HIV Porn Scare 2010: The Coup d'Twit Edition -- AIM Gets Its License Pulled {Temporarily]; The Lubben/Weinstein Alliance Reacts Like They Found Dubya's WMD; And Derrick Burts' Escort Skeletons Are Exposed [Updated]

[Updated...scroll to bottom.]

The cancer that is the 2010 HIV Porn Scare is now metasizing like crazy...and on so many fronts.

First off....it seems that the LA County Health officials have learned the art of surprise assault timed perfectly. By morning, that Derrick Burts' story about how AIM allegedly dissed him for his own personal failure to protect himself from contracting HIV was going seriously viral, with articles screaming from coast to coast.

Both the LA Times and LA Weekly and the New York Daily News had seperate articles in which the former Cameron Reid (straight porn version)/Derrick Chambers (gay male version) was able to tell his "story" about how a nice Christian magician got caught up in the sleazy world of porn...and how it just so happened that Michael Weinstein's group (AIDS Health Foundation) was there to save his life...and how this proves that only mandatory condoms can save performers' lives.

The NY Daily News version was particularly loaded with plenty of the usual pathos you find in propaganda pieces against porn. Some snippage:

Burts said his girlfriend helped him find some of the side gigs, which earned him the "couple hundred dollars" he used to supplement his income in hospitality.

But he soon found himself singing on with OC Modeling Agency.

"They said I had the right look for porn and that I'd go very far doing it," Burts said.

The agency gave him the aliases Cameron Reid (for straight porn) and Derek Chambers (for gay films) and tested him for STDs.

Though Burts was clean before he started, one month later he found out he had contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes.

"It made me realize maybe porn wasn't the best option for me," he said.

But Burts revealed his agent, Phil Mack, encouraged him to keep at it.

"You might as well do it if you already have it because you can't do anything else," he reportedly said.

The porn star thus moved on to gay film shoots this September, but only participated in five, some of which involved him acting alone.

One month later, on Oct. 9, he found out he was HIV positive after a routine check-up at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

According to Burts, Jennifer Miller, head of the AIM clinic, said she knew he had done a scene with a "known positive" but would not tell him if they were gay or straight due to patient confidentiality.

He added that he expressed his desire for follow-up treatment to Miller who told him she would get in touch with a specialist. Burts said that she also told him to change his phone number, delete his Twitter  and Facebook accounts and to get out of town -- and not talk to AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) as they were "trying to bring down porn." 

Soon after that, Miller released a statement claiming Burts contracted HIV from a personal encounter.

According to Burts, he then had an emotional breakdown while watching a UFC fight on Nov. 24 and became scared for his life, which was when he decided to call AHF.

There he met Dr. Laveeza Bhatti, an HIV care provider. He said her "jaw dropped" as AIM hung up on him each time he called to get documentation of his results.

"This is a multimillion dollar industry and they haven’t reached out to help me, that's the reason I'm speaking out," he said.

Now..keep in mind that AIM's official statement did NOT mention Burts by name (only as "Patient Zeta"), but did note that since no one in the industry had been infected due to his actions, they assumed that he had indeed gotten infected on his own, through "extracurricular activity". Of course, in the LA Times article, Burts flatly denied that, saying that outside of his work as a gay/straight porn performer, he was totally monogamous with his girlfriend. (More on her later.)

Then again, in the LA Times article, he says that he himself approached AHF anonynously without describing himself as "Patient Zeta"...a bit different than what he says to the NY Daily News.

If that was the only inconsistency in his story, it would be whack enough...but guess what some enterprising sleuths discovered while investigating Derrick's past life?? Two words: RentBoy.com.

That's right, Clones....Derrick was in fact a working escort. Nay...a working GAY escort.

I should add a caveat here: The two main sources that discovered Derrick's escort ad aren't exactly pure as the driven snow. The original ad appeared in a message board forum dedicated to maligning porn talent agent Derrick Hay, who runs LA Direct Models and who has been attacked as being not only a closet pimp who cross-contaminates straight porn with suspicious gay males, but who basically is the typical stereotype of a thuggish asshole. (He has had some numerous smackdowns with several female talent, including a classic battle with Lisa Ann, super starlet and formerly head of her own talent agency, Lisa Ann Talent Management, which unfortunately shut its doors middle of this year. And the owner of that particular board, Donny Long, is just as well known and disrespected as a rumormonger and thug on his own right who is not averse to racist, sexist, and homophobic blasts and forced outing of starlets he doesn't like (ask Nina Mercedez, who was actually forced to bring legal action to shut Long's website down after he attempted to expose her private info).

Nevertheless, while the messengers may have lots of shit on their hands, the message itself seems pretty legit...and good enough that our irrepressible star reporter Julie Meadows was able to verify and repost the ad at her blog. 

Think about what that means, Clones....If you happen to be a gay escort who has been known to be boasting about not only being proud to be HIV+, who has openly threatened to infect others, and who has directly admitted to having engaged in bareback sex as part of his work. it's kind of hard to say with a straight face that you were a victim of anybody...especially  of an agency who merely tested you when you decided to cross over into "straight" porn.

And then there is the changing story of how DBurts actually got infected. First, he said that he got HIV through oral sex. Considering that most reliable scientific studies show that merely swallowing semen is the least likely way to transport HIV, especially when compared to blood tearing during unprotected anal sex, that would be considered to be a bit problematic. (Unless, Burts was somehow suffering from a gum disease that involved bleeding, which introduced blood into the mix...which is far more likely to promote infection.) By the time he spoke to the LA Weekly folks, he had a new story: He was infected by an impropmtu anal creampie in which sperm got into his anal cavity. In a scene in which a condom was used for anal sex, but not for oral.  In which the condom was somehow removed for the final blowout, so to speak.  (And remember, this is all to prove that condoms MUST be mandated in straight porn to protect the performers.)

Oh, but it gets better.  Much better.  One of Julie's regular commenters, Michael Whiteacre, did his own deep digging on Burts and discovered Bib Bomb #2: His girlfriend, performer Kaycee Brooks....is also an escort, too!!!  (At least, if this ad over at the LuxuryCompanion.com site is anywhere near accurate.) At least we can say that she was at least a bit more careful about her habits, though; she was tested as part of the first- and second-generation tests when Derrick's HIV+ condition was discovered, and she managed to test clean.  Which, of course begs the question: How in the HELL did he manage to go through all that bareback gay sex and all those clients and infect himself with HIV+, but not manage to infect his girlfriend in the process?? (Remember, Kaycee is also an active porn performer, and she's tested at least once a month..and unless someone's lying, she seems to be on the straight and clean.) And just how, then, is AIM to blame when they themselves not only managed to prevent him from infecting others, but also managed to alert him that he contracted other STD's  like chlamydia.  (He also said that he contracted herpes, but since AIM doesn't do tests for that condition, he must have known that from someone else...or from his visit from AHF.) 

But then again, to quote the lyrics of an Olivia Newton-John song, "The Rumor": "Once a rumor spreads, the truth becomes a thing of the past."

Especially when said rumor is exploited successfully for a public vendetta.

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And here is where we enter Part  2 of the drama, in which AIM gets its walking papers from the LA County Health officials. Again, we quote the LA Times:

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials have shut down the San Fernando Valley-based health clinic that serves the porn industry.

[Updated at 11:42 a.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the clinic was based in San Fernando. It is in Sherman Oaks.]

“We’ve told the clinic they have to notify people of test results that have already been taken and make appropriate referrals. But they cannot provide new services,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s public health director.

Fielding said county public health staff went to the clinic Thursday morning and issued a cease-and-desist order based upon state regulator’s denial of the clinic’s application for a community clinic license.

Adult Industry Medical healthcare’s general manager and lawyers did not return phone calls Thursday. AIM staff answering the phone Thursday morning said the clinic was still open.
Clinic officials were notified that their license application had been denied Tuesday. They applied June 7, state officials said, but Fielding said the application was “incomplete.”

“They hadn’t done all the things necessary to comply,” he said, but would not elaborate and referred questions to state public health officials, who did not immediately return phone calls or e-mail Thursday.

The nonprofit AIM clinic opened in 1998. Fielding said county public health officials did not become aware that they were operating without a license until April. In May, he said they sent clinic officials a letter advising them that as a nonprofit, they could not operate under an affiliated physician’s license and needed to apply instead for a clinic license.
Fielding said former patients at the clinic are welcome to seek care at county clinics.

“We have on our website a number of places where people can go for testing,” he said. “All the places that we’re involved with are certainly places where people can feel safe -- the privacy and confidentiality are maintained.”

Porn producers had relied on the clinic to maintain a database of performers’ test results that they could check prior to filming. It was unclear what would become of that system.

“I don’t know the answer to that -- you’ll have to ask them. Our feeling has been that that is not sufficient to fully protect the performers,” Fielding said. “They need to use condoms so that these workers will not be put in a position where they are exposed to potentially life-threatening diseases.”

That would be, BTW, the same Johnathan Fielding who has been one of the more consistent boosters of jamming mandatory condom usage down the throats and up the other orfices of porn performers...and his collusion with Mike Weinstein of AHF is well documented and needs no rehashes here.

And speaking of Mikey: Of course, his reaction to all this was about as surprising as a western sunset. From the LA Weekly blog:

During a teleconference Thursday AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who has been pressuring the industry to adopt mandatory condom use, called on porn producers to shut down shoots while this mess is worked out.

"This is the touchstone moment," he said. "This is the tipping point."

"The adult film industry needs to be shut or use condoms starting today," Weinstein said.

He called on the city's film permitting organization, FilmLA, to stop issuing permits to porn productions. He also called on the county to shut down production in the name of safety.

The state requires porn performers to use condoms, but the industry has resisted, citing market pressure, and California workplace health officials have said they don't have the resources to enforce the law.

We've found the weapons of mass destruction!!  We must attack NOW while the iron is hot!!!

And in this corner, Ministress Shelley and her Pink Cross cohorts are nothing short of ecstatic at the news. Quoting a comment in Julie Meadows' blog, probably directly from Lubben's blog:

PORN STAR CLINIC SHUT DOWN!! California heard our testimonies and the truth about the porn industry and finally did something about it!! GOD IS MOVING MOUTAINS!

Carrie Jean Chavez: woohoo!!!!!!!!!!

Shelley Lubben: I’m stunned right now. We’ve been fighting so hard pleading with the government to do SOMETHING about the rampant STDs and horrible abuses and sure enough, they shut that clinic down, the one where the so-called Doctor Sharon Mitchell does NOT have a medical degree. Wow. All these years of fighting and gathering evidence finally paid off!!

Mace Ravenwolf: What is done in darkness, will be brought into the light. MAJOR victory here as this “clinic” won’t be a free passport to an unknowing person’s death. I love how they tried to skirt around issues by saying they were compliant to the FEDERAL standars. Know thy enemy, if they are using the Federal guidelines as a loophole, go after the federal government. As far as I know most or any hospitals had to comply with state AND federal standards.. don’t they?

Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the rest of us: the rumors of AIM's demise might be a bit premature.

Lundeen said the AIM Healthcare clinic submitted an application for a state community clinic permit in June after the state told AIM officials that it was operating as a community clinic without a license and would need to obtain one.

He said on Tuesday the clinic's application for a license was denied, but that the grounds for denial included a lack of proper paperwork, including a "transfer agreement" that would tell the state it had an agreement with an area hospital to accept patients it wasn't qualified to treat.

Lundeed made it sound as if AIM would be up and running soon and that its denial was based on a minor technicality.

"We're working with the facility to meet the requirements under the law as quickly as possible," he said.

And, it looks like the Big Dawgs of porn are finally rolling in to play their version of Zone Defense to cover Sharon Mitchell's and AIM's backsides. 

Steven Hirsch, founder of the country's largest adult studio, Vivid Entertainment, said it would continue with production despite AIM's closure.

"We have been in contact with AIM and believe that the current situation is temporary and will be quickly remedied. There are other alternatives that we can utilize in the meantime and will do so. We believe the current system of testing works. Our productions will proceed as scheduled."

Hirsch's stance defies Weinstein's call for the city of L.A. to deny film permits to the biggest studios, including Vivid and Hustler.

Michael Whiteacre, as always, cuts through the BS to the heart of the matter:

The rest of this story is quite simple, really.

The massive collusion between and amongst the cabal that is LA County Department of Public Health, AHF, UCLA and Cal/OSHA is reaching its crescendo — they seek to have AIM classified as an “industrial” (as in industry-specific) clinic, as opposed to a public clinic. The accompanying “industrial” standards are more stringent, and it also would make it that much easier for OSHA to classify porn performers as "employees.”


That’s the goal — these four entities are sharpening up their cutlery to carve up pieces of the pie.

AIM has a very good lawsuit here — a coordinated smear campaign against a private clinic (AIM) whereby the County health department seemingly co-strategized with, or at least provided advance notice of a public health action to, a private organization (AHF). How else to explain the rush by AHF to get the Burts story in the papers? A mere coincidence? A lawsuit, and subpoenas, would tell the tale.

It’s simply disgusting.

I will leave you tonight with Julie Meadows giving the last word for now, since her words all through this debacle have packed the most powerful punch.

What gets me is that the industry has always been attacked. No one has cared as much as Sharon Mitchell to try and bring the industry together. Should she have called herself a doctor if her degree comes from a non-accredited college? Probably not. Should the clinic have had some sort of responsible notification process installed for HIV-specific cases to avoid getting sued by Darren James in 2004? Probably yes. Does anyone care that it is this situation in 1998 that made it easy for Marc Wallice to fake a negative test and infect people? No. They. Don’t. REALLY. Care. They just don’t, but Mitch did. Right or wrong, proper procedure or not, someone who actually cared is being smacked around by those who don’t care and parts of the industry are even celebrating that. In the end, I doubt many from within or without of the industry can see the implications of what’s really going on. What do religious fanatics care that there’s no porn clinic or porn, period? I guess that’s the real question. Why do they care? Money, and the adult industry is an easy target. Hey, as long as they don’t give up. Michael has a good point about a healthy lawsuit for AIM. The bad guys don’t always win. Didn’t you see The People v.s Latty Flynt?

Of course, Larry Flynt had to take a bullet in his spine in the name of defending his freedom.  Hopefully, Sharon Mitchell, Ernest Greene, Nina Hartley, or any other person associated with AIM won't have to go that far to roll back this nonsense. For the sake of performers' autonomy and humanity, we'd damn well better hope so.


UPDATE (12-10-10):

Well. well, well....those rumors of AIM's demise were in fact premature after all.

Mark Kernes over at AVN Business/AVN Online has just posted an article at their blog that brings a great deal of clarty to the situation involving AIM's license getting pulled.  Turns out, it wasn't the LA County but the State of California Departmant of Public Health that had rejected AIM's application for a clinic license...and guess what???  It was based not on any permanent misfortune on AIM's part, but a minor syntactical technicality!!

As reported earlier today on AVN.com, state health officials told AIM last June that it would be required to submit an application for an operating permit in order to be a "community clinic" serving the adult community for STD testing, and AIM in fact did so several weeks ago. However, although the official name on AIM's lease is "The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation," AIM submitted its application as "AIM Medical Testing Center," and in a letter dated November 30, Travis Green of the state's Licensing & Certification Program kicked the application back to AIM, saying "I found that the package is incomplete and contains information that is unclear and/or inconsistent. To assist you in completing this package, I am providing a detailed outline of the information and/or clarification necessary to proceed with the application review process."

And what information was unclear or inconsistent? Under the heading, "Office Lease," the letter reads, "Please initial and date next to each line-through of 'AIM Medical Testing Center' and replaced [sic] with 'The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation.'"

That's it! All the state wants is for AIM's application to reflect the name of the clinic that's on the property lease rather than the name by which everyone in the adult industry knows the clinic. No other corrections are necessary.

But even though the letter from the state clearly states, "Please note that you will be allowed sixty (60) days from the date of this correction letter to submit the requested information," nonetheless, the L.A. County Health Department served AIM with a cease-and-desist letter requiring AIM to stop collection blood samples from its clients—an action that apparently was taken at the instigation of AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein. (Don't the state and county health officials talk to each other?)

Oh, and just wait until Mike Weinstein hears this bit of news...seems like the shutdown of AIM isn't quite as total as he fantasizes.

But despite the county's cease-and-desist order, AIM is still operating. However, performers who need their blood drawn and urine sample taken will have to do so at one of AIM's "draw stations" which are located all over the city of Los Angeles, in several other cities around the state, and with contractors in all other states of the union. Performers can find the locations of these draw stations either by calling AIM, which will be open tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, or they may go online to AIM's website, which lists all the addresses there.

"People can pay for the tests online, and pick up their tests at AIM, just like they always do," said AIM general manager Jennifer Miller. "It's exactly like coming in here and the price is exactly the same, and it's the same turn-around time."

"On this application, the county is making us in particular dot all our i's and cross all our t's, and if that's what they ask for, that's fine," Mitchell explained. "It's just that we knew it was going to take us some time to get appropriated, because our landlords are in and out of town quite a bit, and we knew it was going to take a while to get a reprint of our lease from them, and this is why they closed us down, but you've got to see how this looks. You've got this kid [Derrick Burts aka Cameron Reid aka Derek Chambers] saying that we're ineffective and not good, and this gets piled onto all the other stuff that L.A. Times has been more than happy to print."

Bottom line: AIM is open; they just can't draw blood at their facility, so they've arranged for others to do it—and the county, apparently at the urging of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has overstepped its powers in attempting to close the clinic down—because AIM wrote the wrong name down on its application!

In other words, you can't draw blood or give urine samples directly at AIM;s main facilities in Sherman Oaks...but you can still get tested at any one of many off-facility sites and pay for it online at no extra charge. Other than that hiccup, which will probably itself be temporary until AIM does get its license, everything else will be business as usual tomorrow morning.

Gee..I wonder why this news didn't make the LA Times news desk??  It's not as if they haven't been killing dead trees on the issue, not with the FOUR articles they did pimping Derrick Burts as The Ultimate Porn Victim and AHF as his new Savior. I guess that writing antiporn propaganda for so long kind of tunnels the vision a bit??

HIV Porn Scare 2010 Redux: "Patient Zeta" Outs Himself...But Does His Story Pass The Gloryhole/Swiss Cheese Test??

And so, the story of the latest HIV porn scare continues on, with some quite interesting developments.

This morning, in the Los Angeles Times, we finally got to hear from "Patient Zeta", the performer at the center of the latest scare. His real name is Derrick Burts, though he has performed under various porn pseudonyms such as Derrick Chambers, Cameron Reed, and Cameron Reid.

As you are well aware if you've been keeping up, Burts was a performer from the gay side of the genre who somehow got infected with the HIV virus, then showed up doing a straight scene without testing first. Fortunately for everyone involved, all testing has turned out negative, and no one else was infected.

The story would end there....except that somehow and for whatever reason, Mr. Burts has decided to launch himself squarely into the ongoing debate over whether the government should step in and mandate condoms for all performers on set. And as you would guess, it's not on the side of performer's choice, either.

Here's a sample of the article from the LA TImes website (which also includes a brief video interview with Mr. Burts):

The adult film performer who tested HIV-positive at a San Fernando Valley clinic this fall spoke out for the first time Tuesday, calling for mandatory condom use in porn productions, improved testing for sexually transmitted disease and follow-up care for fellow performers.

Derrick Burts, 24, said he tested HIV-positive in October at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks after working in both gay and straight porn films for a few months. He had previously been identified only as Patient Zeta.

Producers of straight porn regularly check performers' test results using a database maintained by the clinic, known as AIM, to clear actors for work.

Burts, who performed in straight films as "Cameron Reid" and gay films as "Derek Chambers," said he was tested at the clinic Oct. 8, then received a panicked call from clinic staff the following afternoon, summoning him to the office.

When he got there, he said, clinic staff told him that he had tested HIV-positive. They wanted to perform a follow-up test and begin notifying performers he had worked with since his last negative test result Sept. 3. Those performers, he was told, would be placed on a quarantine list while they, too, were tested.

Burts said he gave clinic staff the names of about a dozen performers he had worked with in California and Florida in both gay and straight productions. The list included his girlfriend, who also works in the industry as a performer. He watched as clinic staff began scanning a performer database, notifying those he had named and placing them on a quarantine list.

The clinic has since said that none of the performers on its quarantine list tested positive. Burts confirmed that his girlfriend tested negative .

So, you say...happy ending for all, except for poor Mr. Burts, right??? Not quite...because here's where the fun starts.

He said that when he returned to the clinic Oct. 23 to review the second test results, clinic staff told him that they had traced his HIV infection to someone he had performed a scene with whom they described to him as a "known positive."

Although straight porn performers must show negative HIV test results before filming, the gay porn industry does not have the same restrictions, although condom use is typically required.

Burts said he asked who the performer was and clinic staff told him they could not reveal the performer's name or gender due to patient confidentiality.

Clinic officials could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night. An attorney for the clinic was traveling outside the United States, according to an e-mail received from him earlier in the day.

Burts says he may have contracted the disease during a gay porn shoot in Florida. He said the performers used condoms during intercourse but not during oral sex.

Contrary to Burts' account of what he was told, clinic officials released a statement last month saying "Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity."

"That's completely false," Burts said Tuesday. "There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend."

So, it seems that Burts was infected not through any hetero sex scene in porn, but through scenes in gay porn, where the standards are diameterically different than the "straight" industry. So, why is he so put off with AIM and calling for mandatory condoms in STRAIGHT PORN?!?!?

The next few paragraphs might tell the answer.

Before he left the clinic Oct. 23, Burts said clinic staff put him in touch with a doctor affiliated with the clinic and promised to arrange for his follow-up care.

Burts said no one followed up, and he felt neglected.

"AIM promised they would help me set up a doctor and get treatment," he said. "They did none of that."

Burts said AIM staff had warned him not to contact the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose officials have been among the clinic's chief critics. In frustration, Burts said he went to an AIDS Healthcare Foundation center in Los Angeles on Nov. 24 and saw a doctor, never identifying himself as Patient Zeta.

Pleased with the care he received at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Burts contacted the group's leaders last week, identified himself as Patient Zeta and said he wanted to speak out on their behalf and in favor of enforcing mandatory condom use in porn productions. Foundation officials have scheduled a news conference with Burts for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

"AIM likes to state that testing is enough. That's completely false," he said, noting that in the months before he tested positive for HIV, he had also contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes.

"It's very dangerous," he said of adult film work. "It should be required that you wear a condom on the set."

Hmmmmm. So...out of pique at AIM for not funding his treatment for contracting HIV outside of their jurisdiction and for his own refusal to test himself before doing that hetero scene, he just conveniently joins up with Michael Weinstein's group...and thusly becomes their new spokesperson for mandating condoms. Coincidence??  Conspiracy??  Payola??  Or just plain circumstance??

Which brings us to this very interesting article from Dennis Romero that appeared in the LA Weekly blog The Informer, in which Romero seems to partially question and partially support Burts' claims about how he contracted the disease and how AIM dissed him in favor of AHF. Some snippage:

Interestingly, while the porn industry claims its self-policing when it comes to STDs, Burts says he contracted the virus from a male actor who had not presented his test before a film shoot - a move the industry has argued is customary and part of its health-guards.

In fact, the actor says his HIV-carrying scene partner was a "known positive." How could this happen? In gay porn, condoms are the norm, but HIV testing of the type advocated by the Adult Healthcare Industry Foundation, the organization that tested Burts and provides a testing service the whole adult video business, is apparently not.

His gay scene in Florida involved oral sex - a long shot for HIV transmission. But that's his story, and it doesn't add up if you ask us. He's a mostly straight guy who's loyal to his girlfriend but had protected gay sex and still somehow came up with HIV?


AIM Healthcare's claim that he got HIV through his own extracurricular, off-camera sex life is B.S., he says: He only has off-camera sex with his girlfriend. (He says she turned up negative, too).

Really?

 Of course, Romero seems to ignore the fundamental differences between straight and gay porn.  AIM tests EVERYONE in the straight scene (a negative test within 30 days is the normal requirement, but individual performers may require even stiffer requirements before performing scenes); whereas there is little or no testing in the gay scene, since they tend to rely on a mix of condom usage, seperating out HIV+ performers from HIV- performers, and explicit marking of bareback scenes as such.

But, there is a legit inconsistency here...oral sex is actually one of the less noted ways to pass on the HIV virus; unprotecteed anal sex being the more favored means of transmission sexually). Yet, Derrick/Cameron staunchly denies that he contracted HIV through "extracurricular sexual activity", saying that he is totally monogamous outside of his work with his girlfriend, who happens to BE a porn performer herself. So...how did he manage to get infected in the first place, then??  Osmosis??  Handjobs?? Or. perhaps,. he got infected through a gay sex scene where condoms were absent?? And this is AIM's fault....how???

Or, perhaps, it's just Burts' way of pimping his new sponsors. Continuing the Romero article:

AHF stated that Burts also contracted herpes and chlamydia during his "brief" work in porn.

Remember, gangstas...AIM does not even test for chlamydia [UD (5-22-12): actually, they did...thanks, Darklady, for the correction!!] or herpes in straight porn, so how in the hell would AHF know about that unless either Burts told them, or he contracted that from gay porn, too?

Burts says the industry-backed AIM turned its back on him, allegedly ignoring its promise to follow up with treatment. That, he claims, pushed him into the accepting arms of the AIM's archenemy, the AHF, which has been battling to force adult video to use condoms.
According to a statement from AHF:

Burts then anonymously sought medical treatment for his HIV through AHF, which arranged a medical appointment for him within 24 hours of his first contact with AHF at one of its Los Angeles-area AHF Healthcare Centers--without anyone at AHF knowing his role in the adult film industry.

AHF scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. Wednesday at its office in Hollywood to discuss Burts' case.

AHF President Michael Weinstein:

"We are extremely glad to know that Derrick has been linked to care and is receiving appropriate medical care for his HIV infection through AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a government-funded non-profit health care provider. However, we are astounded that the multi-billion dollar adult film industry and its fig leaf of a clinic could not even get it together six weeks after his first positive HIV test to link him to appropriate follow up medical care and treatment, and that taxpayers--rather than the adult film industry--will be left holding the bill."

Some pics from that newsconference, complete with the usual crocodile tears from Mr. Burts, are included in Romero's article.

Now, the question of why AIM should be held to pay up for the treatment of a person who acquired HIV from outside their jurisdiction and who attempted unwittingly to infect others by performing without being tested to begin with, might enter the mind of some skeptics. But, if you're Mike Weinstein and you need a suitable victim to shed tears at your pressers and Cal-OSHA hearings in order to bust AIM and get those government grants and $$$$ for Durex.....errrrrrr, to alert the public about the dangers of porn and the evil of the industry....well, any port in a storm, I guess. Especially since using Shelley Lubben is blowing up in their faces.

And then, there is the fact that Derrick Burts is saying one thing for the public and another thing for other venues. The irrepresible Lydia Lee (aka Julie Meadows) has been doing yeoman investigating work all along on the Great Condom Mandate Swindle, and today at her blog she takes time from playing Shelley Lubben Whack-a-Quack-Ministeress to do a brief but effective expose of Derrick/Cameron.

Her main evidence is a lenghty post that she says was done by "Cameron Reed" over at a message board hosted by some haters of Derrick Hay, the former agent for LA Direct Models and notorious for hiring crossover gay talent to the straight side. The ensuing conversation is, shall we say, illuminating. Snippage:

“I’m proud to be HIV poz! [Cameron Reed speaks!!!]

I got as informed as I could about the disease – I attended the PLUS seminar hosted by the Stop Aids folks here in LA. I also “came out” about my HIV status to friends and my family. I’m fortunate to have a close relationship with my family and knew that as upset as they would be, they’d still love and accept me. For me, keeping my status a secret would have only added to the sense of shame I felt about it and would have cut me off form those close to me.

HIV/AIDS is an epidemic and in epidemics there will be casualties. It’s nobody’s fault that they seroconverted. Sure, I made a lousy decision to not insist on the guy fucking me to use a rubber, but I’m only human and humans make lousy decisions at times.

You say “there’s no way back”. Of course there isn’t. There’s no way back in anything in life. Dwelling on shoulda, woulda, coulda only spins me around in circles. I only have there here and now and I can either choose to make the most of what life has to offer or else wallow in self-pity. I find the fomer works much better than the latter.”

“[responding to an angry person] They are all in this biz and should know the risks. Let them eat HIV if they get it. I took the risks and got burned and will live with it but I feel no remorse on anyone I put in danger. THEY made the choice to become a hooker. I can’t stand people like you and your holier that thou attitude. I should fuck you up the ass while you sleep!”

“You are FUCKING IGNORANT! Yes, I will have to take pills the rest of my life, but I will live a normal lifespan thanks to meds. You are in this biz and you are this UNEDUCATED about HIV? No one wastes away and dies from AIDS anymore IF they are on meds and stay on them.

People don’t know who you are, you moron. You aren’t a household name. No one reads Playboy anymore you asshole.

So now, Derrick's putting up a front of being so proud of being infected, and even wishing an enemy to be infected, too??  Was that as much a performance as the tearful crying jag for AHF...or is it because of the audience??

And then, there is this video that was included from another therad in the Derrick Hay hatefest board, and reposted by Julie at her blog, where "Derick Chambers" (one of Derrick Burts' gay aliases) is interviewed on a porn set with fellow performer "James Jameson" (does Jenna know about this??) where "Derick" practically glows about how he has found himself as a gay porn star. Remember when seeing this that the real Derrick Burts said that he was monogamous outside of his work, and that he just couldn't get infected with HIV because condoms were the rule there. Ahhh...yeah. (Since the clip is kinda NSFW, only a link will be provided; or, you may go to Julie's blog to see it.)

[UD 5-22-12: That anti-Derrick Hay board happened to be XXXFilmJobs.com, which was one of Donny Long's sites. That would be the same Donny Long who was the force behind the original Porn Wikileaks.]

And leave it to Julie to cut through the bullshit and get down to the core of the issue.

I don’t have an opinion of Derrick Burts/Cameron Reid beyond my heartbreak at this entire situation. Why the gay industry doesn’t implement testing I will never understand, but clearly, testing does help. I would also like to point out that the gay community has a support system. The gay industry also has production pools for HIV-positive performers to work with each other. Straight men and women don’t have this kind of support when they test positive. Derrick can continue to work and for many years. The whole thing is just sickening and I’m appalled at AHF’s tactics to undermine the current testing system that should be testing the entire industry and not just one side. There are probably several workable solutions, including condoms, but this is how the discussion begins on that side. Insults, accusations and lies.

My favorite part about the “Derrick speaks for the first time” video on the LA Times website is the argument that AIM claimed he contracted HIV from his personal life, which has nothing to do with their detecting it and preventing him from spreading it, and the fact that the issues are conflated and that the language is vague. “They” don’t want you to wear condoms, after talking about AIM would assume that AIM doesn’t want talent to wear condoms, yet they offer free condoms on the counter at their clinic and have no say in actual production procedures beyond testing the actors, so “they” is the producers. And “barebacking” is a fetish on the gay side. He said that the gay side requires condoms, but that’s not true. Some do not enforce condoms. Everyone in the indsutry knows that a combination of testing and condoms are a great way to go. How that comes to fruition should be the next steps taken, but because AHF, UCLA, Los Anegeles County Department of Health, CalOSHA and their affiliates are more intent on bullying and spanking the industry’s [asses], we are left to stare at the same angry rehashing of a “condom mandate” though they keep saying it’s already mandatory. The problem is that the rules don’t suit the industry (condoms during felatio and goggles and gloves, all from a mandate set for clinics in the early 90s without regard to the specifics about adult work or any input from the people of the industry, which no other industry would ever tolerate), and there is an employee vs. independent contractor issue. Are these people talking about this? No. There is no “discussion.” The adult industry was purposely kept from a “discussion” at UCLA where the only person invited was someone who had never spoken at any of the previous “discussions”. Why? Because they don’t like what the industry has to say, but they have to care because you can’t regulate an industry full of adults without them protesting. You can overwork children on mainstream shoots, you can send them off to pageants and treat them however you like because they don’t have a say, but adults do, and it’s confounding that they would be surprised that adults in a legal industry would have a say in how they run their business. Compromise would be wonderful excapt that these sources are attacking. They don’t care to discuss, they don’t care for facts, they just need the next victim to serve as a mouthpiece for an industry they only intend to conquer and divide.

 My sympathy and my heart goes out to Derrick Burts for getting infected.  But, if he's going to allow himself to be used as a pawn for Michael Weinstein, Shelley Lubben, and those who would deny innocent performers of their rights, then he should be held accountable for his lies and distortions as much as anyone else.

Shelley Lubben's Pink Cross Scam Gets More Exposure...Plus, How AHF, Shelley, and UCLA Almost Pulled Off An "Ambush"

OK...just when you thought things couldn't get more whack concerning the UCLA "conference" on condoms in porn, more facts come piling on.

A blogger named Cameron Rowe has now published what he calls an expose on Shelley Lubben and her organization, The Pink Cross Foundation, basically building on the work of former porn performer Julie Meadows (aka Lydia Lee) in exposing the shadier and slightly less friendly shadows of that org. The first two parts dealt with Lubben's credentials as a porn performer (she lists 30 movies to her credit, but others have reduced that number to only 12); and her creds as a minister (her degree allegedly comes from a "diploma mill" that was once banned and sanctioned in the state of Conneticut, and her ordination is from a group that mostly consists of a "mail drop").

Part 3 goes more into the financial nuts and bolts of the PCF, and it relies heavily on the publically disclosed 2008 and 2009 Federal tax returns that PCF filed in order to maintaiin their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status as a non-profit charitable organization. A sample of Rowe's findings:

 A charity website and a commercial website are not supposed to be a marriage due to IRS rules. However, thepinkcross.net redirects to shelleylubben.com, but only thepinkcross.org is listed on the tax return. On thepinkcross.org, some article does link to shelleylubben’s website and her new book.  Shelley Lubben’s bio on thepinkcross.org does link to her site. 

[...]

The big item on this tax return is that Shelley Lubben took $24,250 in compensation, which is 37.6% of gross receipts. It is the single biggest expense. The charity spent an extremely large $1,971 on financial assistance and gift cards, which is 3.1% of gross receipts. So, based on their accounting, 96.9% was spent on administration.

The better business bureau (BBB) recommends no more than 35% of gross receipts spend on Line 14, 15 of a 990 tax return. The federal government recommends, under CFC (Combined Federal Campaign), only 25%. So, 37.6% is above both the BBB and CFC. Some new charities can be higher if administration and fundraising goes over that percentage. The tax return does not say how much was spent on fundraising.

[....]

The Pink Cross Foundation did lobbying last year but on Section IV, Question 4, they said they didn’t. This is a lie and if they did they have to fill out a Schedule C should be completed and is open to public inspection. This allows the IRS to determine of a charity can retain a 501(c)(3) status. It is known they tried to influence legislation, attended a California subcommittee, or committee, on that proposed legislation. Failure to fill out this form by lying and saying no lobbying was performed could cost them their 501(c)(3) status. Also, if you spend more than 20% of your gross receipts on lobbying, you may have to pay a tax or lose tax-exempt status.

Use of volunteers, mailings, advertising, direct contact with legislators, has to be accounted for on Schedule C. The Pink Cross Foundation did mail at least one legislator since I remember seeing the document. The video of the hearing did have at least one volunteer.

This is a red flag. Of course, if the IRS claimed, “Tax evasion”, Garrett Lubben is responsible since he was listed as the person supposed to sign it. It is interesting the tax return with lies on it wasn’t signed by the President, Shelley Lubben. The 2008 return she signed. On the return, Ms. Lubben claims to be the “president” but is “executive director” on their website. Which is it?

[...]

Does thepinkcross.net belong to Pink Cross or Shelley Lubben? The website address does redirect to shelleylubben.com. According to WHOIS, ownership is hidden. Pink Cross does not appear to be trademarked so this could be legal. However, it really should go to thepinkcross.org not her personal website just for reasons that there is no conflict of interest between a commercial endeavor and a charitable one.

Rowe also hits hard and deep on the PCF's alleged assistance to those former porn performers seeking help getting out. Citing Julie Meadows' revelations on the so-called "Recovery Assistance Program" application, Rowe essentially asks the same questions that Julie and yours truly asked when this first was exposed:

Why not just tell someone up-front you can’t provide something? Most of this they aren’t providing in full anyway. This is a draconian program. Get a job and we’ll help. Give up any money porn owes you or we won’t. So, you got screwed by porn and have to give up the pay? Pardon the pun. Or, and you will be accountable to some mentor of Pink Cross. What does Pink Cross do if you have a spouse in porn but you only want to leave? No idea.

The application also wants your real name, driver’s license, porn star name/names, SSN (why exactly?), DOB, address, know if you are eligible to work in the United States, and know if you have been convicted or pleaded guilty to a felony in the past five (5) years. Needing a copy of your SSN card before they approve you isn’t right. They also want to know what that felony it was as well.

Apparently Shelley and the PCF never heard of the HIPPA law..except when they throw it at AIM when they want to release porn performers' medical records to the authorities for their own purposes.

There is so much more over at Rowe's blog...it makes for a fascinating and troublesome read.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The second big news is that Shelley did manage to post her reassessment of her appearance at the UCLA "condoms in porn" conference.  Needless to say, her version had some interesting deviations from most other's recollection of that debacle.

But before that, we get this from Michael Whiteacre on how the UCLA conference sponsors attempted to cook the debate in their favor by ambusing their critics (posted earlier as a response to my earlier post here):

The organizers of the UCLA School of Law panel ACTIVELY PLOTTED to keep adult industry members away, and I can attest that it is true. This event was not promoted at all. Google and Yahoo searches turned up nothing. I stumbled upon a reference to it in the calendar on Shelley Lubben’s site two days before the event. She listed the name of the event, the location, and gave the start time as 11:00 am. I passed the info on to Free Speech Coalition, and Diane Duke essentially “bullied” her way onto the panel. FSC also alerted AVN. The next day (the day before the event) AVN mentioned the event, and it also popped up on Darrah Ford's blog (listing the start time, correctly, as 11:30 am).

Shelley Lubben must have been told to not promote the event, because after FSC (and AVN) called over to the organizers, citing Shelley’s website as how they heard about it, the start time on Shelley’s site was mysteriously ALTERED to 2:00 pm (which is 50 minutes after he event had to end so that a scheduled class could use the room). That altered start time is still on her website as I write this. I must conclude they called her to complain, and Shelley’s instinct, as usual, was to distort the truth. She takes a kernel of truth, and then twists it to serve her needs.

This panel was plotted as a way for a cabal of likeminded interests to add another all-star meeting to their roster, try out their propaganda on a small test audience, and hopefully get a few quotes to use for self promotion. That I helped out them, and take the fight to them, is a badge of honor for me. But the real praise belongs to Mr. Marcus and Diane Duke, who knowingly walked into a turkey shoot.

Lubben's take on the event was, shall we say, just a bit different. Some excerpts, taken from a comment left at Julie Meadows' blog this morning:

“When questioned on how she knew these consequences came from porn and not her six years of prostitution before she entered porn, Lubben replied, “I never had STDs until I did porn. I had protected sex as a prostitute. I didn’t do as hard of (sex) acts in prostitution. I never did anal until I got to porn.” Although Lubben states unequivocally that prostitution is still horrible, porn is worse.”

“Diane Duke of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) who was there on behalf of the producers defended the industry’s current testing system as ‘remarkable’ but it was pointed out that testing ‘does not prevent anything.’ Current porn star Mr. Marcus, a 17 year veteran of the industry who has appeared in over 50 gangbang movies and who is known for his brutal acts in porn, showed up to defend the industry – yet in a meeting that was filled with testimony of violence against women and damage to the reproductive health of women, it was hardly convincing.”

“No other porn performers showed up to defend the industry – which is the norm for public debates. Why do porn actors rarely show up? There have been several state and local meetings in the last two years and yet only a handful of porn stars have ever showed up. Mainly producers and lawyers for the industry show up at these meetings. Why is that?

“Mr. Marcus spoke of a need for ‘more education’ in the industry. We agree on that point. No woman should go into porn on the false promise that they will be kept safe, or that the porn industry is concerned about the health and safety of their employees. They say they are, but their actions speak otherwise. Just two weeks ago, Diane Duke wrote an article in the adult industry trade magazine titled, “FSC: On the Forefront of Fighting for Your Bottom Line.”

“Who is fighting for the health and safety of these people? Certainly not the industry. But we will! Not only that, Pink Cross demands that the entire industry be shutdown until it is in compliance with state law. The current workplace health and safety laws must be enforced. The porn industry is currently operating illegally. We also know that the porn industry is full of rampant disease and thrives on illegal activity such as drug trafficking, prostitution and brutality against women.”

I really don't know what's funnier or more pathetic: Lubben attempting to spin the deliberate attempt to stone her critics as a legitimate debate; her slanderous attack on Mr. Marcus as "known for his brutal acts in porn", as if his real reputation as one of the most woman-friendly and pro-pleasure performers means nothing at all; or, her smack about porn being a haven for "drug trifficking, prostitution, and brutality against women"....and full of "rampant disease", completely discounting her own history as sex worker who regularly practiced unsafe and possibly illegal sex practices on her own both before and after her short lived career as a porn actress.

Of course, this is the same Shelley Lubben who regularly  blows out faked-up stats like "90% of all women in porn are diseased and prostituted" and who gleefully prints nonsense like "[..] ...porn starlet Nina Hartley, whom has contracted clamydia 4 times in her career....' ; as if her 12 videos and the backing of "God" can overcome 26 YEARS and actual activism for safer sex and authentic women's pleasure.

Oh...and Shelley??  Nina's bachelors degree in nursing from San Francisco State is REAL. Don't hate.

The Great HIV Porn Scare: All Bark, No Bite...Again (Also, Exposing Shelley Lubben's Fraudulent Scam)

I am so sorry that I couldn't get to this when all the drama originally took place...but I was preoccupied with other things.

But, now that it seems that yet another supposed HIV pandemic in porn has been proven to be total nonsense and greatly overhyped, I guess that it's now time to serve some crow to some people.

For those who may not have noted, last July the California porn world was in total chaos because it was leaked that one of their performers had tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That set off all the usual hysteria, with porn sets shut down while all the primary and secondary sex partners of the poor afflicted performer (dubbed as "Patient Zets") were tested as per normal procedure by the Adult Industry Medical Foundation, which is basically the official testing organization for the California-based porn industry.

Unfortunately, because this latest scare took place only one year after a similar panic when a female performer was tested positive; the flameout in rhetoric was even more extrreme, with most signs pointing to the breach of the system as the final proof they needed to condemn AIM and promote alternatives...up to and including mandatory condoom usage by all porn performers. Even worse, though, was that "Patient Zeta" also was reported to be a bisexual male who performed gay porn on the side...which added the additional spark of homophobia into the mix as well.

Not surprisingly, plenty of the usual suspects took to the airwaves to decry this ultimate failure of the system. The officios at the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) mined the latest "outbreak" news to reinstated their position that porn sets needed to be fully regulated and performers forced to use condoms as a means of protection and "role modeling" the general public. The biggest and loudest voice, though, came from a group called the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose founder and chief spokesman, Michael Weinstein, had long been a fierce foe of AIM and its alleged "monopoly" on STI testing and protection. Weinstein used his microphome and his organization to publically attempt to humiliate AIM and force the LA and Cali authorities to seize power and force mandatory condom usage (and his own testing regime) on the industry carte blanche, citing the potential for a major pandemic among porn performers.

And it would have probably worked, too....except for one small problem.  The pandemic never happened.


Like it didn't happen last year, either.

One month after the Great 2010 HIV Porn Scare began, it ended....with a whimper.

In a not-unexpected announcement today, Vivid Entertainment, one of the world's leading adult producers, said that it is set to resume movie production on Monday, November 8, after being shut down for almost a month because of health safety concerns.

The move was apparently triggered by the announcement yesterday from the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation that the final actress who could possibly have contracted HIV from the performer now known as "Patient Zeta" has been cleared after the second round of PCR-DNA testing, and has been allowed to resume her acting career.

"The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation has completed testing of two generations of partners of Patient Zeta, from both personal and professional life," AIM General Manager Jennifer Miller said today. "All persons tested negative for HIV on two occasions, using multiple testing methods. It has been established that Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity and there was no transmission of the HIV virus from Patient Zeta to anyone else."

"This event affirms the efficacy of AIM Healthcare Foundation’s testing protocols, as voluntarily implemented by the adult entertainment industry," she continued. "It is regrettable but inevitable that people continue to acquire the HIV virus in their personal life. The protocols and other industry practices have resulted in only one incident of HIV transmission on set in more than a decade. That is a remarkable record. AIM Healthcare Foundation is proud of its contribution to the health and well-being of the adult industry and wider community."

Of course, the fact that their dreams of exploiting the "outbreak" for political purposes had been dashed by actual facts weren't going to stop the "push condoms" and "smash AIM" folks from fighting the not-so-good fight. In the midst of the crisis, when it was still possible that things could get hairy, Weinstein's group AHF and the Cal-OSHA people were quite busy attempting to impose their will. They unsuccessfully attempted to browbeat the Los Angeles Metro City Council to suspend all licenses for shooting porn in the Greater LA area. They attempted -- just as unsuccessfully -- to use the courts to force AIM to reveal the identities of "Patient Zeta" and all of her partners through their confidential medical records...while simultaneaously claiming that having AIM release the results of their testing to porn production companies violeted the HIPPA law regarding public release of private medical records.

But mostly, they attempted to use the media to browbeat the industry into submissiveness. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for us), their delivery system was more than a bit flawed.

Which brings us one more time to that ongoing saga of: Shelley Lubben, Off The Chain.

Yes, our favorite ex-porn, ex-slut ministress is on her soapbox again. Apparently, the folks at AHF have decided that Shelley Lubben should become the official voice for those poor, benighted, abused, diseased, prostituted, and infected women unfortunate enough not to be able to speak for themselves against the Big, Bad Male Porn Grinding Machine. At least, those women for whom her Pink Cross Foundation ministry exploits greatly to pay for all of her makeup and travel....errrrrrrrrrrrr, to minister the glory of God and save them from a hard and brutal life.

Now, one would normally wonder how an agency like AHF who originates atourn advocacy for HIV+ folk -- many of whom happen to be gay men -- would be doing sharing the dais with the likes of Ministress Lubben, whose ministry does seem to have more than a glancing taste of the homophobia. When big money in presumed federal contracts to prooffer testing services supplemented by the potential payoff in condom sales from folks like Durex and Trojan, combines with Shelley's continuous desire for the public spotlight and a nice book deal....well, let's just say that greed makes for strange bedfellows.

The problem is, though, that giving someone as whack as Shelley Lubben the microphone is a dangerous thing. Ask the people at UCLA.

Just this week, they decided to hold what they considered a roundtable discussion on the issue of STI's in porn and the effectiveness of condoms and whether they should be mandated. Representing the "condoms must be mandatory" side: Paula Tavrow of the UCLA School of Public Health, Whitney Engeran-Cordova of AHF, Peter Kerndt of the LA County Health STD program, and Shelley Lubben as "one of the world's leading advocates for women in the adult industry". (More on that lie anon.) Repping the other side: Mr. Marcus, long time Black male porn legend and.....Diane Duke of the Free Speech Coalition. (The latter was a late add to make the panel seem less "fair and balanced".)

Yes, this panel was about as balanced as a FOX News Sunday panel discussion....and Shelley was on her Michelle Bachmann-caliber finest tear that day. Michael Whiteacre was at the conference, and just so happened to videotape some of Lubben's special whackiness. First, the written synopsis, courtesy of AVN:

Lubben, whose website hawks her new book allegedly based on her brief experiences in the industry, and who asked her supporters for their "fervent prayers" about her appearance on the panel, spoke next, and much of what she said was laced with her usual inaccuracies and outright fabrications.

"I worked in the industry in the years 1993 to 1994," she told the audience. "I was forced to have unprotected sex." (See, she chose to work in the industry, but she was forced to have unprotected sex, though she must have known that virtually no companies shot condom porn in the early '90s.)

Lubben launched into a long list of medical problems she claims stemmed from her brief porn career (as opposed to her years working as a prostitute) and also claimed she was "brutally raped on the set when I contacted herpes in a six-man gangbang." (This would have been Filmco's Roxy – A Gang Bang Fantasy, but of course, Lubben never filed rape charges against anyone connected with that movie.)

"Women on the set have no advocate on a mostly male set, and are threatened by porn producers and agents," she continued. "In order to get women to agree to these things, they're given alcohol and drugs and even sent to local doctors to get prescription medicine like Xanax and Vicodin... All this is documented proof."

To accompany her talk, Lubben also made available several handouts, one of which references notorious gossip and liar Luke Ford, who collected industry-bashing quotes from several actresses prior to his leaving the porn-gossip business several years ago. Yet another handout, titled "Backgrounder," contains lies such as that "90% [of porn employees] are child sexual abuse survivors," "66% to 99% of pornography performers are reported with Herpes, a non-curable disease," and "25 HIV cases by performers reported by Adult Industry Medical Healthcare since 2004."

And in case you need the visual to match.... (thank you, Michael Whiteacre):

Former porn performer turned fundamentalist Christian anti-porn activist Shelley Lubben addressing the UCLA "Condoms in Porn" discussion (via YouTube, h/t MichaelWhiteacre)

There are facts...and then there are Lubben Facts. The Free Speech Coalition website post on the UCLA meeting clearly explains the difference.

In fact, the audience could have learned a lot about sexually transmitted infections from the panelists today. Instead, the focus was on statistics for adult industry performers that LACPH has “gathered” from Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM), since the AIM clinic is required to share data with the county. But how many people in the audience recalled that last year, after a performer was diagnosed with HIV, that LACPH claimed, since 2004, there have been as many as 22 cases of HIV in the performing population? The LA Times later retracted the statistic, presumably because it’s not verifiable. But by then, it was too late to stop the spread of misinformation.

No one on the panel spoke more about STIs than Pink Cross’ Lubben, who issued a laundry list of diseases that she claims she contracted “while working in porn,” including herpes, HPV, as well as “extensive reproductive damage,” 12 years of hemorrhaging and severe anemia, due to unprotected sex that she was forced to have on adult production sets. She used the word “rape” liberally to describe her on-set experiences. She also claimed to have contracted HPV during a gangbang shoot with four male performers. Lubben also claims that 66% of adult performers have herpes and that 111 adult industry members have died from AIDS – without citing the statistical sources for this information.

When an audience member forced the question to Lubben, that she had been a prostitute for six years prior to being in her first adult movie (and during her time as a performer, and after she retired from performing), Lubben replied that she had always had “protected sex” as a prostitute, but was “forced” to not use a condom on-set.

Well, here are some FACTS about various STIs from the Centers for Disease Control website:

• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is so common, at least 50% of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.

• For those that choose to be sexually active, condoms may lower the risk of HPV… But HPV can infect areas not covered with a condom – so condoms may not fully protect against HPV.

• Results of a nationally representative study show that genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, 16.2%, or about one out of six, people 14 to 49 years of age have genital HSV-2 infection.

And that’s the thing – the only way to fight ignorance is with facts.

Yeah, right...and Nina Hartley "contracted chalmydia four times during her career". Of 26 years. (That's more YEARS than you have SCENES, Shelley. Almost TWICE AS MANY, in fact. Scoreboard sucks, doesn't it??) At, least, that's what Ministress Shelley says. I mean, clearly a woman who has performed all of 24....no, check that, 12 videos in one nine month blitz, and who was an active prostitute who has openly claimed in other venues to have unprotected sex and bave contracted everything BUT HIV from her prostitution endevors, is clearly more capable for speaking for all women in porn than a 24 year vet who happens to have a Bachelors degree in nursing, and whom has written several books and made many videos on safer sex and avoiding STI's. Yeah, Shelley...Nina's your bitch, all right.

Oh, but let's save that potential Hartley vs. Lubben ass kicking (figurative, that is) for a future fantasy. Right now,  porn women with even half of Nina's legacy can still run world laps around Shelley, and still have enough wind to boot her illogical, fanatical ass into orbit. While I've previously mentioned Monica Foster and Kayden Kross and Vicky Vette who have thouroughly debunked the stupidity and outright lies and slander of the Ministeress, it is still Julie Meadows (aka Lydia Lee) whom has done the most in public service in exposing the rancid lies of Shelley Lubben to the bright light of sunshine. Today in her blog, Julie fires yet one more Truth volley into the Lubben House of Bullshit, using Shelley's own words to impale. It started as a comment to the FSC site, then exploded into a blog entry at Meadows' own  blog. I'll simply repost it in its magnificent entirity.

“Shelley Lubben’s website from “Way Back Time Machine” 2008:
http://www.shelleylubben.com/former-porn-star-shelley-lubben

“God also restored my femininity and healed my sexuality, which is a MAJOR miracle for me. After doing prostitution and porn I lost ability to function sexually. The fact that I can enjoy a healthy sexual relationship now is an absolute miracle!! God also healed me of the non-curable disease herpes. I was part of a special military study for pregnant women with herpes in 1996 and when I was tested they said I couldn’t be in the study because there was no herpes virus in my blood. The test came back negative! I also am cancer free as the doctors were able to remove all the cervical cancer. He’s Jehovah-Rophe the God that heals us!”

YouTube – “EX-PORN STAR SHELLEY LUBBEN, THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FANTASY OF PORN – PORNHARMS.COM BRIEFING”, Uploaded June 17, 2010

“As a survivor of the porn industry, I contracted human papillomavirus, and herpes, a non-curable disease, which later led to my battle with cervical cancer, where I had to have half of my cervix removed. I also battled with severe anemia due to the hemorrhaging I experienced for twelve years. In fact, I’m still battling with damages to my reproductive organs.”

YouTube – “JESUS SWOOPS DOWN ON HOWARD STERN: EX PORN STAR SHELLEY LUBBEN VISITS 2/2”, Uploaded November 9, 2010

“Shelley Lubben: God told me he healed me and I haven’t had an outbreak in over fifteen years, my kids are herpes-free, so, you know what, I just turned to God and he healed me in all these areas of my life. I mean, he’s practical.”

Shelley Lubben: Of course. Like, you could, you could swing a deal anywhere. Any, literally, and uh… and then one, and then this man, he, he um, he bled on my face and it really frightened me, so… um…
Robin Quivers: Bled on your face? How does that, wha?
Howard Stern: He bled on your face? What was, what was that about?
SL: Well, I don’t know. All I know was it scared the hell outta me.
HS: Where was the blood coming from?
SL: His penis.

Howard Stern: Uh, an Asian guy banged you for money, got you pregnant. How did that happen, his rubber break or something?
Shelley Lubben: In all honesty, um, it did. Condoms will leak and break.
HS: Right.
SL: And I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve had plenty of sex to know that condoms aren’t enough protection but they’re better than no protection.

YouTube – “SHELLEY LUBBEN SPEAK TRUTH ABOUT PORN INDUSTRY”
Uploaded June 4, 2008

“And, as you know in the industry we do not, there’s not, we don’t use condoms. And so, every single day we live in fear that we’re going to catch a sexually transmitted disease or worse, HIV. Everyday we lived, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, who slept with who?’ And um, I got burned. I caught genital herpes and I thought I was going to die. It’s absolutely the worst thing, it’s the most shameful… I had dealt with so much shame already. This was terrible. And I quietly left the porn industry.”

“I slept with Hollywood directors, actors, singers, I helped contribute to America’s epidemic of herpes. 66% of porn actors and actresses are carriers. 28% have chlamydia and gonorrhea and 7% have HIV. It’s a huge problem. And what we do is when we’re porn stars we’re also prostitutes. We fly around the country and sleep with people for lots of money because they’re our fans. And so then we have unprotected sex with them, of course.”

YouTube – “EX PORN STAR TELLS THE HARDCORE TRUTH ABOUT PORN”
Uploaded January 2, 2008

“And this is how pathetic is was, I used to sell my breast milk for five and ten bucks inside guy’s coffees just to get money for me and my daughter. That’s my pathetic lifestyle in the sex industry and it’s not just me. I don’t care how glamorous these, I see the porn stars, we all had to work our way to the top. We all started out on the street or in escort agency or prostitution. We’ve all been bled upon. We’ve all been smacked around. We’ve all had guys rip condoms on us on purpose. We’ve been through hell. Vietnam Vets, could probably be comparable to what we’ve been through. That’s why we’re tough. We had to tough it out. I’ve had men try to kill me, stalk me, I was driving a motorcycle and some guy took his truck and hit me. Cuz see we’d b.s. ‘em a lot. They don’t like that. I’d have different engagement wedding rings n so I was in my pockets trying to remember which guy gave me which one.”

She states how much more dangerous the adult industry is after stating that, as a prostitute, she was bled upon, stalked, that clients tried to murder her. She repeatedly sites every porn star as being mentally ill though she does not have the education and credentials to diagnosis anyone’s medical situation. She touts only the professional ability to teach and counsel in Christian-[r]elated studies. In fact, her “degree” does not transfer to any accredited college and it is listed on the Consumer Fraud Reporting website as an unaccredited school, prefacing their list with this statement:

“All schools below are considered by the state of Oregon’s and other U.S. and international standards to be UNACCREDITED. Many are scams, a few may be decent schools, but ALL are without accreditation, something most sensible people would say is a starting point to obtain a quality education and a degree that will be broadly accepted and respected.”
So the catchphrase “Get The Facts” that is splattered all over Shelley’s personal website and Pink Cross Foundation’s website only applies to other people and not her? Really??? Someone please explain to me how that makes any sense whatsoever. Does she need the definition of the word “fact” read to her?

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Education_Degree_Scams_Unaccreddited.php

Lovely how the reporting at Luke Is Back fails to mention how last-minute the meeting was and that the adult industry was all but squeezed out of the discussion. Thank you for actually providing some insight into this event.”

And it's only getting worse now for Ministeress Shelley....a blogger named Cameron Rowe has just opened a blog where he is currently engaging in an expose of Madame Lubben's more...shall we say, outspoken statements. His allegations include these nice tidbits: (1) that Shelley was really a madam when she turned 18 and she was pregnant through her clients rather than through porn; (2) that her degree in Christian ministry is really from a well known "diploma mill" that was so damaged that it waas banned from the state of Conneticut; and (3) that her ordination as a Christian minister is actually just as bogus, having come from an orginization (Order of St. Martin) consisting only of an Irvine, California address and nothing else.

Question for Mike Weinstein and the other folk at AHF: Do you really, really want to sully your campaign with someone like THIS???


[Note: Also crossposted over at The SmackDog Chronicles and at my new Red Garter Club 3.0 blogs]

Another HIV Porn Scare: Shall We Dance The Same Tune Again??

So, once again, we have a panic in Porn Valley.

A performer tested positive for HIV last week, and all his primary and secondary contacts are now being tested, with the results pending.

And, the usual suspects, on cue, are chirping the same tune as last year about mandating condom usage.

Unfortunately, this time around, there is a distinctly more vicious tone to the debate, because the potential "Patient Zero" just so happens to be bisexual, and has been rumored to cross over into the making of gay male porn as well.  So now, we get gay bashing on top of the ususal shit-throwing debacle.

The reactions are already fast and furious. Many performers, including some A-listers like Lisa Ann, have now instituted explicit condom-only rules for their future scenes; others (like Avy Scott) have gone further and announced that they would eschew boy/girl scenes altogether.(It should be known, though, that Avy made her decision before everything went down.)

As with last year, the debate has been reenergized over whether AIM-MED has squandered its last chance of protection and whether the government should step in and impose the Weinstein program of mandated condom usage and alternative testing. Of course, the fear that such regulation would be the final blow to porn production in California (and, to a lesser extent, Florida) due to collapse of sales already depressed due to piracy and the recession, is the gravest concern of most porn performers and producers.

On the other hand, one person's fear is another one's opportunity: and some sex-positive intellectuals and activists, as well as even a few porn pros on both sides of the camera, may see the resulting storm as a silver lining that finally liberates  porn production to become more humane and progressive.

The dilemma here, as it always has been since we have had these panics, is balancing the well-meaning aims of those who want to provide the maximum protection for performers with those who don't necessarily see condoms as the end-all cure-all for STD prevention,  and would much rather have a say in their own profession.

As for BPPA's position on this issue??  Well, it remains the same as it has been...Ernest Greene's original rebuttal to the last scare in 2009 that was posted here remains as solid today as it was then.(I will add a link to that particular post and the ensuing comment thread it instigated to the sidebar here soon for easy access.)

But the best case against simply throwing condoms around as the ultimate panacea without actually listening to those who would have to actually use them comes from none other than Nina Hartley, who posted this at her website forum in response to similar calls last year:

[...]

Since then, the usual talking heads have gotten their panties in a wad about how Porn Sets Bad Example For The Viewing Public, and Porn Is A Menace To All Who Work In It, and Those Poor Women Who End Up In Porn: What Shall We Do To Save Them?

For the best response to all of this, do a search for "the blog for pro-porn activism," and read the 5,000 word essay that Ernest so generously took the time to write. It tells it like it is much better than I can, so why duplicate work? It won't take long to read, trust me.

In a nutshell, performers as a rule don't care for condoms for several reasons. For most of the men (with few exceptions), condoms make for a very-much-more difficult scene; just one more huge distraction to add to the host of other ones on the set: uncomfortable set, no chemistry with the female player, asshole director, late/early hours, too hot/cold, bad food, personal issues, etc.

For the women, there are just four words: rubber rash/friction burn. Not only do I have to work harder for him to feel anything, the scene takes much longer to get through, with the changing out of condoms, needing to give the guy a break and suck him again, and the total passion-killer that is on-set condom use. It's hard enough to create a real connection, so the scene doesn't feel to the viewer like we faxed it in, on a set as it is. If all of our energy is focused on our working parts, there is none left over to actually connect and show a spark, which is what the people at home want to see.

There are a few men who are voluntarily condom-only and so have little trouble with them, and their work is cut by 2/3, at least.

I know it sounds harsh, but it's not porn's job to set a good example to the viewing public. It's an entertainment medium like anything else out of Hollywood, and mainstream entertainment is not held up as needing somehow to set a good example. It's a shame that our country does such a piss-poor job of educating its young people so that they're driven to view porn to try to get a clue about sex. Except when a movie is expressly done as education-the Guides, Tristan Taormino's movies, etc., their job is to arouse and entertain, period.

I hate it when those who are made uncomfortable by sex or porn project their issues onto our business.

Porn is pretty safe. If a player says "no" to the most egregiously stupid acts (cream pies, whether anal or vaginal), then he or she is unlikely to get a deadly disease at work. People do get the non-lethal ones, but they get treated, as do their partners, and they get to work again when their new test comes back clean.

Of all of the dead porn stars on the Dead Porn Star site, most have died from auto accidents.

And then, there is Belladonna, who adds her nickel's worth on the responsibility of porn performers to protect themselves:

[...]

First of all, I’d like to say that I am thankful that the adult industry has become exceptionally safer since I first started performing back in 1999. Back then, testing for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea was not required, which I found to be ridiculous since those were the most common STDs. However, I do believe that if the 30 day window were shortened to at MOST, 7 days, we could BETTER prevent the spread of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, not to mention HIV.

Since I started testing people that I have sex with 3 days prior to our engagement, it has been over 5 years since I’ve contracted Chlamydia or Gonorrhea. I knowingly caught over a handful of performers with STDs by using this rule. As a female in this industry, I can say it feels DAMN good to not have to spend every week at the doctor’s office clearing up an STD and being out of work. I feel like I’m more excited about having sex and performing, knowing that I’m going to be STD free. I also think it would be smart for new performers in the business to be required to get a full panel test, prior to performing, not only for themselves to see where they stand, but for our industry as well. I think a lot of performers get into the business and already have the herpes virus and don’t know about it and then try to blame it on the industry.

Performers in this business need to be safer when having sexual relations OUTSIDE of the industry. They need to be more responsible with safe sex because they DO know more than the average person when it comes to STDs and safe sex. If this were happening, the spread of STDs inside the business would be a fraction of what it is now. As for condoms, personally, I can only be as safe as I can be without diminishing the value of what I’m trying to accomplish. Condoms just don’t feel good to suck on, or to take in the ass, hard and fast. If I were required to use condoms, my performance would most likely suffer, and in the end I would suffer. I’m not trying to debate with anyone here, I’m just saying, if my co-workers were more responsible, we could all make some great porn and be STD free at the same time.

Now, the prevailing attitude of those wanting mandatory condom usage would probably be that women like Nina and Belladonna are merely elitists and paid shills for "the industry" who really don't give a damn about the risks of other female performers (and, if the likes of Shelley Lubben are to be believed, are in denial about the risks to themselves...as Lubben's recent crackback -- referenced here -- about Nina "being infected with chlamydia four times" in her porn career shows).

My response to that would simply be: Well...better them who have to take the risk themselves than those who simply talk about it. It's their asses and pussies and mouths that are on the line, now isn't it??

Oh...and one other thing: The only response that will be allowed here for "Patient Zero" regarding his sexual orientation is empathy and support. Those who will exploit this situation to spread unconfirmed rumors or vent their homophobia and rants about the "gay menace" simply will get no love or even bandwidth here. Until the actual test results are made public, the best thing is to wait and see, and make the necessary precautions.