider geographical worries: “People say California OSHA, but there is something everywhere in this country. And what is going to happen is that this industry is going to go to outsourcing like any other industry. It is already cheaper to shoot in some other countries. And if you put in a lot of new rules, you are going to see a lot more of that.”
“The first thing you think is, ‘Who is the last person I worked with?...Every time we work, we play Russian roulette with ourselves.”
Starr, who is a client of Spiegler’s, sees things differently. “I am a big fan of CA/OSHA,” she says. “I think condoms should be required. I work without them because otherwise I would not work. I knew that when I got in the industry. But who would not want to feel safer? I would be happy to see condoms made mandatory.”
Cummz points out that while gay male porn uses condoms, that side of the industry is not as consistent about testing. “It is past time for OSHA to come in and regulate us, both gay and straight,” she says. “This is the second time. This happened last year. It is time for condoms to be mandatory and for testing. It is time for OSHA to get involved.”