Showing posts with label LA Condom Ordinance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LA Condom Ordinance. Show all posts

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Porn Panic 2012: AHF Gets Their Sigs For Their LA County Condom Mandate Initiative; And LA City Council Punts City Mandate To Another Committee

Two developments today in The Great Condom Mandate War, and both of them not so good for the good guys.

First off: Michael Fattorosi has just tweeted at his @Pornlaw Twitter stream that AHF has now announced that they now has achieved enough signatures to have their condom mandate initiative sent to the voters of that county later this year.

And now, it has been confirmed by LAWeekly as well:


The AIDS Healthcare Foundation will turn in signatures tomorrow in its bid to put mandatory condom use for the area porn industry before L.A. county voters, AHF chief Michael Weinstein told the Weekly.

The group has more than 300,000 signatures, more than 30 boxes worth, that it will haul to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's office in Norwalk Friday morning, said another AHF official.

That means ...

... that you will likely be voting on the matter in November, because the group only needs about 232,153 valid, registered voters to sign on: The Registrar-Recorder still needs to validate the signatures and approve the measure for ballot placement.
The other news actually happened yesterday, when the LA City Council basically decided what they were going to do to enforce their new condom mandate law after the Adult Working Group committee which was supposed to draft new rules of enforcement tapped out without any resolution.

Their solution: kick it to another committee, this one featuring their own!!

The story from the Free Speech Coalition website:
CANOGA PARK, Calif. – Free Speech Coalition (FSC) was notified today by the L.A. City Administrator’s Office that the L.A. City Council has referred development of enforcement strategy for the city condom ordinance to the Arts, Parks, Health & Aging Committee.

Until recently, the development of an implementation and enforcement strategy had been charged to the City Administrator-appointed Working Group on the City of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Ordinance. At the last meeting of the working group on May 11, the group postponed submitting the results of a report that would have recommended protocols for enforcing condom use on adult productions.

A few days later, it was widely reported that the working group had requested a 90-day extension of presenting the results of the report.

It is unclear why the issue has been referred to the Arts, Parks, Health & Aging Committee. That committee is made up of three L.A. City Council members, including Councilmen Richard Alarcon (7th District), Tom LaBonge (4th District) and Ed P. Reyes (1st District).

I'd say that it's because the council doesn't trust anyone else to voluntary enforce the law, so they want to railroad the process through.

It does mean that there probably will be that 90-day delay in implementation until the new committee reaches a consensus.

That previously mentioned LA Weekly article also noted that Weinstein had said that contrary to other reports, he would not seek a Request For Proposal (RFP) for AHF to bid for becoming the enforcers of the law, rather allowing the committee to resolve the issue. That probably means the committee will browbeat the LA Vice department and FilmLA to do the dirty bidding of being the "condom police". Weinstein also said that he would be willing to accept a 90-day delay; which conflicts with the POV of his legal counsel, Mark McGrath, who wasn't too happy of the "stonewalling" at the meeting today.

The bottom line remains the same: the battle isn't over; it's only just begun. The lawsuits are about to hit the fan the way Hurricane Katrina hit the Ninth Ward levees. Buckle up, Clones.


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Why AHF Might Want To Consider Putting Gail Dines On Their Payroll: The War On AIM And....JM Productions???

[Updated...scroll to bottom.]

There are some who still think that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is sincere in their motives about protecting performers through their condom mandate.

And then, there are the rest of us, who see them for what they are: a backdoor antiporn censorship group who hides behind a rainbow just to get paid.

More proof of the latter??

Gene Ross over at AdultFYI just posted a reprint of an email that AHF chief counsel Brian Chase sent to AHF President Michael Weinstein on April of 2010, in which Chase describes what he imagines to be the best media strategy to get the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Foundation out of business. You will remember, of course, that AIM was ultimately driven out of business in 2011 due to the concerted efforts of AHF's nusiance lawsuits, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's investigations, and the newly found requirement of a permit for non-profit organizations.

But at the time of Chase's email to Weinstein, the effort was just starting, and ideas for a media campaign to smear AIM for its alleged lax attitudes towards the alleged HIV/STI pandemic affecting the industry were only being fleshed.

So, what in particular did Chase have in mind for ambushing AIM?? How about linking them to a particularly gruesome "misogynous" porn site, like, say, JM Productions??

Keep in mind, also, that right about this time, AHF was already attempting to wax AIM through the lawsuit filed by Diana Grandmaison (you may know her better as the mom portion of the mother-daughter team of "Desi and Elli Foxx"), claiming neglect by AIM for the public release of her personal medical records to one of Donny Long's (he of the original PornWikileaks fame) message boards.

Apparently, though, that wasn't enough for Chase, who.....ahh, hell; I'll just let the email speak for itself.

On April 16, 2010, Brian Chase the assistant general counsel for Aids Healthcare Foundation emailed Michael Weinstein. AHF was looking for various ways to discredit AIM and the porn industry. Chase [pictured left] wanted to use Diana Grandmaison aka Desi Foxx [center] as a puppet in their production. But Chase also wanted to go after Jeff Mike, the owner of JM productions.

Chase suggested that AHF begin targeting Mike because he was volatile and likely to same something dumb to the mainstream press.

"I don’t think it would confuse our press strategy to go after both AIM and porn companies," Chase writes Weinstein.

"I think it would have the opposite effect. If we make the suit it all about AIM, they can try to portray themselves as the little nonprofit clinic that’s just trying to keep the girls healthy. We know that’s a lie, but it is difficult to rebut in a sound byte.

"If we go after JM Productions at the same time we attack AIM, we link AIM to JM Productions. Suddenly they aren’t just an innocent clinic serving sex workers - they are scum who are enabling the horrible abuse of women - we can frame the issue and ramp up the ick factor exponentially.

"JM produces series like 'American Gokkun' where women swallow ejaculate from hundreds of men, and 'DP Virgins' where each actress has unprotected anal and vaginal double penetration," Chase continues.

"They also produce a series called 'gag factor' where women sometimes vomit because they can’t breathe while giving oral sex. They have a series featuring women being anally penetrated bareback while the man shoves the woman’s head in a toilet. Let AIM try to defend that.

"Check this out this quote from JM Productions’ website," Chase goes on to say.

"'Watch as faces turn blue from a lack of oxygen in this throat fucking masterpiece. Each whore is brutally throatfucked for your viewing pleasure. Every cock is forced down virgin throats balls deep, and ever cum shot must be swallowed.'"

"If we just sue AIM, then it’s all about privacy rights and medical records (yawn). If we go for both, we show that AIM is just another cog in the machine that brutally abuses these girls without any regard to their emotional or physical well-being.

"Plus the owner of JM Productions is a lunatic. He fought off an obscenity prosecution a few years back and he loves to shoot off his mouth. When the press goes for the industry’s side of the story, they will probably get some great soundbytes from this guy - which will cut into any efforts AIM makes to defend itself in the press.

"Sharon Mitchell will have some well-crafted soundbytes from the FSC, but the folks at JM Productions will just say whatever they want, which could be great for us."

Now, when reading this, keep in mind that this is the same Michael Weinstein who was selling bareback gay sex videos at his thrift stores, and who probably would have no problem at all making money off gay porn selling the same throat-gagging, "body punishing", "brutal" sex.

But what fascinates me the most is that for someone who claims to only want to protect the performers, AHF sure sounds like another well known antiporn feminist activist I've heard of; one who spouts pretty much the same BS in pretty much the same language.

Maybe at their next presser, for maximum boostage, Weinstein should have both Shelley Lubben and Gail Dines at his side to rail against the evil porn industry and how they are simply abusers and exploiters? It would be a hell of a lot more truthful than their paternalistic pandering to be all "concerned" about protecting women performers.

Not to mention, covering up for crossover HIV+ performers..but that's another story I'll leave for others to tell.


Update:  


Oh, but it just gets better...in a followup post at AdultFYI, Gene Ross reveals an earlier email sent by Brian Chase to Michael Weinstein, in which Chase attempts to recruit Diane Grandmasion (nee Desi Foxx) to the campaign against AIM.


Hey Michael,

Dee Grandmaison [Desi Foxx] is the former adult film actress who now works with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking. She is the one who is willing to be a plaintiff against AIM.

We may also be able to help Dee sue her former employer directly. The California Private Attorney General law gives employees pretty broad power to sue for breached labor laws – and under some circumstances it allows a single employee to sue on behalf of other employees to recover huge fines (most of which end up being paid to the state).

Dee worked for JM Productions, which is a prolific studio that churns out very unsafe gonzo porn. The owner is a real scumbag and he is very outspoken. He would make a great villain. If we can go after JM we could highlight a very unsafe workplace, and possibly get some $$$ for the bankrupt state government.


Dee and her daughter worked with some of the talent agents we complained against yesterday. We might want to have them file complaints as well.
Can we fly Dee out here, or can I fly to Florida to visit her? I think we need to have a face-to-face meeting in the near future.


This is fascinating in so many ways.

First, how in the hell did Diane (get the name right, Mr. Chase!!) Grandmaison go from not only being a full-time in house escort (even going as far as recruiting her own daughter into hooking as well), to becoming a spokesperson for an anti-prostitution abolitionist group so quickly??

Secondly, the fact that she did some scenes with JM Productions means...what?? That they forced her to do those nasty scenes of bukkake and deep throating?? Other than the usual antiporn agitprop, exactly how would that be credible in a court of law..and what would AIM, who only tests performers for STD's, have anything to do with that?

But here's where it gets real good. This email was dated before it was discovered that Desi's medical records had been leaked to the public via the original PornWikileaks. Yet, AHF's counsel decided not to pursue any action against Donny Long or his gaggle of groups involved in the raid of AIM's database, but instead focused their laser beam stun guns exclusively on AIM, aiding Grandmaison's ultimate lawsuit against the latter for the release of her records. (Ultimately, the FBI would be called in to launch a more comprehensive investigation, the results of which remain unknown.)

Two conclusions are inevitable from this.  Either AIM is really that incompetent with their databases, or there was a mole working for AHF (or maybe Pink Cross) who was sneaking personal records to PWL for smearing purposes.

Could it be that Weinstein, Lubben, and PWL might have been working together in collusion to entrap AIM (and by extension, the industry), and Diane Grandmasion was simply the pawn in their scheme??

And of course, getting money for "our bankrupt state government".  Yeah...but not without our 20% cut. Nice to see Chase remembers the fundamentals: do good, and get paid.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Porn Panic 2012: The "Weinstein-Lubben Model" Of Sex Containment Hits LA Hard; Immoral Productions Busted By Vice Already

UPDATED....scroll to bottom.

A lot of people were fearing the day when the LA condom mandate law would begin to be enforced.  That day came yesterday, and it probably won't be the last day, either.

On the eve of what was supposed to be the final meeting of the Los Angeles City Council committee drafted to set the parameters of enforcing the newly passed ordinance, the porn production/cam company Immoral Productions, directed by "PornoDan" Neal, was hit with a unexpected bust by the LA Vice department, and thusly charged with violating the law, which states that all adult prodution within the city of LA must have a valid permit, and must also, in exchange for that permit, mandate that male performers wear condoms in their sex scenes. (There are some exceptions for those shoots with their own sound stages located in site.)

Here is the full accounting from XBiz.com:

LOS ANGELES — Immoral Productions received a citation from the Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday night for filming without a permit, CEO Dan Leal confirmed to XBIZ.
Leal said that eight officers from the LAPD's Vice Division visited the Immoral Productions studio in Chatsworth, where an independent contractor for Immoral was preparing to shoot an advertising spot with a handful of adult performers. Immoral produces numerous different live cam shows at the studio that are also later packaged for DVD distribution.
Leal was not at the studio Thursday during the visit, but he says he will appear in court on June 7 for the citation. He told XBIZ it was his understanding that he was specifically targeted by the LAPD, and that other webcam shooters should be aware that they also will have to obtain a permit in order to shoot or risk citations.
The LAPD officers were only at the studio for about 15 minutes, Leal said.
Of course, no one knows what the actual citations or punishments for violating the law will be, or whether or not, given the economic depression, LA Vice actually has enough juice to successfully implement or enforce the law.

And as for that meeting, that took place this morning??  Once again, here's the first scoop from XBiz:

Panel Needs More Time to Craft L.A. Condom Policies



LOS ANGELES — The panel that has been charged with crafting policies to implement Los Angeles' porn-condom ordinance will meet one more time next week.

On Friday, the Adult Film Industry Working Group convened for what was supposed to be the last time before they release findings in a report to City Council over how to enforce Los Angeles City Ordinance No. 181989, called the "Safer Sex in the Adult Industry Act."

But Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana on Friday said the panel needs more time and will meet sometime next week so that they can release findings to City Council at least by May 23, in accordance with a 120-day rule over when ordinances must be enacted after approved by City Council and the mayor.

The porn-condom ordinance was passed by City Council in January while a ballot-initiative effort by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation was in full swing; council members decided for the ordinance after weighing legal and ballot-initiative costs.

The "Safer Sex" ordinance currently isn't being enforced in the city, but later this month the ordinance likely will be put in effect, dramatically changing the wheels of porn production in the region. 
  
At Friday's City Hall meeting, the 11 working group members heard public comments less than three minutes each from Immoral Productions Dan Leal, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Diane Duke and adult industry attorneys Michael Fattorosi and Alan Gelbard, as well as the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Mark Roy McGrath.

The meeting lasted one half hour.

Leal, whose company was cited just last night by LAPD's vice squad for filming without a permit, told the panel about the bust, and asked how them how they could reasonably create an ordinance that would regulate sex between couples — "even married couples ... how could you regulate that?" he asked.

Fattorosi told the panel that any such ordinance would be "impossible to regulate."
"It will be an insurmountable task to identify the real producers for an industry that is worldwide," he said.

Duke, meanwhile, said that the ordinance is a "different type of censorship" that is filled with constitutional issues.

Gelbard echoed Duke's take on the ordinance, saying the statute is unconstitutional, that it is content-based regulation of speech and will never survive strict scrutiny, a standard of judicial review for a challenged policy where the court presumes the policy to be invalid unless the government can demonstrate a compelling interest to justify the policy.

The delay in crafting the enforcement leg of the ordinance was openly criticized by McGrath, the only AIDS Healthcare Foundation rep in the audience, which numbered about a dozen. McGrath also complained to the panel about creating a "permissive fees" structure  for adult entertainment film permits.
Basically, McGrath wants to put any porn producers and performers not using condoms to be put in jail and/or fined out of business. And, I assume that this includes even those who use cams in their personal homes to produce paid content for their home websites. In effect, use the full powers of the State to force performers to use condoms or simply quit the business.

Welcome to the "Weinstein-Lubben Model" of neoliberal sexual fascism, people. Scared enough to fight yet??

Michael Fattorosi has been covering this process throughout its genesis, and his @Pornlaw Twitter page is a valuable source for anyone wanting some valuable insight.

Then again, some people are willing to walk the talk. Like, say, Sean Tompkins over at The Real Porn Wikileaks, who issued this bit of warning to the likes of Bill Rosenthal and Mike Weinstein today:

To quote Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, “You’re Fucking With The Wrong Guy.” I couldn’t care less about your publicity raid.

You guys are no different than the bullies over at PWL You’re like one of those stupid lizards that puffs up their head to make them seem scary. In reality, you’re a collection of gay people [sic] who despise straight porn, straight sex and the freedoms that go with it.

Sadly, you’re dealing with a billion dollar industry that has no idea how to rally the troops. But once they figure it out, AHF and the rest can shove the condoms up their asses.

UPDATE:

More details on how exactly the condom law will be enforced in LA are coming in, and it is getting progressively worse.

Michael Fattorosi has been using his @Pornlaw Twitter livestream to update the adult performer/producer community on the potential impacts of the law, and he has discovered a segment of the law that can only be described as frightening.

The fulcrum of the law is the requrement that anyone producing porn in LA must get a permit from the group FilmLA to shoot porn, or face not only stiff fines, but also potentially a year in jail for shooting without a permit or violating the terms of the permit (including, of course, shooting without using a condom). The local LA Police Vice Squad would probably be the main group responsible for enforcement, but AHF spokesperson Mark McGrath testified at today's hearing that he would suggest that AHF officials from outside be recruited to become vice members as a means of enforcement.

Well, according to Fattorosi, his interpretation of the law is that  that proscription would not only cover porn shoots, but also potentially adult camshow productions as well. Meaning, that anyone, even those who upload camshows for their own homegrown websites, could be subjected to being raided by the Condom Nazis (or even just the Vice Squad) for not having the proper pemit to perform.

In effect, this recriminalizes private commercial adult sexual expression and media within the juristiction of the City of Los Angeles (well, at least those not meeting AHF's standards of "condom only").

The only thing missing from this debacle is Hollywood celebs talking up how adult webcamming is part of the Great Sex Trafficking Network...although I'm sure that McGrath and Weinstein already have a press release ready for that.

And now you know why Shelley Lubben was so gung ho in aligning with Mike Weinstein on this. It's never been about protecting porn performers from HIV and other STI's; it's always been about wiping adult commercial sexual media off the face of Los Angeles...and eventually, the rest of the world. And, of course, about getting easy money off porn panics.

I ask you again:  Scared enough to fight this, people??

The Free Speech Coalition (@FSCArmy) has just released their review of the hearing; it can be accessed here.

Monday, February 6, 2012

How Defective Condoms In South Africa Directly Affect The LA Condom Mandate (Or...Class, Capitalism, and Sloppy Seconds??)

[Also reposted over at my Red Garter Club blog]

This will take a bit of background to build to the main point..but it’s worth it, I promise. Just stick with me on this, Clones.

One of the many, many talking points put out by those who defend the LA condom mandate law is that since people — especially young people — look to porn as their only means of “sex education, and copy what they see in these videos, only showing condomized sex on screen or online will motivate them to use condoms in real life…and thusly, sexually transmitted diseases and infections will disappear, and global peace will reign supreme.

All that is fine and good….and promoting condom usage amongst the general public as a means of protection against both unwanted pregnancy AND STI’s is NOT a bad thing at all.

However..since condoms aren’t produced out of thin air, but made by corporations who exist first and foremost to make a profit, the inevitable question arises of: “What about the QUALITY of the condoms being issued to the general public? Are they of the top of the line, or are they merely the rejects and scrubs of the condom companies while the good, high-quality stuff remains on a store counter to be sold for an arm and a leg?”

That is not a unimportant question, because it’s the general public, and especially the poor and working class folk, who bear the worst burden of HIV and other STI infections, as well as the greatest risks…and if you are going to tell everyone that condoms are the best defense, you damn well had better insure that that defense isn’t corrupted or compromised.

Because if you slip that shit up, stuff like what happened in South Africa last week is bound to result.

This is what happens when quality control is pushed under the bus and dragged behind at expressway speed:

Some condoms burst. Others leaked like sieves. 

South Africa’s leading anti-AIDS group said Tuesday that allegedly faulty condoms are among more than 1.35 million handed out at the African National Congress’ 100th birthday party.

Health officials confirmed that all of those condoms have been ordered to be recalled. But the Treatment Action Campaign said no warning has been issued to people that they may have carried away defective condoms that could now cause them to unsuspectingly spread or contract HIV. South Africa has the world’s highest number of AIDS patients, some 5.6 million.

The third recall in less than five years raises questions about the quality of some of the 425 million-plus condoms that the government gives away each year, and the competence of the South African Bureau of Standards that is supposed to ensure their quality is up to international standards.

AIDS activist Sello Mokhalipi of the Treatment Action Campaign said he complained to the health department after “we had people flocking in, coming to report that the condoms had burst while they were having sex.”

Some were panicking because they were infected with AIDS and were concerned for their partners, he said.

Spokesman Jabu Mbalula of the Free State provincial health department, which distributed the condoms before the Jan. 6-8 celebrations, said they had recalled the entire batch of 1.35 million condoms around Jan. 18. He said there was no need for a panic.

But he was unable to say how many of the condoms were used or have been recovered.

In 2007, the government recalled more than 20 million defective condoms manufactured locally but recovered only 12 million. The Health Ministry said many of the condoms failed the air burst test.

That came after a recall the same year of 5 million defective and locally produced condoms. In that case, the Ministry of Health said a testing manager at the South African Bureau of Standards had taken a bribe to certify the faulty contraceptives.

[....]

South Africa recalls defective condoms (via SFGate.com)


Now, the article does not state whether the Republic of South Africa manufactures their own condoms, or whether they outsource them from a private manufacturer, but they do state that their Bureau of Standards is supposed to insure that whatever is distributed to the public meets their quality standards.

Apparently, they either looked the other way because they were willing to prove their main point, or they just slipped up on the job.

What does that have to do with the condom mandate law in LA, you ask??

Well…it’s an open secret that the major condom companies here in the US (Lifestyles, Durex, Trojan, et. al.) would just love to tap into the “pro condom”/”safer sex” mood for their own financial advantages. Remember that it was Lifestyles employees who were recruited as “protestors” to follow AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein’s “protests” against HUSTLER and other companies for not banishing bareback sex vids and wrapping their dicks. I would think that such companies would make a nice killing (no pun intended) from scoring exclusive sponsorships or deals with porn companies forced into condom-only vids in order to promote the “safer sex” memes in the larger public. Imagine “Announcing, the 2014 AVN Awards….Brought To You Byyyyyyyy…..DUREX CONDOMS!!!!!!” Or, better yet, imagine you favorite porn starlet sprouting a Trojan necklace and getting paid an endorsement fee for insisting on wrapping up her male partners. Kinda like the decals on the NASCAR racing cars, or the walking ads on World Cup soccer players, except sexier.

The problem with all that, though, is that most poor folk simply can’t afford to buy condoms off the shelf…especially not the top-of-the-line, quality stuff. So, they must go to the local clinic to get their protection…and while condoms there are indeed free, something tells me that they are also not quite so high on the quality factor. I mean, what’s to say that the condom companies don’t just dump their second- or even third-hand product on medical clinics to give to “the poor” while hoarding their quality stuff to sell for maximum profit?? It’s not as if food stores and major retailer chains don’t set the precedent of dumping their excess, close to shelf date product onto food shelters, right??

Do you now see the recipe for disaster here, gangstas and gangstrices??

Imagine if the condom law goes nationwide, thanks to the efforts of AHF and OSHA. Now, imagine AHF and Lifestyles getting a sweetheart deal with the city of LA and a major porn producing company (let’s use VIVID for an example) to put out “FREE CONDOMS!!!!!” to all citizens of that metropolis as a means of promoting “safer sex”. Now, imagine Lifestyles simply dumping its lower quality, excess product onto the streets of LA, using AHF perps to pass out the rubbers to the public.

And now, imagine one or two or five or fifty cases of condoms breaking during use, and as a result, someone gets infected with HIV. Or worse, a performer gets infected during a shoot because he/she didn’t know that the partner was infected but had to do the scene anyway…and the condom accidentally shatters during the main event.

Gee…I wonder how Mike Weinstein will react to THAT.

More importantly, how will this play in the minds of sexual reactionaries who will insist all along that condoms are simply another evil “sex pozzie” attempt to provide false protection for sexual depravity of the privileged wealthy at the expense of the poor, who are merely guniea pigs and cash cows for the “sexual elite”??

The very same arguments, BTW, are being used to slander Planned Parenthood, ACORN, and every other progressive service org delivered to the poor and working class without the approval of the Religious Right.

Be careful of what you ask for…

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:


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! 
Oh, so much to break down here.

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.