Of all of the byproducts of the latest porn scares, the most obvious has been the historical lack of organization by performers to fight for their rights and their profession.
Earlier attempts at worker organization, such as the Pink Ladies Social Club of the 1980's, tended to fail on the same factors that haunted earlier organizations: the transient nature of porn work, and the fear from the producers of "unionization", where performers could collectively attempt to gain a larger share of the profits and proceeds from their work, as well as improved benefits and workplace conditions.
However, in the wake of the latest round of porn scares and activism to protect the free choice of performers, a new attempt at forming an activist group for performers is now arising with what they see as a different approach.
The Adult Performers Association is the brainchild of Nica Noelle, a former performer turned director, who was radicalized into action by the latest HIV porn scare and the strength of performers turning out to defend themselves against the threat of the condom mandate and the existing testing regime. Her primary goal, as noted by the organization's newly built website, is to provide alternative health services and other benefits that are typically provided by other worker organizations to its members, and to speak out for the freedom of choice and more flexible options for health care and privacy protection for porn performers.
Their "Core Metrics" page provides a nice summary of the kind of activism they would provide to their members, including:
-- a greater choice in choosing their testing facilities
-- a focus on education and mentoring for entry-level performers, and a system of etiquette and protocols for talent-producer relationships
-- balancing the goal of standardized testing for STI's with freedom of choice for performers in where and with whom they are tested with
-- a focus on retaining performer privacy protection
-- a development of a performers-only forum for feedback and discourse
The development of APA, though, has not been without some controversy. While the reaction by most performers has been greatly positive, there have been some degree of grumbling behind the scenes that the prime motivation for APA might be a backhanded slap towards the Free Speech Coalition, which remains the principal activist organization for the industry, and its Adult Production Health and Safety Services (APHSS) database, which serves to replace the previous testing regime formerly adjucated by Adult Industry Medical Foundation (AIM).
Nica Noelle, along with porn performer January Seraph -- who was also instrumental in the founding of APA -- had often been more than a bit critical of the FSC for not doing more to protect performer privacy, especially concerning the security of the APHSS database. In addition, Nica had been critical of FSC for what she saw during the latest HIV in porn scare as an unwarranted attack on Talent Testing Services, the independent agency whose testing of "Patient Alpha" had been called into question by APHSS after they obtained the services of "PA". (TTS had originally been the go-to replacement for testing after AIM was put out of business, but they were eclipsed by APHSS; also, TTS had refused to join APHSS' network of testing sites, choosing to stick with their own system.) By contrast, performers such as Darryl Hanah and spokespeople such as Michael Whiteacre have responded in defense of APHSS and FSC, resulting in some heated exchanges. For the record, though, Nica and January have praised APHSS for their inclusion of active performers in their organization...especially the inclusion of Nina Hartley as their Educational Advisor.
This organization is still in its budding stages, and it remains to be seen whether it can overcome the usual obstacles that has blocked every other attempt to unite and organize the vast diaspora of adult performers. Considering what's at stake, however, it is more than worth giving it a chance to succeed.
A sanctuary for supporters of sexual free expression and the adult sexual media.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
One Important Reason Why We Exist: Tay Stevens' War On Cancer (And How You Can Help Her And Others Kick The Hell Out Of It)
This may be a bit of a tangent from what we normally do here at BPPA, but considering the importance of the message, I figured that now was a good time as any.
If there is anything that this blog stands for, it is the humanity of those who take the risks to work and live as erotic performers. It's very easy to see the glamorous side, with all the pretty faces and stacked bodies...and of course, all that smiley, happy, monkey sex goings on. It's not so easy to see the human beings behind the orgasms, the nakedness, the erections or erect clits. But, porn performers and erotic models, like most other regular people, have lives far beyond the webcam or the screen; and they suffer through the slings and arrows of life just as regular "civilians" do.
And, just as occasionally, they can get hit with the life-changing blows that test their ultimate courage and will to live.
Like, for instance, the body blow that erotic model/Internet big-breasted model Taylor Stevens is attempting to beat down right now.
On New Year's Eve of last year, Tay was found to have been diagnosed with lymphoma, a particularly dangerous and potentially lethal form of cancer. After a variety of tests and verifications, she is now undergoing radiation treatment to treat her sickness.
Most people would simply knuckle under to such a fate, and simply wait for the inevitable Grim Reaper to befall them.
Thankfully, Tay isn't most people...she's decided to go on an all out assault to survive this disease, through not only full treatment, but also education and support for all whom have suffered from not only cancer in general, but lymphoma in particular. She's still doing her regular online shows via her fan club site PlayWithTay.com, and she's still active with her fans via her Twitter page (@TAYSTEVENS).
However, for this month, which happens to be her birthday month as well as National Lymphoma Month, she has decided to go above and beyond the call of duty and mount a campaign in support of research and even towards a possible cure for lymphoma.
To that end, Tay has produced a video that is currently running at both her blog and her YouTube channel where she updates people on her condition, and puts the call out for support and education on lymphoma and the efforts for an ultimate cure. It's a testimonial to her strength in the face of calamity, as well as her inner beauty.
I'll simply repost the video here and allow you to see for yourself.
If there is anything that this blog stands for, it is the humanity of those who take the risks to work and live as erotic performers. It's very easy to see the glamorous side, with all the pretty faces and stacked bodies...and of course, all that smiley, happy, monkey sex goings on. It's not so easy to see the human beings behind the orgasms, the nakedness, the erections or erect clits. But, porn performers and erotic models, like most other regular people, have lives far beyond the webcam or the screen; and they suffer through the slings and arrows of life just as regular "civilians" do.
And, just as occasionally, they can get hit with the life-changing blows that test their ultimate courage and will to live.
Like, for instance, the body blow that erotic model/Internet big-breasted model Taylor Stevens is attempting to beat down right now.
On New Year's Eve of last year, Tay was found to have been diagnosed with lymphoma, a particularly dangerous and potentially lethal form of cancer. After a variety of tests and verifications, she is now undergoing radiation treatment to treat her sickness.
Most people would simply knuckle under to such a fate, and simply wait for the inevitable Grim Reaper to befall them.
Thankfully, Tay isn't most people...she's decided to go on an all out assault to survive this disease, through not only full treatment, but also education and support for all whom have suffered from not only cancer in general, but lymphoma in particular. She's still doing her regular online shows via her fan club site PlayWithTay.com, and she's still active with her fans via her Twitter page (@TAYSTEVENS).
However, for this month, which happens to be her birthday month as well as National Lymphoma Month, she has decided to go above and beyond the call of duty and mount a campaign in support of research and even towards a possible cure for lymphoma.
To that end, Tay has produced a video that is currently running at both her blog and her YouTube channel where she updates people on her condition, and puts the call out for support and education on lymphoma and the efforts for an ultimate cure. It's a testimonial to her strength in the face of calamity, as well as her inner beauty.
I'll simply repost the video here and allow you to see for yourself.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Porn Panic 2011: The Climax: FSC/APHSS Clears The Air On "Patient Alpha" Testing Process And Debunks Nasty Rumormongering
"Once a rumor spreads...the truth becomes the thing of the past."
-- Olivia Newton-John ("The Rumor", ["The Rumor",1988])
The thing about moral sex panics is that sometimes, when fear mixes with uncertaincy, it becomes possible for information not verified by real facts to be put out. This misinformation, whether accidental or deliberate, can really mess with the minds of the people affected the most in the panic, and even when legitimate attempts to seek the truth are taken, the rumor can take a life of its own and multiply itself for days. If not mitigated quickly, the damage of one exploding rumor/lie can do tremendous damage even long after it can be debunked by actual facts.
Fortunately, even the nastiest rumor can be quashed if the facts are made available as soon as possible, and clear-headed, sensible minds can be called on to relieve the frayed nerves of those seeking to separate facts from fiction. The best way to quash a rumor has always been to directly confront it from the beginning and not allow it to build up momentum to begin with. The absolute WORST way, on the other hand, is to simply be quiet and wish that a rumor would go away on its own.
Thankfully, in the case of the latest HIV porn scare, the people over at the Free Speech Coalition's Adult Production Health and Safety Services (APHSS) understand how to break rumors, and today they did the adult entertainment industry a much valued service in the face of one of the nastiest rumors recently raised against them.
The background, of course, is the most recent scare that a performer in Florida had been alleged to have tested "positive" two weeks ago for HIV (the virus most responsible for AIDS). News of that particular spread, and the subsequent fear that he had potentially compromised 13 other performers while mitigating and verifying that initial test, sent shock waves through the industry, especially considering it was the third consecutive year in which a performer had been tested "positive" for HIV...although, in the two previous cases in 2009 and 2010, it was found that no other performer was infected and that the original infections took place outside of porn production.
The latest "outbreak" had prompted and reenforced calls by some of the usual suspects (AHF spokesperson Mike Weinstein, ex-porn starlet turned fundie Christian activist Shelley Lubben, and some officials at the California branch of the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (Cal/OSHA) for mandatory condom usage in all porn shoots. The belief was that the consecutive outbreaks had proven one and for all that system of using testing to contain and screen out HIV+ people from performing in porn had utterly failed and that only mandated condom usage would better "protect" the performers.
And it probably would have worked, too...except that last week, the FSC, using its newly built APHSS system (which was designed to replace the system that had been adjucated by the former group Adult In Medical Foundation (AIM), which was effectively driven out of business last year due to a series of nuisance lawsuits bankrolled by AHF), managed to retest "Patient Alpha" using their own protocols...which resulted in a NEGATIVE test result for HIV this time around. (As you will see later on, the original tests were not from facilities under the APHSS umbrella, but from independent facilities not having the type of tests or the protocols that AIM or APHSS uses.) The announcement of the negative test can be found here.
Based on that info, APHSS announced back then that a week-long moratorium that had been imposed on porn production when the initial "reactive" test was revealed could now be lifted, and that further tests to reinforce and verify the most recent negative tests would be done on "Patient Alpha" and all of his first- and second-generation partners.
That by itself should have ended the panic right there.
Problem was, though, forces that were either quite skeptical or outright opposed to FSC's efforts, as well as the natural tendency of rumor mongering to take place, were not willing to bury this case...and they set in motion this weekend an alternative conspiracy theory implying that the FSC/APHSS was either mortally wrong or simply the tip of a horrendous coverup.
Ground Zero for the rumor was a blog by former performer Michael Vegas, who put out the notion that FSC was hiding the true nature of the tests done on Patient Alpha. Using as "sources" emails he claimed he got from a "PersonX" whom either knew Patient Alpha or whom had gotten the testing info from Talent Testing Services, Inc. (one of the other testing companies whom had initially tested Patient Alpha before APHSS got a hold of him), Vegas used an supposed email exchange between "PersonX" and an executive of Manwin, Inc. (the parent company of Brazzers.com, the porn production company for whom Patient Alpha was alleged to have worked), to belt out the following conspiracy theory:
1) PA allegedly had three straight "positive" HIV tests.
2) The three straight positive tests were allegedly all PCR-DNA tests, which were supposed to be the most reliable in detecting early sero-infection of the HIV virus.
3) The negative test used by APHSS to clear PA was (just as allegedly, according to Vegas) the ELISA test, an older test that is more reliable for detecting more developed sero-infections, but less so for new infections due to the latent period where antibodies can be cloaked within the bloodstream without detection (the period is usually 30-60 days).
4) How can APHSS clear PA based on the ELISA test which is less unreliable, especially when three PCR tests still came up "positive"??
5) Therefore, something's not right here (according to Vegas), and either APHSS is lying about the negative test and deliberately covering up an infected performer threatening others, or Manwin/Brazzers is allowing an infected performer to continue to work.
A few other commentators then spread the story around the porn gossip grapevine, raising thoughts of anything from accident to outright coverup, and even stating that this proved AHF's point that APHSS shouldn't be trusted and that only AHF's position for mandatory condom usage was the most doable position.
Of course, those who actually knew a thing or five about the testing process would attempt to chime in that the ELISA test is NEVER used as a follow up verification test exactly because of its latency window, or that it would be a serious violation of medical privacy laws for anyone to reveal testing results to any other person other than the patient without a waiver. But, before today, such logic would probably not be heard above the screams and howls of fear and smear.
Before today, that is.
Just this afternoon, FSC/APHSS, through the FSC blog, released a statement updating the process of the testing of Patient Alpha, and it pretty much blasts through the noise and the bullshit and clears the fog.
I will simply repost the statement in its entirity.
So, apparently, this is what really happened:
-- Patient Alpha tested "reactive" using a variation of the PCR test, but negative under the other tests (W-Blot, ELISA), using one testing facility
-- Probably scared shitless, he goes over to TTS, who does the full followup tests on him, with the same reported result ("reactive" PCR, negative W-Blot and ELISA)...but then gets the news that another PCR test on the initial blood sample turns up NEGATIVE.)
-- Now confused as well as scared, PA goes over to APHSS, who refers him to AMTC, who runs a third battery of tests on him..which all show up negative.
-- APHSS, now wondering what the hell that initial "reactive" test was all about, requests the raw data from TTS for their own analysis. That, apparently, is still pending.
(It should be noted that TTS is independent of APHSS, and at one time, after AIM was disbanded, was promoting themselves as the go-to testing facility before APHSS was formed.)
So, as it stands right now, the only truly verifiable tests done on Patient Alpha have proven negative...although the process probably won't be fully completed until the 30-60 day latency period is passed and followup testing is done, and all the other contacts can be tested and verified. If none of them are found to be HIV+, then the game is over.
And maybe, people will regain the ability to know the difference between truth and rumor.
-- Olivia Newton-John ("The Rumor", ["The Rumor",1988])
The thing about moral sex panics is that sometimes, when fear mixes with uncertaincy, it becomes possible for information not verified by real facts to be put out. This misinformation, whether accidental or deliberate, can really mess with the minds of the people affected the most in the panic, and even when legitimate attempts to seek the truth are taken, the rumor can take a life of its own and multiply itself for days. If not mitigated quickly, the damage of one exploding rumor/lie can do tremendous damage even long after it can be debunked by actual facts.
Fortunately, even the nastiest rumor can be quashed if the facts are made available as soon as possible, and clear-headed, sensible minds can be called on to relieve the frayed nerves of those seeking to separate facts from fiction. The best way to quash a rumor has always been to directly confront it from the beginning and not allow it to build up momentum to begin with. The absolute WORST way, on the other hand, is to simply be quiet and wish that a rumor would go away on its own.
Thankfully, in the case of the latest HIV porn scare, the people over at the Free Speech Coalition's Adult Production Health and Safety Services (APHSS) understand how to break rumors, and today they did the adult entertainment industry a much valued service in the face of one of the nastiest rumors recently raised against them.
The background, of course, is the most recent scare that a performer in Florida had been alleged to have tested "positive" two weeks ago for HIV (the virus most responsible for AIDS). News of that particular spread, and the subsequent fear that he had potentially compromised 13 other performers while mitigating and verifying that initial test, sent shock waves through the industry, especially considering it was the third consecutive year in which a performer had been tested "positive" for HIV...although, in the two previous cases in 2009 and 2010, it was found that no other performer was infected and that the original infections took place outside of porn production.
The latest "outbreak" had prompted and reenforced calls by some of the usual suspects (AHF spokesperson Mike Weinstein, ex-porn starlet turned fundie Christian activist Shelley Lubben, and some officials at the California branch of the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (Cal/OSHA) for mandatory condom usage in all porn shoots. The belief was that the consecutive outbreaks had proven one and for all that system of using testing to contain and screen out HIV+ people from performing in porn had utterly failed and that only mandated condom usage would better "protect" the performers.
And it probably would have worked, too...except that last week, the FSC, using its newly built APHSS system (which was designed to replace the system that had been adjucated by the former group Adult In Medical Foundation (AIM), which was effectively driven out of business last year due to a series of nuisance lawsuits bankrolled by AHF), managed to retest "Patient Alpha" using their own protocols...which resulted in a NEGATIVE test result for HIV this time around. (As you will see later on, the original tests were not from facilities under the APHSS umbrella, but from independent facilities not having the type of tests or the protocols that AIM or APHSS uses.) The announcement of the negative test can be found here.
Based on that info, APHSS announced back then that a week-long moratorium that had been imposed on porn production when the initial "reactive" test was revealed could now be lifted, and that further tests to reinforce and verify the most recent negative tests would be done on "Patient Alpha" and all of his first- and second-generation partners.
That by itself should have ended the panic right there.
Problem was, though, forces that were either quite skeptical or outright opposed to FSC's efforts, as well as the natural tendency of rumor mongering to take place, were not willing to bury this case...and they set in motion this weekend an alternative conspiracy theory implying that the FSC/APHSS was either mortally wrong or simply the tip of a horrendous coverup.
Ground Zero for the rumor was a blog by former performer Michael Vegas, who put out the notion that FSC was hiding the true nature of the tests done on Patient Alpha. Using as "sources" emails he claimed he got from a "PersonX" whom either knew Patient Alpha or whom had gotten the testing info from Talent Testing Services, Inc. (one of the other testing companies whom had initially tested Patient Alpha before APHSS got a hold of him), Vegas used an supposed email exchange between "PersonX" and an executive of Manwin, Inc. (the parent company of Brazzers.com, the porn production company for whom Patient Alpha was alleged to have worked), to belt out the following conspiracy theory:
1) PA allegedly had three straight "positive" HIV tests.
2) The three straight positive tests were allegedly all PCR-DNA tests, which were supposed to be the most reliable in detecting early sero-infection of the HIV virus.
3) The negative test used by APHSS to clear PA was (just as allegedly, according to Vegas) the ELISA test, an older test that is more reliable for detecting more developed sero-infections, but less so for new infections due to the latent period where antibodies can be cloaked within the bloodstream without detection (the period is usually 30-60 days).
4) How can APHSS clear PA based on the ELISA test which is less unreliable, especially when three PCR tests still came up "positive"??
5) Therefore, something's not right here (according to Vegas), and either APHSS is lying about the negative test and deliberately covering up an infected performer threatening others, or Manwin/Brazzers is allowing an infected performer to continue to work.
A few other commentators then spread the story around the porn gossip grapevine, raising thoughts of anything from accident to outright coverup, and even stating that this proved AHF's point that APHSS shouldn't be trusted and that only AHF's position for mandatory condom usage was the most doable position.
Of course, those who actually knew a thing or five about the testing process would attempt to chime in that the ELISA test is NEVER used as a follow up verification test exactly because of its latency window, or that it would be a serious violation of medical privacy laws for anyone to reveal testing results to any other person other than the patient without a waiver. But, before today, such logic would probably not be heard above the screams and howls of fear and smear.
Before today, that is.
Just this afternoon, FSC/APHSS, through the FSC blog, released a statement updating the process of the testing of Patient Alpha, and it pretty much blasts through the noise and the bullshit and clears the fog.
I will simply repost the statement in its entirity.
In the interest of providing accurate information to industry and media, Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has issued this update to explain the process of testing that took place for the adult performer identified as ‘Patient Alpha.’
In cooperation with the performer, FSC has reconstructed the process of testing for Patient Alpha, which resulted in what is now believed to be at least one false positive result and touched off a week-long industry moratorium on content production.
According to reports from the performer, the dates and sequence of tests are as follows:
Initial tests, administered by an unnamed testing facility -
- August 20- PCR/NAT; results come back “reactive” (indication of HIV exposure)
- Followed up with Western Blot and ELISA tests; both results negative for these tests
Secodary tests, administered by Talent Testing Services (TTS) -
Test administered by Advanced Medical Testing Centers (AMTC – an APHSS.org recommeneded testing facility) –
- August 29 – PCR/DNA test is reported to patient as “reactive”
- Followed up with Western Blot and ELISA tests that produced negative result
- August 31 – Patient is contacted by TTS and told that results of an additional PCR/DNA test on original blood sample is negative
- Sept 3 – PCR/RNA, Western blot and ELISA tests all return negative results; patient is informed
FSC would like to add that none of the results for tests taken outside of APHSS.org program can be confirmed at this time, except as reported by the patient. Talent Testing Services [is not a participant] in APHSS.org.
Patient Alpha has signed a medical information release waiver and APHSS.org medical advisers have requested copies of the raw data of the test results from Talent Testing Services. There has been no response at this time.
PCR/RNA is the only HIV test approved by the FDA for diagnostics in “primary or accute infection,” but also must be confirmed with supplementary tests. This is a more recently-developed test than the PCR/DNA, which is the industry standard for monthly testing of performers.
When test results were returned by AMTC and after consultation with APHSS.org medical advisers, FSC/APHSS.org was satisfied that the moratorium on content production could be lifted this past Saturday.
-- Patient Alpha tested "reactive" using a variation of the PCR test, but negative under the other tests (W-Blot, ELISA), using one testing facility
-- Probably scared shitless, he goes over to TTS, who does the full followup tests on him, with the same reported result ("reactive" PCR, negative W-Blot and ELISA)...but then gets the news that another PCR test on the initial blood sample turns up NEGATIVE.)
-- Now confused as well as scared, PA goes over to APHSS, who refers him to AMTC, who runs a third battery of tests on him..which all show up negative.
-- APHSS, now wondering what the hell that initial "reactive" test was all about, requests the raw data from TTS for their own analysis. That, apparently, is still pending.
(It should be noted that TTS is independent of APHSS, and at one time, after AIM was disbanded, was promoting themselves as the go-to testing facility before APHSS was formed.)
So, as it stands right now, the only truly verifiable tests done on Patient Alpha have proven negative...although the process probably won't be fully completed until the 30-60 day latency period is passed and followup testing is done, and all the other contacts can be tested and verified. If none of them are found to be HIV+, then the game is over.
And maybe, people will regain the ability to know the difference between truth and rumor.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Because Pride And Delusions Are Always Greatest Before The Fall Off The Cliff: Ministress Lubben Breaks Out The Tiny Violin Quartet On HIV Scare 2011..Before The Truth Blindsides Her
I'm probably guessing that somewhere in Bakersfield or wherever Shelley Lubben is domiciled right about now, she's probably hearing the news that the performer whom she thought had infected 13 other female performers turned out to not have had HIV after all.
Maybe, the limited syapses in her brain -- at least, the ones not warped by her fundamentalist Christian ideology mixed with her seamless drive for exhibitionism and undivided attention -- will kick in enough to actually have her feel some bit of remorse and empathy for the performer she and her associates defamed. Perhaps, she will get a bolt of lightning inspiration from her God to actually understand that part of loving people is accepting that they can make mistakes and that they should be free to exercise their own free will and protect themselves in their own way.
And, perhaps, I will win the lottery tomorrow and retire a millionaire, and become Rush Limbaugh's chief assistant.
But while the charade was still on yesterday, the Ministeress decided to try her best to use her usual Godly womanly wiles to persuade the faithful about the deep harm of the latest "pandemic".
And as usual, Shelley was on her game.
Here's what she posted to the Pink Cross blog yesterday:
First, this notion of an "outbreak". Usually, an outbreak implies that more than one person was involved. The 2004 HIV scare qualifies as an outbreak fully because one person (allegedly Darren James) got infected doing outside work, and then went in and accidentally infected
three other women with HIV. Not much of an outbreak, but it does qualify.
The 2009 scare, though, had only one person who got HIV from outside activity, and no one else was infected. Thusly, NOT an outbreak.
The 2010 scare (featuring Derek Burts) is a bit questionable because both Burts and some folks at Cal/OSHA insist that a second performer was infected with HIV, although they have refused to comment on exactly who that second person is and how exactly he managed to get infected. Two people, though, is still not an outbreak, which assumes a bit more people getting infected with the virus.
Now, a performer getting infected with HIV and passing it on to 13 women?? That would count as a bonafide outbreak. Provided that the person actually was confirmed to actually HAVE HIV, and was confirmed to have worked with and infected various women. Course, we now know that the performer has tested negative with a better array of tests, but even then, wouldn't it be worthwhile to suspend judgment until the tests are confirmed? Wouldn't the more prudent policy be to wait until the actual tests confirm the infection before going out on a limb and screaming about a mass outbreak pandemic??
Please. This is Shelley Lubben we are talking about. She's never been known to let patience or truth get in the way of a good morality scare play.
And speaking of truth..again with the "27 HIV+ cases in the porn industry since 2004" meme. You know, the one that leaves out the inconvenient facts that most of those cases were of either gay male porn performers totally out of the jurisdiction of the adult hetero porn testing structure (16), private non-performer civilians contracting out AIM for their own private testing (4), or people just blown out of Shelley's buns. (And remember when the original stat was 22?? Then upped by Mike Weinstein to 23?? Get your propaganda numbers in sync, Shelley!!)
And how nice of Ministress Lubben to add that nice little tag line, "that we know of"...because we all know that the industry can't be trusted to tell the truth about HIV, there must be hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of porn boys and girls around spreading their legs and inserting their diseased sex organs into each other and spreading AIDS like Halloween candy!!!
Now..to that truth-telling press conference Shelley was talking about...that would be the one where the Ministress shared the dais with AHF's Weinstein, Darren James, and a couple of Pink Cross disciples to announce their drive to put a condom mandate ordinance to Los Angeles city voters for a vote. A pretty nice job of propaganda, if you ask me..but a bit light in the actual fact department. No matter how much Shelley may rant about the illegality of condomless porn or the notion that "exchanging bodily fluids" is illegal under California law, or that, the official legal opinion of the LA city attorney be damned, the local film board can and should forbid permits for any adult production not totally wrapped up, the actual debate is still quite up for grabs...and tending not to their benefit.
Oh..and about that HUSTLER fine?? Never mind that $14K to Larry Flynt is like a dollar to most of us regular folk, or the basic fact that Cal/OSHA probably doesn't have the resources or the manpower to be stalking every single porn shoot looking for wrapped dicks or dental dams when there really is a legitimate HIV pandemic in the larger population of LA County...enforcing a "law" that has never been enforced merely to soothe her revenge for those who dissed her 17 years ago is far more important to Lubben than common sense. Besides, it's all in the name of Jeeeeeeeee-zus, who died for your sexual sins and cured her herpes to show the world how He gives salvation to those evil sluts who most need it.
The closer, is the usual altar call for people in porn to get the heck out because, in Shelley's mind. "Porn Kills!!!!" At least, porn stars get killed...of course, most of them aren't killed by porn, and many of them die of causes attributed completely outside of porn...but again, the Ministress isn't known for understanding nuanced thoughts.
And when you do get out, Shelley would very much love it if you consider joining her ministry. Of course, there are those pesky conditions of surrendering all your hard earned money and having to basically starve yourself financially and convert to Lubben's kind of holy rolling sex-hating religion...but that's a small price to pay for God's salvation.
The sidebar of that post includes some of the more whacked out stats about the wages of porn sin (like the 37 porn stars who died of HIV, suicide, or drugs, or the 100 "straight or gay" performers who died of complications from AIDS, or the nearly 2,400 cases of chlamydia and 1,400 cases of gonorrhea that has infected performers since 2000). Been there, covered that.
But, no Shelley Lubben promotion would be complete without the obligatory Serious Activist Pic, and this one's a dooze.
Yes, that was Shelley at the Weinstein presser where they unveiled their asstroturf (no pun, deliberate mispell) group, "For Adult Industry Responsibility" (FAIR, although I still think that Norman Solomon over at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting would probably not like their acronym abused like that). And yes, that woman in the background pointing at the "FAIR" logo happens to be Jan Meza, Lubben's closest protoge, who has a special history of whackadoodleness all her own. Gee, Ministeress...I thought that God didn't like women showing off their bare arms...didn't they attempt to condemn First Lady Michelle Obama for something like that??
In any case, now that it has been confirmed that all their efforts were essentially for naught, I'm seriously looking forward to when Shelley and the Pink Cross Foundation will post their official apology and retraction to the performer they accused publically of infecting 13 innocent people, or to the company (Brazzers) they claimed wrongly to have used him even though he "tested positively". I'm sure that it will happen. Ultimately. The same day pigs fly.
Prove me wrong, Shelley. Woman up, admit your mistake, and apologize....and if you do, I will give you...a bit more respect.
Maybe, the limited syapses in her brain -- at least, the ones not warped by her fundamentalist Christian ideology mixed with her seamless drive for exhibitionism and undivided attention -- will kick in enough to actually have her feel some bit of remorse and empathy for the performer she and her associates defamed. Perhaps, she will get a bolt of lightning inspiration from her God to actually understand that part of loving people is accepting that they can make mistakes and that they should be free to exercise their own free will and protect themselves in their own way.
And, perhaps, I will win the lottery tomorrow and retire a millionaire, and become Rush Limbaugh's chief assistant.
But while the charade was still on yesterday, the Ministeress decided to try her best to use her usual Godly womanly wiles to persuade the faithful about the deep harm of the latest "pandemic".
And as usual, Shelley was on her game.
Here's what she posted to the Pink Cross blog yesterday:
Oh, so much to break down here.Another HIV Outbreak in Porn Industry
News is breaking in the porn industry that another performer has tested positive for HIV and possibly exposed a dozen or more performers before it was discovered.
This means that there have now been a total of 27 cases of HIV in the porn industry since 2004 - that we know of! The last known HIV outbreak was in October of last year.
This comes only two weeks after a press conference was held in L.A. where former porn performers talked about the illegal and abusive practices of the porn industry.
And just last week the porn industry was bragging about their 'safe' health practices all the while they continue to flagrantly violate California law that mandates condom usage. Earlier this year, Hustler was fined $14,175 by Cal-OSHA for violating workplace health and safety law.
Lives are at stake. Pray that many men and women will leave the porn industry while they still can. Porn kills!
If you are in the industry and want out, Pink Cross is here for you. You were made for greater things than porn!
First, this notion of an "outbreak". Usually, an outbreak implies that more than one person was involved. The 2004 HIV scare qualifies as an outbreak fully because one person (allegedly Darren James) got infected doing outside work, and then went in and accidentally infected
three other women with HIV. Not much of an outbreak, but it does qualify.
The 2009 scare, though, had only one person who got HIV from outside activity, and no one else was infected. Thusly, NOT an outbreak.
The 2010 scare (featuring Derek Burts) is a bit questionable because both Burts and some folks at Cal/OSHA insist that a second performer was infected with HIV, although they have refused to comment on exactly who that second person is and how exactly he managed to get infected. Two people, though, is still not an outbreak, which assumes a bit more people getting infected with the virus.
Now, a performer getting infected with HIV and passing it on to 13 women?? That would count as a bonafide outbreak. Provided that the person actually was confirmed to actually HAVE HIV, and was confirmed to have worked with and infected various women. Course, we now know that the performer has tested negative with a better array of tests, but even then, wouldn't it be worthwhile to suspend judgment until the tests are confirmed? Wouldn't the more prudent policy be to wait until the actual tests confirm the infection before going out on a limb and screaming about a mass outbreak pandemic??
Please. This is Shelley Lubben we are talking about. She's never been known to let patience or truth get in the way of a good morality scare play.
And speaking of truth..again with the "27 HIV+ cases in the porn industry since 2004" meme. You know, the one that leaves out the inconvenient facts that most of those cases were of either gay male porn performers totally out of the jurisdiction of the adult hetero porn testing structure (16), private non-performer civilians contracting out AIM for their own private testing (4), or people just blown out of Shelley's buns. (And remember when the original stat was 22?? Then upped by Mike Weinstein to 23?? Get your propaganda numbers in sync, Shelley!!)
And how nice of Ministress Lubben to add that nice little tag line, "that we know of"...because we all know that the industry can't be trusted to tell the truth about HIV, there must be hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of porn boys and girls around spreading their legs and inserting their diseased sex organs into each other and spreading AIDS like Halloween candy!!!
Now..to that truth-telling press conference Shelley was talking about...that would be the one where the Ministress shared the dais with AHF's Weinstein, Darren James, and a couple of Pink Cross disciples to announce their drive to put a condom mandate ordinance to Los Angeles city voters for a vote. A pretty nice job of propaganda, if you ask me..but a bit light in the actual fact department. No matter how much Shelley may rant about the illegality of condomless porn or the notion that "exchanging bodily fluids" is illegal under California law, or that, the official legal opinion of the LA city attorney be damned, the local film board can and should forbid permits for any adult production not totally wrapped up, the actual debate is still quite up for grabs...and tending not to their benefit.
Oh..and about that HUSTLER fine?? Never mind that $14K to Larry Flynt is like a dollar to most of us regular folk, or the basic fact that Cal/OSHA probably doesn't have the resources or the manpower to be stalking every single porn shoot looking for wrapped dicks or dental dams when there really is a legitimate HIV pandemic in the larger population of LA County...enforcing a "law" that has never been enforced merely to soothe her revenge for those who dissed her 17 years ago is far more important to Lubben than common sense. Besides, it's all in the name of Jeeeeeeeee-zus, who died for your sexual sins and cured her herpes to show the world how He gives salvation to those evil sluts who most need it.
The closer, is the usual altar call for people in porn to get the heck out because, in Shelley's mind. "Porn Kills!!!!" At least, porn stars get killed...of course, most of them aren't killed by porn, and many of them die of causes attributed completely outside of porn...but again, the Ministress isn't known for understanding nuanced thoughts.
And when you do get out, Shelley would very much love it if you consider joining her ministry. Of course, there are those pesky conditions of surrendering all your hard earned money and having to basically starve yourself financially and convert to Lubben's kind of holy rolling sex-hating religion...but that's a small price to pay for God's salvation.
The sidebar of that post includes some of the more whacked out stats about the wages of porn sin (like the 37 porn stars who died of HIV, suicide, or drugs, or the 100 "straight or gay" performers who died of complications from AIDS, or the nearly 2,400 cases of chlamydia and 1,400 cases of gonorrhea that has infected performers since 2000). Been there, covered that.
But, no Shelley Lubben promotion would be complete without the obligatory Serious Activist Pic, and this one's a dooze.
Yes, that was Shelley at the Weinstein presser where they unveiled their asstroturf (no pun, deliberate mispell) group, "For Adult Industry Responsibility" (FAIR, although I still think that Norman Solomon over at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting would probably not like their acronym abused like that). And yes, that woman in the background pointing at the "FAIR" logo happens to be Jan Meza, Lubben's closest protoge, who has a special history of whackadoodleness all her own. Gee, Ministeress...I thought that God didn't like women showing off their bare arms...didn't they attempt to condemn First Lady Michelle Obama for something like that??
In any case, now that it has been confirmed that all their efforts were essentially for naught, I'm seriously looking forward to when Shelley and the Pink Cross Foundation will post their official apology and retraction to the performer they accused publically of infecting 13 innocent people, or to the company (Brazzers) they claimed wrongly to have used him even though he "tested positively". I'm sure that it will happen. Ultimately. The same day pigs fly.
Prove me wrong, Shelley. Woman up, admit your mistake, and apologize....and if you do, I will give you...a bit more respect.
Porn Panic 2011: BAH-LOCKED!!! BREAKING: FSC/APHSS Reports That "Patient Alpha" Tested Negative For HIV; Moratorium Now Lifted
Well..what do you know? All that crowing, all that smack, all those press conferences...and it turns out, all for NOTHING.
The Associated Press is now reporting that the Free Speech Coalition, through their APHSS testing program, has announced via an email that initial test results on the performer whom had been originally found to have tested positive for HIV through a previous test is now completed....and "Patient Alpha" was found to have tested NEGATIVE.
Based on that, FSC has also announced that the voluntary moratorium on porn production that had taken effect when the initial test was revealed last week can now be lifted, and porn production resumed.
FSC did say that just for verification sakes, they would run follow up tests on "Patient Alpha"..but, it does appear that the worst fears of an "outbreak" have been settled.
If I was Michael Weinstein or Brian Chase of AHF or Shelley Lubben, I'd probably want to make plans for a long vacation. And, stock up on some lawyers. The checks they cashed with their big mouths just bounced. Let's hear the coverup conspiracies now, Mr. Weinstein.
And perhaps now, we may finally get everyone together and hash out a real plan for worker protection that actually respects the will and competence or performer choice??
If I find that AP article, I will repost it here. (Found. Scroll down.)
UPDATE: The FSC just released this statement on Patient Alpha's HIV- test over at their blog:
UPDATE #2: Here is the AP story:
Update #3: Michael Whiteacre just made this comment over at LukeIsBack.com that deserves reprinting here, because it addresses concerns about following up on the testing of "Patient Alpha" as well as the other 13 performers that he had been assumed to have infected.
I guess that we will never find the answer to that.
The Associated Press is now reporting that the Free Speech Coalition, through their APHSS testing program, has announced via an email that initial test results on the performer whom had been originally found to have tested positive for HIV through a previous test is now completed....and "Patient Alpha" was found to have tested NEGATIVE.
Based on that, FSC has also announced that the voluntary moratorium on porn production that had taken effect when the initial test was revealed last week can now be lifted, and porn production resumed.
FSC did say that just for verification sakes, they would run follow up tests on "Patient Alpha"..but, it does appear that the worst fears of an "outbreak" have been settled.
If I was Michael Weinstein or Brian Chase of AHF or Shelley Lubben, I'd probably want to make plans for a long vacation. And, stock up on some lawyers. The checks they cashed with their big mouths just bounced. Let's hear the coverup conspiracies now, Mr. Weinstein.
And perhaps now, we may finally get everyone together and hash out a real plan for worker protection that actually respects the will and competence or performer choice??
If I find that AP article, I will repost it here. (Found. Scroll down.)
UPDATE: The FSC just released this statement on Patient Alpha's HIV- test over at their blog:
Free Speech Coalition (FSC) announced today some important news for the industry. An HIV test for “Patient Alpha,” administered by an APHSS.org testing facility, has been returned with negative results.
Recognizing the importance of accurate information being presented to the industry and media, FSC stresses that while test results indicate a negative result for the patient, follow-up testing is appropriate in this case.
“This is good news for the primary patient, the industry will continue to be abundantly cautious as we try to nail down the reasons for what now appears to have been a false positive result on a previous test,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said. “After discussion with our medical expert, he has advised that it would be appropriate for production to resume and the focus of attention brought to those who had worked with the performer. That group is already receiving care.
“FSC/APHSS.org will narrow the circle of caution to focus our concern on the group of people who had worked with the performer,” Duke continued. “Our prayers and utmost empathy go out to the performer in what has been a very difficult period.”
FSC called for an industry-wide precautionary moratorium on production last Sunday, after reports of a preliminary HIV positive test result for an adult performer in Florida. The performer in question and the adult industry were demonized as rumors and misinformation spread like wildfire. But recent developments imply that industry standards are working.
Duke continued, “Industry self-regulation and best practices are alive and well in the adult entertainment industry – and they work. We fully understand that it is vitally important for the adult performers have a place to go that is safe, trusted and transparent.”
UPDATE #2: Here is the AP story:
APNewsBreak: Porn performer retests HIV-negative
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An adult film performer who tested positive for HIV and caused the porn industry to shut down production as a precaution has been retested and the actor does not have the virus, a porn industry trade group said Saturday.
Production can now resume, said Free Speech Coalition executive director Diane Duke."The industry will be abundantly cautious as we try to nail down the reasons for what now appears to have been a false positive result on a previous test," Duke said.The actor, who was in Florida, had been slated to work on a shoot for Mofos.com, but production was halted last week when the test came back positive for HIV.Duke declined to release the performer's name, age or gender, citing the person's right to medical privacy. She also declined to say how her group learned of the case.Production has been shut down since Monday in the San Fernando Valley's multi-billion dollar adult entertainment industry, which includes Hustler and Evil Angel's productions. The case was found at an out-of-state clinic that does not report to California health officials, Duke said. The porn industry was similarly shuttered in late 2010, after porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as HIV-positive. His case was confirmed, and he has since left the industry to become an advocate for the use of condoms in pornography.
The Free Speech Coalition is working on a database to track sexually transmitted disease testing among porn actors, a task formerly handled by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation before it closed in December 2010.
Known as AIM, the San Fernando Valley clinic had catered to porn stars since it opened in 1998. It was forced to close because of inadequate licensing.
Update #3: Michael Whiteacre just made this comment over at LukeIsBack.com that deserves reprinting here, because it addresses concerns about following up on the testing of "Patient Alpha" as well as the other 13 performers that he had been assumed to have infected.
The Associated Press reports that Patient Alpha has now tested negative in the latest round of confirmatory testing. However, the question remains whether it is legally and medically sound to DEFINITIVELY declare the patient HIV negative as of yet.The only question left that would close this out is this: Where did the false positive (or false "reactive") test come from? Was it simply a screw up from the testing facility? Or...could it have been a deliberate plant used by AHF and its associates to cook the books and plants the seeds of panic just to grease the wheels for an HIV porn panic and the condom mandate??
According to what I’ve been reading, most experts (including those at the CDC) recognize that it can take 30 to 90 days before one can make a definitive determination.
That’s why this quote from Weinstein’s latest self-serving press release is so frustrating:
“Why is any ‘investigation’ needed, when two rapid tests that would take 40 minutes, are sufficient to determine if someone is positive?”
This jackass — the president of the largest global AIDS organization, with clinics and testing sites in Florida (where this case reportedly occurred) — is obviously ignorant of the fact that in the state of Florida, NO ONE is deemed POSITIVE until the results of the confirmatory test come back. In fact, clinics are not permitted by the state to tell any one they are positive until the tests come back from the State. What people are told is that they are “reactive” even in AHF’s own clinics and testing sites, not positive.
Not only doesn’t Michael Weinstein understand testing, he doesn’t even know his own protocols. What a douche.
However, the FSC’s update makes it clear that the first and second generation people have been identified and contacted, and that testing has commenced, so it is appropriate to recommence production.
I guess that we will never find the answer to that.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Porn Panic 2011, The Series: Here Come The Big Dawgs: Manwin, Brazzers' Parent Company, Busts Out The Whupping Stick Against AHF's Accusations
And now...the Big Dawgs move in.
Here's the statement just released by Manwin, the parent company of Brazzers, in response to the charges flinged at them by Michael Weinstein and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, concerning the latest HIV porn scare, where a male performer has been alleged to have tested positive for HIV. AHF had claimed that the alleged infected performer had exposed up to 13 other performers to the virus while shooting for Brazzers, and called for federal, state, and local sanctions against the company as a "sanitary nusiance". (Both XBiz and AVN have the statement posted at their blogs.)
Here's the statement just released by Manwin, the parent company of Brazzers, in response to the charges flinged at them by Michael Weinstein and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, concerning the latest HIV porn scare, where a male performer has been alleged to have tested positive for HIV. AHF had claimed that the alleged infected performer had exposed up to 13 other performers to the virus while shooting for Brazzers, and called for federal, state, and local sanctions against the company as a "sanitary nusiance". (Both XBiz and AVN have the statement posted at their blogs.)
LUXEMBOURG—Manwin and some of its online properties have recently been falsely accused by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) as well as by other organizations in relation to possible HIV exposure of an adult industry performer.
The AHF statement is an unacceptable attempt to undermine the reputation of our producers through the publication of false information.Ahhh....zone defense. Nothing like 6-figure lawyers to cut through bullshit, ehhh??
Our attorneys have sent the AHF a formal request demanding an immediate retraction.
Manwin and its affiliated producers wish to reiterate that we take industry performers’ health and safety very seriously and as such, we have at all times operated our business in strict compliance with all applicable state and federal laws. Consequently, all of our adult online properties and their producers have accurately and meticulously followed best and standard industry practices when it comes to testing our performers.
Manwin and its producers have never attempted to hide any information or mislead anyone concerning the nature of the incident. We have acted as diligently as possible in a transparent manner in order to avoid and to mitigate any potential damages of any nature for our performers specifically and for the industry as a whole in accordance with the advice of our counsel.
More specifically, at no time did “Patient A” perform or provide any services for any of our producers after any test results were disclosed reflecting even the possibility of HIV exposure or infection. This fact is well documented and proves that the industry testing process precisely works as it should.
In addition, “Performer A” has never worked for Brazzers.com. The performer in question has performed for a separate website known as Mofos.com.
To this extent, statements to the contrary are inaccurate and possibly defamatory. We are currently waiting for a final and clear result on whether or not “Patient A” has tested positive for HIV. This process and its corresponding privacy implications means that we cannot comment further until the full results have been legally transmitted and disclosed.
Until then, we cannot and will not tolerate any further malicious, unverified, inaccurate or misleading statements published by anyone. In addition, we will not further comment on the sanitary nuisance health complaint with the Florida Department of Health and a similar letter of complaint with federal OSHA officials until we have had the opportunity to review the content of these documents and their implications.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Porn Panic 2011: Derek Burts -- From Rentboy To Crossover HIV+ Victim...To Anti-Gay Double Agent??? (OR:When Mike Weinstein and Bryan Fischer Are In Sync, We Have A BIG Problem)
Oh, but you are so NOT going to believe what I am about to type here. As crazy as the latest porn scare is, the stuff I just discovered is going to blow things up to the level of insanity. It's kind of convoluted, so bear with me.
Bryan Fischer is the chief spokeperson for the American Family Association, which is one of the oldest and loudest "Christian Conservative" lobbying groups in this country. You may remember the AFA when it was formerly known as the National Federation for Decency, and its head honcho was a gruffy old Mississippi Baptist preacher named Don Wildmon, and they were in the 80's one of the main leaders of the 1980's war against "ungodly" sex. From abortion to homosexuality to pornography to "promiscuity" to just plain adultery, there was no sexual sin that they wouldn't attempt to uncover and severely punish...all in the name of salvation through Jesus, of course.
When Don Wildmon passed from this earth a few years ago, the family syndicate was passed on to his son Tim, who also appears from time to time...but these days, its Bryan Fischer who is the main mouthpiece for AFA these days. To that end, he has his own online radio talk show (to match the over-the-air radio show he does for the Family Values Radio Network and Christian Right talk radio daily) where he discusses the issues of the day from his own American Christian Taliban perspective.
Usually his show consists of varying shades or the usual wingnutter talking points: Barack Obama is a socialist Marxist Muslim Kenyan who faked his birth certificate; "Communist" Russia and "Communist China" are out to bury us, Government not redeemed by Christian Right values is illegitimate and must be abolished; the Founding Fathers of our country were rock-ribbed Christians who wanted a "Christian Nation" (their Deism and secularism not withstanding), and so on ad nauseum.
Their main obsession of the moment, however, is sexuality...and homosexuality in particular. To folks like Fischer, "sexual deviancy" (meaning, any form of sexual expression or act not intended to make lots and lots of babies for Jesus within a Biblically approved marriage) is at the heart of homosexuality, abortion, masturbation, pornography, prostitution, and all other forms of what he considers to be "sexual sin"...and their practioners need at least to be punished severely for their heresy and deviance from the Godly order...or, at its most extreme, simply killed.
Which brings me to one of Bryan Fischer's latest online programs that he streamed for the AFA's website, titled "Sexual Deviancy Welcomed In U. S. Army".
(I hear 'ya thinkin', Clones..."What the hell does this have to do with the porn scare, 'Dog??" Hang with me, folks....I'm getting there.)
Anyways, the original background for this particular program was the upcoming finalization of the 60 day cooling period when the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" policy preventing homosexuals from openly serving in the military would finally expire, and gay men, lesbian, and bisexual folk would be free to enlist and serve in our Armed Forces free of public persecution and dismissal merely for their private sexual preference. For most average folk, this is a grand step forward for equality and justice, since performance of the job should be the principal criteria for a soldier's effectiveness, not his private sex life. (Besides, it's not as if the military is bending over backwards to purge itself of hetero adulterers or divorcees, you know.)
But to people like Fischer, it is a grave and destructive step backwards, simply because it means, in his mind and that of likeminded homophobes, that gay men wielding their leather ass chaps and rock-hard dicks and Anal-Eze will be fully able to seduce and buttfuck impressionable young recruits into the evil and Satanic "homosexual lifestyle", thusly destroying morale and the will of Americans to fight and kill and torture and even die for the glory of God and their country.
And so, Fischer dedicated this program to how decent, Far Right-believing Christians can fight back for decency and morality.
The first portion is the usual talking points about fear of gay stalkers in the showers and sex in the foxholes, and talk of a protest on the day that DADT is scheduled to officially expire.
In the middle portion, though, it gets real interesting.
Unfortunately, it's streaming video, so I can't capture and embed it; you will have to go over to the AFA website to view the clip and see for yourself. But, here's the abridged version.
Fischer goes on to describe how he thinks homosexuals should be punished for their public "deviancy" and then announces that for his "Liberal News Tweak of the Day", he will use "an activist gay male porn star" to dictate what he feels should be the proper law against public homosexuality. He then quotes directly from an activist gay performer who happens to be HIV+ who had openly called for fines and even jail sentences for any gay man who has sex in porn without using a condom. Fischer, of course, extends that sanction to include not only all gay men in general, but also any one, gay, straight, or bi, outside of marriage.
But the real kicker is in the gay porn star he quotes to support his position. Three guesses, Clones.
Try....Derek Burts.
DEREK BURTS?!?!? Not that Derek Burts, alias Cameron Reid?? The one who was the Patient Zero of last year's HIV scare? The one who openly boasted of being proud of being both a crossover gay performer AND an escort for Rentboy.com? The one who claimed that AIM had dissed him after he got infected, and sought treatment from them, and then got himself on AHF's payroll?? The one who even boasted that the scene where he apparently got infected was a condom scene in which his partner took of the condom at the end and blew out on his butthole, causing the infected spooge to enter via the anal cavity?? THAT Derek Burts??
Yup...that's your man.
In fact, Fischer was so confident in using Burts as the perfect example of the kind of gay male porn role model for Christian bashing that he followed his show up with a post on the official AFA blog, Rightly Conserned, where he liberally (no pun) quotes both Derrick Burts and Michael Weinstein, as well as their LA condom mandate ordinance, which would call for huge fines for porn companies not mandating condoms in all shoots. Of course, Burts and Weinstein are more concerned about protecting performers (or so they say), while Fischer is all about banning gay sex (and non marital non procreative hetero sex)....but you can see the shared vision of deep sexual fascism and sexual repression in both.
Here's how Fischer attempted to get on Weinstein and Burts' good side:
More importantly, what does that say about Mike Weinstein's fervent denials that he's not a right-winger or in any way associated with right-wingers who are dedicated to destroying everything related and not about porn, and that AHF is only and solely concerned with the safety and health of the performers?? Will he and his newly founded asstroturf group FAIR (For Adult Industry Responsibility) come out and directly repudiate Mr. Fischer and all other open homophobes and erotophobes and fascists? And how in the hell can a man who still sells bareback gay male porn at his thrift stores feel fit to fellow travel with some of the most toxic racist/sexist/homophobic/fundamentalist Right people around?
I suspect only two motives...either Mike Weinstein and Derek Burts and the rest of AHF are really right-wing double agents playing the "liberal" good cop to the "conservative" AFA bad cop scheme to wipe out porn and sexual expression a bit at a time; or they're all motivated more by the golden showers of cold hard cash that can be gotten by exploiting sex hate and shoving condoms down performers' throats.
Then again, we've already seen with such "liberals" like Mike Weinstein and Gail Dines that political consistency always tends to be flexible based on the amount of dollar bills thrown at them. Why should this be any different for them?
Once again, this is why faux liberalism, like faux ho's, should be taken very seriously. What you see might not be exactly what you ultimately get...and beware of men and women hiding behind curtains with really big microphones and bells and whistles.
Bryan Fischer is the chief spokeperson for the American Family Association, which is one of the oldest and loudest "Christian Conservative" lobbying groups in this country. You may remember the AFA when it was formerly known as the National Federation for Decency, and its head honcho was a gruffy old Mississippi Baptist preacher named Don Wildmon, and they were in the 80's one of the main leaders of the 1980's war against "ungodly" sex. From abortion to homosexuality to pornography to "promiscuity" to just plain adultery, there was no sexual sin that they wouldn't attempt to uncover and severely punish...all in the name of salvation through Jesus, of course.
When Don Wildmon passed from this earth a few years ago, the family syndicate was passed on to his son Tim, who also appears from time to time...but these days, its Bryan Fischer who is the main mouthpiece for AFA these days. To that end, he has his own online radio talk show (to match the over-the-air radio show he does for the Family Values Radio Network and Christian Right talk radio daily) where he discusses the issues of the day from his own American Christian Taliban perspective.
Usually his show consists of varying shades or the usual wingnutter talking points: Barack Obama is a socialist Marxist Muslim Kenyan who faked his birth certificate; "Communist" Russia and "Communist China" are out to bury us, Government not redeemed by Christian Right values is illegitimate and must be abolished; the Founding Fathers of our country were rock-ribbed Christians who wanted a "Christian Nation" (their Deism and secularism not withstanding), and so on ad nauseum.
Their main obsession of the moment, however, is sexuality...and homosexuality in particular. To folks like Fischer, "sexual deviancy" (meaning, any form of sexual expression or act not intended to make lots and lots of babies for Jesus within a Biblically approved marriage) is at the heart of homosexuality, abortion, masturbation, pornography, prostitution, and all other forms of what he considers to be "sexual sin"...and their practioners need at least to be punished severely for their heresy and deviance from the Godly order...or, at its most extreme, simply killed.
Which brings me to one of Bryan Fischer's latest online programs that he streamed for the AFA's website, titled "Sexual Deviancy Welcomed In U. S. Army".
(I hear 'ya thinkin', Clones..."What the hell does this have to do with the porn scare, 'Dog??" Hang with me, folks....I'm getting there.)
Anyways, the original background for this particular program was the upcoming finalization of the 60 day cooling period when the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" policy preventing homosexuals from openly serving in the military would finally expire, and gay men, lesbian, and bisexual folk would be free to enlist and serve in our Armed Forces free of public persecution and dismissal merely for their private sexual preference. For most average folk, this is a grand step forward for equality and justice, since performance of the job should be the principal criteria for a soldier's effectiveness, not his private sex life. (Besides, it's not as if the military is bending over backwards to purge itself of hetero adulterers or divorcees, you know.)
But to people like Fischer, it is a grave and destructive step backwards, simply because it means, in his mind and that of likeminded homophobes, that gay men wielding their leather ass chaps and rock-hard dicks and Anal-Eze will be fully able to seduce and buttfuck impressionable young recruits into the evil and Satanic "homosexual lifestyle", thusly destroying morale and the will of Americans to fight and kill and torture and even die for the glory of God and their country.
And so, Fischer dedicated this program to how decent, Far Right-believing Christians can fight back for decency and morality.
The first portion is the usual talking points about fear of gay stalkers in the showers and sex in the foxholes, and talk of a protest on the day that DADT is scheduled to officially expire.
In the middle portion, though, it gets real interesting.
Unfortunately, it's streaming video, so I can't capture and embed it; you will have to go over to the AFA website to view the clip and see for yourself. But, here's the abridged version.
Fischer goes on to describe how he thinks homosexuals should be punished for their public "deviancy" and then announces that for his "Liberal News Tweak of the Day", he will use "an activist gay male porn star" to dictate what he feels should be the proper law against public homosexuality. He then quotes directly from an activist gay performer who happens to be HIV+ who had openly called for fines and even jail sentences for any gay man who has sex in porn without using a condom. Fischer, of course, extends that sanction to include not only all gay men in general, but also any one, gay, straight, or bi, outside of marriage.
But the real kicker is in the gay porn star he quotes to support his position. Three guesses, Clones.
Try....Derek Burts.
DEREK BURTS?!?!? Not that Derek Burts, alias Cameron Reid?? The one who was the Patient Zero of last year's HIV scare? The one who openly boasted of being proud of being both a crossover gay performer AND an escort for Rentboy.com? The one who claimed that AIM had dissed him after he got infected, and sought treatment from them, and then got himself on AHF's payroll?? The one who even boasted that the scene where he apparently got infected was a condom scene in which his partner took of the condom at the end and blew out on his butthole, causing the infected spooge to enter via the anal cavity?? THAT Derek Burts??
Yup...that's your man.
In fact, Fischer was so confident in using Burts as the perfect example of the kind of gay male porn role model for Christian bashing that he followed his show up with a post on the official AFA blog, Rightly Conserned, where he liberally (no pun) quotes both Derrick Burts and Michael Weinstein, as well as their LA condom mandate ordinance, which would call for huge fines for porn companies not mandating condoms in all shoots. Of course, Burts and Weinstein are more concerned about protecting performers (or so they say), while Fischer is all about banning gay sex (and non marital non procreative hetero sex)....but you can see the shared vision of deep sexual fascism and sexual repression in both.
Here's how Fischer attempted to get on Weinstein and Burts' good side:
A gay porn actor is way ahead of me, but I’m all caught up now. He wants to fine people who don’t use a condom when they have gay sex.Anyone wants to do an over-under on how long it will take for Ministress Lubben to appear on Fischer's show?? I'd give it about 2 weeks.
Now he wants to restrict the fine to people in the porn industry, but why stop there? If contracting HIV/AIDS is the threat to human health he says it is, why shouldn’t we try to protect everybody?
Derek Burts is an actor in both straight and gay porn films, and shut down the porn industry late last fall when he tested positive for HIV, which he says he almost certainly contracted while filming gay sex scenes.
Now, according to the Los Angeles Times, another sex performer has been diagnosed with HIV, and once again the porn industry has been temporarily shuttered.
Burts and others are now collecting signatures for a ballot initiative sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation which, if passed by voters in 2012, will require all performers in adult films shot in L.A. to wear condoms during filming, whether the sex is gay or straight. The only standards in place right now are strictly voluntary, and ask performers to be tested every 30 days.
The president of the foundation, one Michael Weinstein, says that not requiring gay porn actors to wear condoms shows “outrageous disregard for the health and safety of performers and the community at large.” So he too admits that gay sex is an enormous threat to public health, and that the threat is community-wide. In other words, he’s saying that homosexual sex, indeed random sex in general, is not a victimless crime. I couldn’t agree more. I feel like I’m listening to myself here.
[...]
Now if condoms are going to be required in filming gay sex scenes, then there must be some penalty for failing to do so. I was unable to find out exactly what the proposed penalty is, but I’m assuming it’s in the nature of a fine.
What I’m suggesting is that we enact ordinances in city after city and laws in state after state that mandate that same exact penalty - whatever penalty gay activists think is appropriate - for unprotected homosexual sex. Hey, if it’s good enough for porn stars, it should be good enough for the average gay man on the street.
And if someone wants to extend that same penalty to unmarried straights who have sex, who am I to complain?
Why should we only care about the health of those who get paid $1000 to $2000 for filming a sex scene and not care about the little people who have gay sex in public bathrooms for free?
Of course, this is just the place to begin, but it is a first step in de-normalizing and de-legitimizing homosexual sex. And the beauty here is that we would be following the lead of homosexual activists. We ought to take their advice in the simple interest of human health and out of concern for future possible HIV victims.
So oddly, I find myself in the same corner on this issue as gay porn stars. I’m willing to take their suggestion and apply it not just in L.A. but nationwide and not just for people who get paid to have sex but for every gay sex partner in the land. It’s not all we can do, but it’s the least we can do.
More importantly, what does that say about Mike Weinstein's fervent denials that he's not a right-winger or in any way associated with right-wingers who are dedicated to destroying everything related and not about porn, and that AHF is only and solely concerned with the safety and health of the performers?? Will he and his newly founded asstroturf group FAIR (For Adult Industry Responsibility) come out and directly repudiate Mr. Fischer and all other open homophobes and erotophobes and fascists? And how in the hell can a man who still sells bareback gay male porn at his thrift stores feel fit to fellow travel with some of the most toxic racist/sexist/homophobic/fundamentalist Right people around?
I suspect only two motives...either Mike Weinstein and Derek Burts and the rest of AHF are really right-wing double agents playing the "liberal" good cop to the "conservative" AFA bad cop scheme to wipe out porn and sexual expression a bit at a time; or they're all motivated more by the golden showers of cold hard cash that can be gotten by exploiting sex hate and shoving condoms down performers' throats.
Then again, we've already seen with such "liberals" like Mike Weinstein and Gail Dines that political consistency always tends to be flexible based on the amount of dollar bills thrown at them. Why should this be any different for them?
Once again, this is why faux liberalism, like faux ho's, should be taken very seriously. What you see might not be exactly what you ultimately get...and beware of men and women hiding behind curtains with really big microphones and bells and whistles.
Porn Panic 2011: FSC/APHSS Responds To AHF Smear Campaign
It didn't take long for the Free Speech Coalition to respond to the accusations spewed forth by Mike Weinstein of AHF at his presser today. Here's their response, as posted over at AVN.com (and at XBiz.com and LukeIsBack.com as well).
CANOGA PARK, Calif.—The following announcement by the Free Speech Coalition was issued Wednesday afternoon and is reprinted in its entirety:
Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has been falsely accused by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), of obstructing a medical investigation by Los Angeles County Public Health (LACPH), in regards to the latest incidence of the possible HIV exposure of an adult industry performer in a press release issued by AHF today.
FSC, the adult industry trade association, would like to make clear that this accusation is completely false and that is appallingly irresponsible for AHF to accuse any adult industry members of wrong-doing without any basis in actual fact.
Official statements made today by AHF President Michael Weinstein at an AHF press conference are false and seemingly based on rumor and innuendo gathered from unreliable sources.
During that press conference, Weinstein also falsely accused FSC of witholding information from public health authorities.
FSC has received no contact from LACPH, out-of-state health officials, or AHF.
“This is another prime example of AHF and its President Michael Weinstein’s outrageous grandstanding, which is completely false and baseless,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke. “AHF has a history of spreading misinformation in order to further their agenda to force government regulation of sexual behavior. Apparently, Mr. Weinstein will stop at nothing, including spreading false information, in order to call attention to AHF’s agenda.”
To FSC’s knowledge, there is no investigation being conducted by LACPH at this time. It is impossible for FSC to obstruct an investigation that, evidently, does not exist. In the event that FSC were to be contacted by authorities from LACPH or elswehere, it would endeavor to cooperate fully, while still protecting the rights of any individuals to medical privacy.
It should also be made clear that at this time FSC does not have authorized information confirming that a performer or any performers have tested positive for HIV. However, after reports received on Saturday were corroborated by various sources, there was enough serious concern regarding the possible infection for FSC to call a moratorium on production.
It also should be noted that the possible infection took place outside of California, and there is nothing to suggest that the Los Angeles adult production industry has been affected by any possible infections. However, adult production companies in Los Angeles have voluntarily agreed to the moratorium in order to eliminate the potential for exposure.
Also, the possible exposure and subsequent events took place outside of the APHSS.org database program and therefore, outside of the authority of FSC to implement industry exposure protocols. However, FSC has reached out to concerned parties and is providing assistance.
The APHSS.org database program was developed in order to fill the gap left by the closure of Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM) that, since 1998, had been the primary testing facility for adult performers. AIM was closed in May, largely due to financial pressure brought on by relentless litigation waged against them by AHF. FSC administers the APHSS.org program, which was launched on August 1, and still in the process of organizing producers, agents and performers for participation in the program.
“AHF’s campaign for mandatory condoms has done nothing but create controversy and, with the closure of AIM, has deprived the adult industry of an important health and safety resource,” Duke continued. “The industry has successfully self-regulated since 1998, due to AIM and the cooperation of the content production industry nationwide. However, without a similar system in place, the issue of industry protocols not being followed by separate testing facilities presents substantial difficulties for maintaining health and safety standards.”
FSC also has consulted with legal advisers in order to issue a demand for an immediate retraction from AHF.
Porn Panic 2011 -- The Series Continues: AHF Ratches Up The BS Propaganda Machine To Full Blast, Calls For Federal Investigation of Brazzers And Dings FSC/APHSS For "Stonewalling"
Oh, but Mike Weinstein's through fooling around now...he's getting real serious.
Get a load of this press release AHF just posted to Business Wire.com this afternoon. If only President Obama could be this aggessive.
Actually, for AHF, the truth is more like a roll of Charmin tissue. To wit:
First, you have the old and tired "23 performers contracting HIV in porn since 2004" meme....which seems quite drastic. Seems, that is....until you go "inside the numbers" and find out that only 4 of those cases involved :straight" heterosexual porn performers, and NONE of them were infected directly on set. (And the only questionable one, Derrick Burts of last year, even publically stated that he was infected in a gay scene...which included a condom.) 4 were private citizens using the services of then AIM for their own purposes, and the remainders were gay male porn performers...where a fundamentally different system of less testing (and CONDOMS, TOO!!!!) was being used. Even the LA Times, who is mostly sympathetic to the condom mandate cause, was smart enough to retract that stat...but Weinstein never let such things get in his way before, now hasn't he??
And then there is the "male performer working without condoms" libel...as if it's Brazzers' fault that the performer, if he did in fact get infected, was able to continue to shoot scenes with women. Remember that the performer was working off a negative test, albeit one that wasn't from a testing facility that had gotten under the umbrella of the Free Speech Coalition's APHSS program because the latter has only gotten started this past month.
Of course, the reason why APHSS was needed in the first place was because the older regimen that had been put in place by the earlier group AIM was shattered when AIM was put out of business...largely thanks to the hard work of AHF and Cal/OSHA's nuisance suits against them. Gee..ya think that would turn out well, Mike??
Excuse me a moment while I go through this laughing spasm.
Wait..there are FEDERAL health statutes out there that require all porn performers to use condoms?? Really, Mike?? So, what about all those damn bareback gay videos that you were selling in your Florida thrift stores recently?? Are you going to be filing federal and state complaints against those companies, too??
And this attempt at intimidating the FSC?? WOW. For an organization who has the full colluding support of the LA County health officials and Cal/OSHA, and who was able to bribe...errrrrrrrrrrrr, persuade four LA city councilmen to attempt to browbeat the LA City Attorney to force the LA film board to cancel all porn film permits until they go condom only, AND when stoned by the Attorney himself, go over his head to the California Supreme Court to get their way, to attempt to smack down FSC for "stonewalling", is chutzpah to the extreme. But to call FSC an "advocacy group" and "not qualified", and to turn the voluntary step of suspending production until all the testing is done as a "major public health event" and call for the total abolishment?? These jackals are making the words "hypocrisy" and "projection" into the understatements of the millenium...and we haven't even gotten through the second decade yet!!!
Oh, and unless Weinstein is pulling laws out of his ass as usual, I want anyone reading this to look deep into the Florida legal code and cite for me any sort of regulations where sites like Brazzers (or other home grown adult websites based in Florida) are mandated to use condoms for all of their scenes.
And also...someone please remind Mikey that organizations in California cannot be held resposible for acts of unrelated companies in Florida??
It should also be noted that none of the female performers who would potentially be affected have shot any content in California, and that the moratorium for all porn production is a voluntary preventative measure designed to protect everyone from accidental exposure while the whole situation is sorted out. Of course, the reason Weinstein wants to make it permanent is to totally break the industry so that AHF and Cal/OSHA can take over and impose his favored condom mandate plus pre-1994 testing regime...the very regime that led to umpteempt outbreaks in the past, when performers could buy and rig tests like derivatives.
One last thing, Mikey: THERE IS NO LOS ANGELES COUNTY INVESTIGATION ONGOING, BECAUSE THIS IS STRICTLY A FLORIDA SITUATION. You might want to recheck your sources on that one.
The most direct response to this particular Big Dam Lie is in two words: BULL. SHIT.
The more stacid response, though, is to simply point out that nowhere does FSC or APHSS ever call for an end to condom usage, nor do they even come close to advocating that performers who choose to use or wish their shooting partners to use condoms should be in any way discriminated against or or ostracized. They simply oppose having condom usage imposed by government fiat.
And notice the trend towards quoting unnamed "industry sources" to support Weinstein's whopping mischaracterization of both the alleged performer and his partners...as if all of them are nothing more than stupid promiscuous sluts who are incapable of protecting themselves. Until the test results come in, he knows exactly what the rest of us know: not a Goddess-damn thing.
Weinstein then goes on to pimp the LA condom mandate ordinance, which has already been debunked here before, so I won't bore you with that.
But after that, it actually gets interesting. Here's what AHF has in store for Brazzers locally:
Now...such "sanitary nuisance" regs are nomally used against those whom explicitly handle food (such as restaurants or diners) hazardous chemicals or forms of hazardous waste, or whom get close to any form of bodily fluids or internal human organs (such as medical professionals, morticians, and the like). I'm pretty damn sure that it has never been used against porn sites...but there's a first for anything.
But here's the really ironic point: for someone who says that he cares deeply about the well being and safety of porn performers so much, he's sure giving those who don't share his concern and who would much prefer the industry to be drop-kicked into either jail cells or simple nonexistence a really big hammer to sling against any and all adult sites. Imagine the Christian Right getting three like-minded citizens to file local nuisance charges against any woman running a porn site out of her home, for example. Hell, imagine Polk County Sheriff and antiporn zealout Grant Judd using that same hammer to shut down even anyone with a computer LOOKING at porn. Be careful of what you ask for, Michael, because you just might get it.
But then again, I'm guessing that since Governor Rick Scott has so shredded Florida state government as to render it unable to fulfill Weinstein's requests, and that the Miami-Dade officials have far more struggles and concerns on their hand than wet-nursing a false porn panic, he will simply do as he has done so well in Cali: exploit this to the fullest extent to shake people down for lots and lots of money for his coffers, to be shared with both the condom manufacturers who finance AHF and the crossover gay male performers -- some of whom may even be HIV+ -- that he is protecting and covering for.
Which means..this won't be the last propaganda presser we'll get from him.
I just wonder how long it will be for Florida to read him properly and give him the boot.
Get a load of this press release AHF just posted to Business Wire.com this afternoon. If only President Obama could be this aggessive.
Never mind that there hasn't even been a verification of even ONE performer testing positive for HIV, or the fact that the producer involved with the alleged "Patient Zero" has formally and publically denied that he had allowed that performer to do the shoot off a positive-confirmed test (the director said that in fact, the test was negative), and that no confirmation of any other performer being infected has been found or even any first- or second-generation confirmation tests done. When there's propaganda to be done, the truth is a natural distraction.HIV Porn Case: AHF to File Complaints with Federal & FL Health Officials against Producers
LOS ANGELES, Aug 31, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- --AHF officials will submit a health and safety complaint under Florida 'Sanitary Nuisance' statutes against Brazzers, the production company involved in the latest HIV case in the adult film industry; industry sources say male performer involved had worked directly with as many as a dozen female performers--Group also will call on the Free Speech Coalition to "stop obstructing the investigation in Los Angeles County and provide necessary information to health authorities" and will call on Los Angeles City officials to suspend all new film permits for adult films
Actually, for AHF, the truth is more like a roll of Charmin tissue. To wit:
In response to the latest reported HIV case in the adult film industry--thought to be the 23rd industry-related HIV case since 2004--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a press teleconference today, Wednesday, August 31st at 2:00 PM Pacific Time to announce the filing of a 'sanitary nuisance' health complaint with the Florida Department of Health and a similar letter of complaint with federal OSHA officials against Brazzers, the Florida-based adult film production company widely reported as the company where the infected performer was employed. Industry sources say the male performer involved had worked directly--and without condoms--with as many as a dozen female performers.Ahh...let's count the lies, shall we??
First, you have the old and tired "23 performers contracting HIV in porn since 2004" meme....which seems quite drastic. Seems, that is....until you go "inside the numbers" and find out that only 4 of those cases involved :straight" heterosexual porn performers, and NONE of them were infected directly on set. (And the only questionable one, Derrick Burts of last year, even publically stated that he was infected in a gay scene...which included a condom.) 4 were private citizens using the services of then AIM for their own purposes, and the remainders were gay male porn performers...where a fundamentally different system of less testing (and CONDOMS, TOO!!!!) was being used. Even the LA Times, who is mostly sympathetic to the condom mandate cause, was smart enough to retract that stat...but Weinstein never let such things get in his way before, now hasn't he??
And then there is the "male performer working without condoms" libel...as if it's Brazzers' fault that the performer, if he did in fact get infected, was able to continue to shoot scenes with women. Remember that the performer was working off a negative test, albeit one that wasn't from a testing facility that had gotten under the umbrella of the Free Speech Coalition's APHSS program because the latter has only gotten started this past month.
Of course, the reason why APHSS was needed in the first place was because the older regimen that had been put in place by the earlier group AIM was shattered when AIM was put out of business...largely thanks to the hard work of AHF and Cal/OSHA's nuisance suits against them. Gee..ya think that would turn out well, Mike??
"When will it end? This is yet another suspected case of HIV infection in the adult film industry. Given the wide reports, and given that Brazzers affirmatively states they do not use condoms--a violation of both state and federal health statutes--it makes sense to investigate them in the hopes of putting an end to further infections," said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "We are filing these complaints with Florida health officials and federal OSHA officials to prompt industry compliance with employee health and safety regulations and to spur proper and thorough public health investigations of this reported incident. In addition, we are calling on the Free Speech Coalition, the adult industry-sponsored advocacy group, to stop obstructing the investigation of this incident in Los Angeles County and provide all of the necessary information to public health authorities. FSC is an advocacy group, they are not authorized to do these health investigations, and they are not qualified. The pattern of non-cooperation that has characterized the industry and led to the current situation is continuing. It is the responsibility of Los Angeles County, which has not issued any statement to this point, to demand cooperation from the adult industry. Even though the initial exposure took place in Florida, the shutdown in LA constitutes a major public health event under the law. We are also reaffirming our call on the City of Los Angeles to stop issuing new permits."
Excuse me a moment while I go through this laughing spasm.
Wait..there are FEDERAL health statutes out there that require all porn performers to use condoms?? Really, Mike?? So, what about all those damn bareback gay videos that you were selling in your Florida thrift stores recently?? Are you going to be filing federal and state complaints against those companies, too??
And this attempt at intimidating the FSC?? WOW. For an organization who has the full colluding support of the LA County health officials and Cal/OSHA, and who was able to bribe...errrrrrrrrrrrr, persuade four LA city councilmen to attempt to browbeat the LA City Attorney to force the LA film board to cancel all porn film permits until they go condom only, AND when stoned by the Attorney himself, go over his head to the California Supreme Court to get their way, to attempt to smack down FSC for "stonewalling", is chutzpah to the extreme. But to call FSC an "advocacy group" and "not qualified", and to turn the voluntary step of suspending production until all the testing is done as a "major public health event" and call for the total abolishment?? These jackals are making the words "hypocrisy" and "projection" into the understatements of the millenium...and we haven't even gotten through the second decade yet!!!
Oh, and unless Weinstein is pulling laws out of his ass as usual, I want anyone reading this to look deep into the Florida legal code and cite for me any sort of regulations where sites like Brazzers (or other home grown adult websites based in Florida) are mandated to use condoms for all of their scenes.
And also...someone please remind Mikey that organizations in California cannot be held resposible for acts of unrelated companies in Florida??
It should also be noted that none of the female performers who would potentially be affected have shot any content in California, and that the moratorium for all porn production is a voluntary preventative measure designed to protect everyone from accidental exposure while the whole situation is sorted out. Of course, the reason Weinstein wants to make it permanent is to totally break the industry so that AHF and Cal/OSHA can take over and impose his favored condom mandate plus pre-1994 testing regime...the very regime that led to umpteempt outbreaks in the past, when performers could buy and rig tests like derivatives.
One last thing, Mikey: THERE IS NO LOS ANGELES COUNTY INVESTIGATION ONGOING, BECAUSE THIS IS STRICTLY A FLORIDA SITUATION. You might want to recheck your sources on that one.
The Free Speech Coalition (FSC)--which has fiercely opposed condom use in adult films--reported over the weekend that yet another adult film performer has tested HIV positive, and as a result, the industry group itself called for a moratorium on all adult film production, "...until possible first and second-generation exposures have been identified." Sources within the adult industry also said the performer is thought to be a male and had worked directly with as many as a dozen female performers, who in turn worked with scores of other performers.
The most direct response to this particular Big Dam Lie is in two words: BULL. SHIT.
The more stacid response, though, is to simply point out that nowhere does FSC or APHSS ever call for an end to condom usage, nor do they even come close to advocating that performers who choose to use or wish their shooting partners to use condoms should be in any way discriminated against or or ostracized. They simply oppose having condom usage imposed by government fiat.
And notice the trend towards quoting unnamed "industry sources" to support Weinstein's whopping mischaracterization of both the alleged performer and his partners...as if all of them are nothing more than stupid promiscuous sluts who are incapable of protecting themselves. Until the test results come in, he knows exactly what the rest of us know: not a Goddess-damn thing.
Weinstein then goes on to pimp the LA condom mandate ordinance, which has already been debunked here before, so I won't bore you with that.
But after that, it actually gets interesting. Here's what AHF has in store for Brazzers locally:
So, in effect, Michael Weinstein is going to pay off three "responsible resident citizens" of Miami/South Beach to file a complaint with the state and local departments of health asking them to investigate and potentially shut down Brazzers as a "sanitary nusiance" for....allowing for sex acts without the use of a condom???'Sanitary Nuisance' Complaints in FloridaUnlike California or the federal government, the State of Florida does not have a specifically designated occupational safety and health division. However, there is a "sanitary nuisance" law in the Florida Statutes. AHF believes that unprotected sex in a commercial setting should, arguably, fall under the definition of a "sanitary nuisance," since Florida law defines it as "any act" that may cause disease.386.01 Sanitary nuisance.--A sanitary nuisance is the commission of any act, by an individual, municipality, organization, or corporation, or the keeping, maintaining, propagation, existence, or permission of anything, by an individual, municipality, organization, or corporation, by which the health or life of an individual, or the health or lives of individuals, may be threatened or impaired, or by which or through which, directly or indirectly, disease may be caused.386.02 Duty of Department of Health.--The Department of Health, upon request of the proper authorities, or of any three responsible resident citizens, or whenever it may seem necessary to the department, shall investigate the sanitary condition of any city, town, or place in the state; and if, upon examination, the department shall ascertain the existence of any sanitary nuisance as herein defined, it shall serve notice upon the proper party or parties to remove or abate the said nuisance or, if necessary, proceed to remove or abate the said nuisance in the manner provided in s. 823.01.As such, three "responsible resident citizens" will file complaints with the Florida Department of Health asking them to investigate a sanitary nuisance--unprotected sex taking place on adult film productions in the state.There is also a Miami-Dade County "sanitary nuisance" law as well (Miami-Dade County Municipal Ordinances Chapter 26A). It uses a similar definition of "sanitary nuisance" as the state law, and it provides for the Director of the Dade County Department of Public Health to investigate nuisances.
Now...such "sanitary nuisance" regs are nomally used against those whom explicitly handle food (such as restaurants or diners) hazardous chemicals or forms of hazardous waste, or whom get close to any form of bodily fluids or internal human organs (such as medical professionals, morticians, and the like). I'm pretty damn sure that it has never been used against porn sites...but there's a first for anything.
But here's the really ironic point: for someone who says that he cares deeply about the well being and safety of porn performers so much, he's sure giving those who don't share his concern and who would much prefer the industry to be drop-kicked into either jail cells or simple nonexistence a really big hammer to sling against any and all adult sites. Imagine the Christian Right getting three like-minded citizens to file local nuisance charges against any woman running a porn site out of her home, for example. Hell, imagine Polk County Sheriff and antiporn zealout Grant Judd using that same hammer to shut down even anyone with a computer LOOKING at porn. Be careful of what you ask for, Michael, because you just might get it.
But then again, I'm guessing that since Governor Rick Scott has so shredded Florida state government as to render it unable to fulfill Weinstein's requests, and that the Miami-Dade officials have far more struggles and concerns on their hand than wet-nursing a false porn panic, he will simply do as he has done so well in Cali: exploit this to the fullest extent to shake people down for lots and lots of money for his coffers, to be shared with both the condom manufacturers who finance AHF and the crossover gay male performers -- some of whom may even be HIV+ -- that he is protecting and covering for.
Which means..this won't be the last propaganda presser we'll get from him.
I just wonder how long it will be for Florida to read him properly and give him the boot.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Porn Panic 2011 Redux #2: Jordan Owen States The Obvious About The Dishonesty Of AHF
Not many people can advocate for adult sexual expression quite like Jordan Owen.
I may not personally agree sometimes with his libertarian conservative "individualistic" perspective, but Jordan is gifted in the art of cutting through the BS of arguments of antiporn activists. He just finished a long series where he totally debunked Gail Dines' recent tome Pornland., and he has also done series debunking the idiocy of Shelley Lubben, Patrick Trueman, and other antiporn/antisex activists.
Today, at his YouTube channel, he posted a video reflecting his own thoughts on the recent HIV porn panic, the credibility of Derrick Burts as a spokesperson for the aggrieved "victim" of the industry (conveniently ignoring his Rentboy.com membership and the fact that the scene he claims he got infected in did in fact include a condom), the menacity of AHF in attempting to replace AIM as the main regulator of the California adult industry, and the illogic of the proposed LA ordinance. It is so powerful that I've decided to mirror it here for your reading enjoyment.
I most certainly recommend that you visit his channel for lots of truth and wisdom. Also, feel free to check out his Facebook page as well.
I may not personally agree sometimes with his libertarian conservative "individualistic" perspective, but Jordan is gifted in the art of cutting through the BS of arguments of antiporn activists. He just finished a long series where he totally debunked Gail Dines' recent tome Pornland., and he has also done series debunking the idiocy of Shelley Lubben, Patrick Trueman, and other antiporn/antisex activists.
Today, at his YouTube channel, he posted a video reflecting his own thoughts on the recent HIV porn panic, the credibility of Derrick Burts as a spokesperson for the aggrieved "victim" of the industry (conveniently ignoring his Rentboy.com membership and the fact that the scene he claims he got infected in did in fact include a condom), the menacity of AHF in attempting to replace AIM as the main regulator of the California adult industry, and the illogic of the proposed LA ordinance. It is so powerful that I've decided to mirror it here for your reading enjoyment.
I most certainly recommend that you visit his channel for lots of truth and wisdom. Also, feel free to check out his Facebook page as well.
Jordan Owen (JordanOwen42) giving his personal reflections on the latest
HIV-in-porn scare, the AHF, Shelley Lubben, and the proposed LA
condom ordinance (via YouTube)
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