Jewish Currents Says: "Happy Birthday to Nina!"

Spank me if you must, but I am a victim of Spock Shock.

Having been major-league distracted by the death of Leonard Nimoy - my childhood idol, inspirer of America's first female-authored hard-core porn ("slash"), nude photographer of plus-sized women - I forgot that today was Nina Hartley's birthday.

But you know who did NOT forget?  Jewish Currents magazine, that's who!  In their Jewdayo daily feature (inspired by Harry Belafonte's classic 'Dayo'), they hit the nail on the head 650 times:

JEWDAYO          A project of Jewish Currents   SPRING'S A-COMIN'!  Please watch our editor's two-minute video version of "Jewish Lunacy" at our multi-media room.   And check out these resources for your Passover preparations, only $5 each at our Pushcart: Porn actress and entrepreneur Nina Hartley (Marie Louise Hartman) was born to communist parents in California on this date in 1959. Her mother was Jewish, from Alabama, her father Lutheran -- and both became Buddhists. Hartley was studying to be a registered nurse when she entered into adult films in 1984; she achieved her nursing license, but with 650 porn films on her resumé, she's mostly used porn rather than medicine to "heal the sick." Hartley has described herself as a socialist and a sex-positive feminist, and is an outspoken defender of the industry in which she's made her career. If you're in it "for the wrong reasons," she says, "it's going to hurt your spirit. That's where the religious right is correct." But porn, she argues, provides a righteous and well-paid career for women who are highly sexed and free-spirited, and women in the business have high status and clout. Hartley has appeared at hundreds of feminist, free speech, show biz, and porn-industry venues; she sees herself as a sex educator and liberationist. " Sex isn't something men do to you," she says. "It isn't something men get out of you. Sex is something you dive into with gusto and like it every bit as much as he does." To see her giving a talk about communication and generosity in bed, click here and scroll down. To read her talking with Sheldon Ranz about porn and Jews (in Shmate magazine, way back when), clickhere. "The drawback of being in the adult entertainment business is that mainstream culture does not take me seriously. They don't take my ideas about sex seriously.... They still think that they get to point and judge. They still think they know something about me ... and conclude that I must be mentally ill, I must have had a bad childhood, I must be unhappy ..." --Nina Hartley Want to comment? Click here. On this Jewdayo in 2014:   Ezra Jack Keats (with video)  On this Jewdayo in 2013: Reconstructionism's Gay-Affirmative Policies On this Jewdayo in 2012: The Hanafi Muslim Siege On This Jewdayo in 2011: The Roxie Theater

Because Porn Women Are People Too: Support Cytherea's Recovery Through You Caring

I would have hoped that once I removed the widget for Christy Mack's donation drive for recovery from War Machine's abuse, it would be the last time I'd have to reference an assault on a sex worker/performer. Sad to say, though, once again I have to come forth with a plea for supporting one of our sheroes.

Cytherea was a very popular adult performer in the late 90's and early 2000's, known originally as "Squirtwoman" due to her propensity for major gushing of her....shall we say, her lady pleasure juices. She retired from feature performing in the mid 2000's to pursue a more normal "soccer MILF" life.

Unfortunately, that life took a viciously tragic turn last month, when a group of thugs broke into her home while she and her family were present. Cytherea was badly beaten and sexually assaulted (yes, that means she was raped); and her home was robbed of several valuables.

The perpetrators of the robbery/assault have been apprehended and are currently awaiting trial; but the aftereffects of their attack have seriously affected Cytherea both personally and financially. Hence, a fundraising drive has been established through the site YouCaring.com by close friend/current performer Joclyn Stone, with the backing of TRPWL.

In addition, other performers have rallied in support of Cytherea as well: Mercedes Carrera, known mostly as one of the fast rising porn girls as much as for her past educational achievements, is dedicating all of the proceeds of her camshows for this week to Cytherea's recovery fund. Her announcement of this on her YouTube channel also includes a biting rant at what she sees as the silence of feminists in supporting sex workers who are victims of assault. Here's her rant, taken before tonight's camshow:

In support and solidarity for Cytherea, I have added a widget for her fundraiser to the sidebar of this blog's home page. Please, y'allz...give whatever you can to help her.

Also....here's Cytherea giving her thanks to all who have and will contribute (from TRPWL):

May she get a full recovery, and the perpetrators of her assault get the justice they deserve.

HIV Porn Panic Returneth: The Latest HIV Gay Porn Scare, And The AHF/CalOSHA Attempt To Stoke Peak BS For Their Condom Mandate

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Sigh....Another Month, Another HIV Porn Scare, And Another False Flag

I know....the blog has been kinda sparse of late, because of both a lack of news and my night job interfering with my ability to post on issues. My sincere apologies for that.

This past week, though, was more than enough to break out of the mothballs with yet another potential HIV scare delivered at the adult media industry. Fortunately, like most of the previous scares, it has a somewhat happy ending, but not without its controversy.

On this last Wednesday, the Free Speech Coalition stunned the industry with a rushed announcement that a "precautionary hold" on porn production would be imposed for three days, pending the outcome of testing for a possible HIV infection that may have took place outside of California. The semi-moratorium, shall we call it, was precipitated on an alert by an unidentified state health care official that a perfomer (probably ex-performer, though that status was unclear) that had been confirmed with HIV who didn't use the protocols of the PASS system of testing, might have had sexual contact off set with another performer who did regularly use the protocols. This triggered the usual procedure of testing both the current performer and all his first-generation contacts, as well as this "precautionary" moratorium as a stopgap.

Keep in mind, this is different from the usual procedure regarding FSCPASS protocols, where a full moratorium is declared whenever there is a positive or reactive HIV test, pending the results of confirmatory and first-gen tests. In this case, the semi-moratorium was declared as a precaution, so that testing of the individual performer and his recent contacts could commence. Since the Aptima tests that FSCPASS uses generally posts results in 48-72 hours, it was thought that 3 days would be enough of a period to perform the testing...hence, the brief length rather than the full 2-week moratorium.

The only fly in the ointment, figuratively speaking, was that one of the first-gen contacts of the performer was not originally available for testing due to being out of the state/country....so everything had to pushed forward through the weekend. Hence, FSCPASS on Saturday announced that the "semi-moratorium" had to be extended through Monday to tie up the loose ends. Michael Whiteacre of The Real Porn Wikileaks gives a thorough explanation of the reasons for the delay here, in response to critics.

Thankfully, everything seems to have turned out OK, because yesterday afternoon, FSCPASS announced that everyone had been cleared, the performer pool had not been contaminated, and that the moratorium was officially lifted; allowing production to resume.

Nevertheless, there has been some grumbling from the usual sources that: either FSCPASS acted too soon to lift the moratorium before the risk could be fully accessed, because people can lie to officials about their sexual contacts; or all this was a ruse to fill FSC's coffers.

Personally, I have my own druthers that this was all a false flag campaign by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's usual groupies to contaminate the adult performer pool, and use the resulting fear to once again sell the condom mandate. The fact that AHF shill Isadore Hall used the brohaha to announce his intentions to run for a California State Senate seat (Hall is term-limited out of his current Assembly seat), is just a bit too coincidental. Also, Shelley Lubben has briefly diverted from her crusade miming Belle Knox to pass a comment about another "scare".

In any case, all's well that ends well....I'm guessing, though, this won't be the last attempt to game the system by far.

Ahhhhh....OOPS!! (And Hallelujah!!!) Latest Performer Test Was False Positive; Moratorium Lifted

For those of you who were just itching to write more of your panic screeds about the latest HIV panic in porn due to a initial "reactive" test of a performer last Wednesday? Fire up your shredders, please.

The confirmatory tests came in today for the affected performer....and it all turned out to be...a false positive.

The original sample that produced the tainted results was retested; as well as a fresh sample. Both came up negative for HIV (and I suppose, the rest of the panel).

Also, all the 1st generation contacts of the performer who were tested came up negative as well.

With that, FSCPASS has closed the book on this "scare", and lifted the moratorium on production imposed on Wednesday.

Here's FSC's full announement:

Yesterday’s potentially positive HIV test by adult performer was a false positive. The performer does not have HIV.  Additionally, the first generation performers who were tested proactively have also come back negative. Production on adult film can resume safely.
We understand that a moratorium is nerve-wracking for performers and difficult for producers. However, it’s essential that when it comes to performer safety, we err on the side of caution. We thank the producers, performers, agents and doctors who worked together during this difficult time for maintaining the moratorium, and for quickly helping establish a list of first generation contacts. While this was a false positive, it is always essential that we remain vigilant in concern to performer health.

The moratorium and testing system has enabled us to prevent any transmission of HIV on an adult film set for over ten years. While opponents of the industry often use our periodic moratoriums as evidence that adult sets are not safe, quite the opposite is true. Moratoriums have and continue to enable us to prevent HIV from being transmitted between adult performers.

Again, we thank everyone who worked so diligently and concertedly to protect performers during this current moratorium.

 So, once again, the FSCPASS system is proven to work. And, once again, certain town criers hoping for another crisis to push their agenda are wiping the egg off their face. AGAIN.

Either way, we can now exhale and celebrate.

And Away We Go Again: Another Potential HIV Scare, Another Moratorium...Another Nail In The Coffin For Condomless Porn??

Here. We. Go. AGAIN.

(August 28, 2014) – Free Speech Coalition (FSC), the adult industry trade association, called for a production moratorium today after one of the testing facilities in its PASS testing system reported a possible positive HIV test for an adult performer.

“There was a positive test at one of our testing centers. Confirmatory tests are not yet back but we are taking every precaution to protect performers and to determine if there’s been any threat to the performer pool,” said FSC CEO Diane Duke.

“We take the health of our performers very seriously and felt that it was better to err on the side of caution while we determine whether anyone else may have been exposed.”
The next steps will be to perform additional tests, determine a timeline, and identify any first generation partners.

“We want to make sure all performers are protected. The performers’ health and safety is the most important thing,” Duke added.

As of this notice, FSC calls for all production to halt immediately, until further notice.

As this only broke yesterday afternoon, speculation is running rife about the identity of the affected performer, how or if she got infected (or whether or not this may be a false positive), and whether or not the impact of this new moratorium will be enough to undercut performer solidarity in favor of mandatory condoms. However, the following is known information, based on actual verifiable sources (and documented over at The Real Porn Wikileaks blog):

1) The initial reactive test results were preliminary; confirmatory testing has been done on the affected performer and all her 1st-generation on-screen partners, with results due to be released later today at the earliest.

2) At least four major performers have been verified to be part of the 1st gen quarantine list, and have been tested. That does NOT mean that they are indeed infected, just that they have engaged with the performer most directly isolated. Since 2004, it should be noted, there has not been one case of any performer getting infected with HIV on set.

3) According to Michael Whiteacre over at TRPWL, the affected performer is in her 30's, has performed for around a year in adult, has maintained a regular two-week testing regimen with FSCPASS (including a full panel of testing at the beginning of the month), and is romanticaly involved with another performer.

(Per BPPA policy, we do not and will NOT ever reveal the name of any potentially infected performer or 1st gen partner without direct permission or until they themselves feel fit to reveal themselves publically. Any attempt to reveal such info via comments or linkage on this blog will be immediately deleted and/or redacted.)


Not surprisingly, all the usual peanut gallery rogues are at their loudest squawking tones about how this latest "infection" proves once and for all that only condoms can protect performers from HIV; and that the FSCPASS protocols are an abject failure for HIV prevention. Then again, they were pitching the same BS for the last two or three "outbreaks", and they were proven so wrong.

At least this time, there are sane voices out there calling for calm and solidarity.....the newly formed performers' group Adult Performers' Advocacy Committee (APAC) released a timely and well structured statement on the latest scare that deserves reprinting in its entirity for its depth of common sense and reason in the face of the fear and psycho terror that must be affecting a lot of LA performers.

APAC is requesting that all adult performers honor PASS’s call for a moratorium and treat each other with compassion and respect during this time.

When an industry moratorium, especially one related to HIV, occurs, performers are often concerned about their health, the health of their co-workers, their financial security, and public perception of the porn industry. Fear and mistrust are understandable reactions. Desire for facts and belief in rumors when no facts are available are also understandable reactions.

The only facts available at this time are that a positive HIV result has been reported to the FSC and that a call has been made to stop all production while a confirmatory test is done.

The Adult Performer Advocacy Committee’s mission is to support the safety, happiness, and well-being of individual performers, and our community. Therefore we stand against blaming specific performers for contracting HIV, and we encourage them to take steps to ensure HIV- negative scene partners are not exposed. We also firmly stand against any homophobia (ie blaming “crossover” performers or gay studios) in a time of industry moratorium.

APAC is asking all performers to refrain from exchanging body fluids during this moratorium. This includes girl-girl only performers, trans performers, “gay” performers, queer performers, and “straight” performers, and includes performers based out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, and anywhere else adult productions are shot in the United States or with performers who have recently been here. This also includes trade shoots and recreational activities.

The blending of gay and straight performers; transgender and cisgender performers; queer, homo- and heterosexual sexualities; is an increasing reality in our industry. There is no “gay” or straight” industry, even if there are straight and gay audiences.

HIV is not transmitted by gay people to straight people, it is transmitted from a positive partner to a negative partner by very specific sexual acts that are not specific to sexual orientation.

This request to honor the current moratorium is made for the safety of our community as a whole and for your safety. Regardless of your feelings towards the FSC or any other entity in the adult film industry, we believe this is the right thing to do.

APAC is also asking fellow performers to show compassion towards each other and to our unnamed peer who is currently waiting for the results of their confirmatory test. Their entire life has just been turned upside down and shaken. Any one of us could be in that person’s shoes. Think about what it might be like to be in those shoes before you point fingers, throw accusations around, or tweet about who you might guess they are.

As performers, it is our responsibility to understand how HIV is transmitted and to show care for other performers. At APAC, we offer resources on HIV and STI education and a private, performer only platform for performers to support and discuss concerns about moratoriums with each other.

Moratoriums are an opportunity for performers to be a voice of reason and stability about sexual health, to educate ourselves, and to show care for each other.

When moratorium-related concerns turn into anxious blame or trying to figure out whose “fault” it is, performers are pitted against one another.

When these concerns are instead played out as care for one another, our industry and the community of performers becomes stronger.

APAC encourages performers to reach out to their existing support systems, and to remember we’re all in this together and should be able to lean on each other.

Personally, I think that this is the direct effect of laws like Measure B coming back to bite some asses hard by driving performers underground into less safe ventures. A part of me that's more into conspiracies might see the hand of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in all this, paying and supporting "moles" to infect performers "off-the-clock", or introduce HIV+ "crossover" performers into the adult performer pool in order to poison it, and use the insuing panic and terror based on the fear of an outbreak and the loss of livelihood during the moratoria period to push their "condoms only" agenda. (That's solely MY opinion, not reflective of anybody else here at BPPA.)

But, that's not important right now. The real thing at the moment is to remain calm and await the results of the testing, and then act accordingly as to what the legitimate level of threat really is. This could be bigger than what took place in 2004 with Darren James; it could also be a false positive. Or, it could be just like many of the other "outbreaks" we've seen these last two years: an isolated off-the-clock event that was caught before anyone else got harmed.  What we will see, we will see.

AHF's Latest Diversionary Bedazzle of BS: Attack Kink.com Oral/Toy Shoot In Nevada For....What Now???

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Because Porn Women Are People Too...BPPA Supports Christy Mack

This blog would not even exist were it not for the labor and beauty of its female performers.

Yes, the male performers have more than just a bit to do with the success of porn, too....but it's the females who are out there, naked in more ways than you can imagine, taking all the risks to sell the belief that sex isn't a horrible thing after all.

The fundamental principle that BPPA was founded on from the very beginning up to today is that performers who do explicit adult sexual entertainment are as human as anyone else in any other profession, worthy of equal rights and responsibilities and respect for what they offer.

 Christy Mack, posing for her Inked Magazine cover (via her Twitter page)

It is in that fundamental principle that we rise in support of performer Christy Mack in the wake of the absolutely horrific violent assault and battery and even attempted murder she suffered recently at the alleged hands of her former boyfriend Johnathan Koppenhaver, aka MMA fighter "War Machine".

I could go off for paragraphs on what this says about the misplaced hyperaggression of violent sports, or on how the media and sex-negative culture tends to dismiss violence against sexually assertive women or women involved in one form of another of sex work/sexual entertainment because "sluts/whores/tramps get what they deserve"...but that's not really important right now.


The most important thing is that Christy get the chance to fully recover and heal from both the physical and psychological injuries to both her body and her soul. Her own personal strength will do a lot to get her through, but it's not so bad to give her some boost through our own.

A fundraising drive is currently ongoing for Christy's mounting medical bills through GiveForward.com (which, hopefully, has learned their lesson from the Eden Alexander debacle not to dismiss porn women so lightly). I've added a special widget/gadget (please, Blogger, get with the program!!!) in the blog sidebar for those who want to donate generously.

You don't have to sell your house, or your car, or anything drastic...just collect some pennies or dimes or quarters and help an awesome porn woman heal, recover, and reload.

Too Close For Comfort, But #BAHLOCKED Again!!! For Realz, Too!!! Condom Mandate Bill AB 1576 Finally Whacked By California Senate For 2014 Year

It may have gone on a bit longer for some people's comfort, but the battle over #AB 1576, Isadore Hall's proposed condom mandate/testing/documentation for porn bill finally ended last Wednesday, when the California State Senate Appropriations Committee tabled the bill without a vote, or even bringing it up.

Last week, after testimonials both for and against the bill, which would have mandated both condom usage and testing for all shoots performed within 14 days, that committee placed the bill "in suspense" without a vote, essentially preparing the bill for ultimate closure.

The main sticking point was more than likely that the bill would have violated the fiscal threshhold limit of $150,000 for costs of enforcement, which is the standard used for rendering a bill fiscally responsible enough. However, the fact that the industry rallied hard, and was able to actually turn some favorite press with some powerful mainstream institutions (including this powerful editorial from the Los Angeles Times), combined with the universal opposition ofporn production companies including Kink.com, and  performers, led admirably by Lorelei Lee, to name just one of many, was as much a factor as any.

Considering the pessimism that existed when AB 1576 was able to pass the California Assembly generally with little discussion or debate, the quick turnaround was indeed surprising, yet most certainly welcomed, in the midst of this bad lawmaking.

Both Assemblyman Hall (who will be term-limited out of his seat after this year, but is comtemplating a run for the Cali Senate), and his backers at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, issued the usual press releases expressing such sorrow that the Senate decided to place "profit" over "worker protection", and AHF announced that they would try again next year with similar legislation.

So...that's one less stumbing block for the LA- and California-based adult entertainment industry to endure. There's still the ongoing court cases over both Measure B (the original referendum which imposed the condom mandate on most of Los Angeles County), as well as the original ordinance passed in the City of Los Angeles. Plus, there is the continuing attempt by CalOSHA, assisted by AHF, to rewrite the workplace codes to impose mandatory "barrier" protection for adult performers, via proposed CCR 5193.1, and expand that nationally through the federal branch of OSHA.

But, at least for now, the threat to porn production in California is significantly less than it was even one week ago. Props to the good guys for winning one, and may this be only the end of the beginning.

More info via TRPWL, XBiz.com, and AVN.

AVN's Mark Kernes Chases The #AB1576 "Crapnado"; Survives To Tell The Story

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