Porn industry trade group halts production for third time this year

A Los Angeles-based porn industry trade association told Al Jazeera Sunday it had imposed a third moratorium on production after an unnamed porn actor reportedly contracted HIV.

Free Speech Coalition spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero did not specify whether the porn actor had contracted the disease on the set.

“It’s important to think of a moratorium as an early warning system that helps prevent the virus from being transmitted on an adult film set,” Cachapero said.

During a moratorium, porn actors who have worked with the infected actor are tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

A porn actor who goes by the name Danny Wylde, who stopped performing in October, told Al Jazeera the Free Speech Coalition is comprised of a number of large adult film companies.

“The majority of the talent pool will stop working, and they will determine through exhaustive testing who is exposed, who’s coming out positive and negative and making sure it isn’t spread around in the meantime,” he said.

Imposing a moratorium “is one of the most effective things at our disposal right now,” Wylde said.

Wylde, who has shifted his career into freelance adult video production after a non-HIV-related health concern, said that a lack of work for porn actors has driven some to non-porn-related sex work.

“There’s not as much work as there used to be,” he said, “If your job is to have sex for a living, and you’re not getting as much porn work, there are other jobs – like sex work – that is not as regulated or safe,” he said.

In September, the Free Speech Coalition imposed a moratorium after two porn actors, Cameron Bay and her boyfriend Rod Daily, who acts in gay pornographic films, tested positive for HIV.

“Cameron Bay and Rod Daily have not talked about how they contracted HIV. We only know that it wasn’t in the course of filming. None of Cameron Bay’s scene partners tested positive for HIV. Rod Daily, who performed exclusively with condoms, has said that condoms protected him on set,” Cachapero said.

Various sexual health advocates have called for more widespread use of condoms in pornographic films.

“We believe that the issue should be left to the performer and studio,” Cachapero added. “Condoms are not a simple issue – many performers find them uncomfortable to work with in the context of a long adult shoot, and prefer the testing system. We believe that to mandate that performers use condoms denies a performer the right to make decisions about his or her body.”

While the porn industry figures out how to stop the transmission of HIV to pornographic actors, the moratorium keeps porn production staff from making a living.

Wylde occasionally toys with the idea of leaving the industry altogether.

“It is my livelihood at the moment. The more often (moratoriums are imposed), it becomes more of a question in my mind.”

But “leaving the industry is easier said than done,” Wylde said, “There’s still a lot of stigma on people who work in this industry (for) their entire adult life.”