from http://www.latimes.com
April 20, 2011
A report examining an HIV scare that temporarily shut production in the adult film industry faulted production companies for not providing information to public health authorities.
"Limited cooperation from many adult film industry companies restricted this contact investigation. Rarely did industry legal counsel give information for investigation," the report said.
The report, written by Dr. Francisco Meza, a physician with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found two male porn actors were HIV-positive when they had sex with Derrick Burts, an adult film performer whose HIV diagnosis in October caused filming to be suspended.
His finding illustrates the inability of public health officials to conduct an extensive, thorough investigation quickly.
The slow progress of this probe is in stark contrast to the way health officials normally handle disease outbreaks. Usually, health officials are able to quickly identify anyone potentially exposed to illness. They quickly attempt to determine the origin of the disease and try to prevent it from spreading.
Two factors make the investigation difficult: the refusal of adult film companies to cooperate and the frequent use of pseudonyms by performers, which can make it difficult to know the real name of sex partners. Burts told authorities that he had sex with six men and 10 women in the two months before his HIV diagnosis, but officials have been able to contact only five of them, and none wanted to cooperate with the investigation, the report said.
Of his 16 sexual partners, 15 were on the set and involved 12 filming locations and 10 production companies, the report said. Burts used condoms during scenes involving anal sex with male partners, the usual practice among adult film performers, but not during vaginal or oral scenes, which is also standard industry practice.
The report said Burts began working in the adult film industry on Aug. 5, and had sex with four women and one man during that month; Burts said he was unaware that the male actor he worked with had been infected with HIV and was not being treated.
Burts then had sex with four men and two women in September; one of those men was also HIV positive. Burts tested negative for HIV on Sept. 3 but tested positive on Oct. 6. Because it can take a couple of weeks for HIV infection to show up in a test, health officials concluded that he probably was infected between mid-August and mid-September.
Meza urged in his report that production companies give health officials the names of those actors and noted that federal law requires those firms to keep their real names to prove they are not minors. He also urged the use of condoms during filming of any sex act.
The manner of the report’s release also seemed to indicate the sensitive nature of the issue. The report was to have been presented at a CDC conference in Atlanta on Friday, but it was canceled at the last moment.
Meza declined to comment, saying he was asked to refer calls to the county.
The presentation was canceled because the County Counsel was concerned about protecting patient privacy, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the county Department of Public Health, said Tuesday.
The same report was given at a regional CDC conference in March at San Diego State University.
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said the county should subpoena the companies that are not providing public health officials with information.
"They should not be in a position where they can debate giving this information" to the authorities, Weinstein said.
ron.lin@latimes.com
How can folks that are HIV+ still keep working knowing they are getting other folks also HIV+? If they knew they were HIV+ AND they knowingly infected someone they should go to jail for that.
Burts claimed to have been infected on a shoot in Florida when he was working on scenes for the BangBros networks gay sites. The two sites he was featured on “OUT IN PUBLIC” and “UNGLORY HOLE” pulled his scenes as soon as he came out with the allegations. He also worked with BangBros on their straight sites within a very short period of time. BangBros seems to be one of the worst offenders as far as using crossover talent and they appear to be using them when in the same timeframe for both gay and straight porn.
Judging by some of the links posted on that “other site” not much has changed at Bang Bros since the Patient Zeta scandal hit as far as using crossover talent. It’s not so much that they are using crossover talent, but they are using talent that are working with performers that aren’t regularly tested or tested at all, and using them in a very short span of time of the scenes filmed.
@Karfman,
Youre correct. But the other question is Why do PRODUCERS keep hiring these guys? Karfman, do you think these producers have any liability of any kind?
If a producer hires someone that he knows is HIV positive to work with someone who is not HIV positive, and doesnt tell the negative EMPLOYEE,is he responsible for anything? This is a ‘legal industry’ and a workplace isnt it?
This guy was a male prostitute too, so who knows where he really got this from. Gay companies have to have 100% testing and keep HIV+ out of the business, stigma or not. After almost 30 years of HIV isnt it time the gay business get its house in order. As for the straight side, time the crossover stuff stop and companies that use crossover talent without concern for the other talent are boycotted. Derrick by being irresponsible is torching the adult business, he’s let the door open for Weinstein to destroy porn as we know it, porn does need a real health police but not Weinstein and his anti-porn lobby.
Larry,
A huge percentage of gay porn guys are HIV positive. Easily 30%, and a survey of gay porn acotrs put the figure even higher than that.(The Naked Sword i believe did the survey)
Derrik, by being irresposnsible,,,and the producers by being equally irresponsible for HIRING these guys.
These guys break the gay side rules by working without condoms in straight porn, then reak the straight side rules by working with HIV positive performers, and performers who are not tested. And the AGENTS continue to book them for both, and the PRODUCERS continue to hire them for both.
Is this what the industry calls SELF POLICING!!!
AGENTS and PRODUCERS and PERFORMERS all breaking the rules, yeah, self policing really works. Where are Ernest Greene and Nina Hartley to tell us how well the industry regulates itself. What a joke those two are. Only in porn does a SUPERSTAR like Nina Hartley have to beg for money, and then tell everyone that NON CONDOM sex on a porn set is actually safer than using a condom. PATHETIC!!!
The policy is different in gay porn. No one asks, no one tells. They use condoms. There are some studios that always try to get scene partners with the same status.
Real Health Police would be LA County, not the best solution but better than AHF. Nina and Ira are pretty useless, like the FSC, PAW, AVN et al. Also, porn in the valley may have to separate itself from porn in Florida, kind of like porn should’ve separated itself from Brazil. A lot of the male talent in Florida is crossover, I bet 80%, though looking at Derek’s latest roster additions of males I’m seeing a lot of guys who look like they could perform fellatio better than the girls.
So did Burts take the polygraph test he was offered $1000 for? Whatever happened with that? He should have just said he didn’t know where he got HIV from, rather than insisting he got it on a set doing an oral scene. Otherwise what does he have to lose here? He’s just trying to save face now with this advocacy business. I feel bad for him, but this is potentially misleading.
He backed out of taking the polygraph test, but I think did concede in a interview that he did have sex with men before getting into the industry. He backtracked on getting HIV from oral sex a little and said it was from semen leaking off of his back and into his anus after a scene he did. He claimed within the first month of being in the industry he contracted herpes, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. I don’t doubt that claim, but if true most people would at that point would probably decide to quit the industry. He also claimed that his agent at OC Modeling told him he might as well stay in since this about the only thing he could do now. I don’t doubt that either.
One irony is that in his escort ad he touted himself as AIM TESTED and clean. Larry could separating the Florida and LA porn industries even be done? Those companies have a large stranglehold over the industry business wise.
I know Bangbros has a straight and a gay side and they use crossover talent all the time. We all know most of their stuff is filmed in the Miami area now.
Karmafan; You nailed that one on BangButtBros..They are GOING homosexual with the male talent and soon ur going to be seeing a hot, B/g/B scene and then the guys are going to start fucking each other after the girl takes the load. Apparently the veiwers are BIG bi-Sexual and they really like the boys….U all have a safe and happy Bunny rabbit holiday!!
Larry/Karmafan most of the talent they use (gay, straight, crossover, etc…) aren’t based out of South Florida they are based in porn valley or San Diego. I don’t know what if anything can or will be done. The female talent needs the work and have very little say in who they are working with. You have to wonder if these guys are working in the same time frame as far as when they are shooting their gay and straight porn work. I think I know the answer to that one though.
The thread on PWL about crossover talent and bangbros is extensive, yet no one will say anything about it and nothing was done to address the issue after Burts/Reid/Chambers scandal hit. For all the talk of cleaning up the industry and enforcing stricter rules, nothing has changed and no company or agency has been held accountable.
The latest LA Times article about Burts puts the industry just makes it a lot worse. If condom use is required on sets in CA, I guess the industry will try to shift to Florida but I can’t really see the recently elected far right conservative governor welcoming the industry with open arms.
Yeah that govenor in florida is a piece of shit. He’ll shut things down fast!. Its getting scary. I perdict another outbreak will be the FINAL straw and the Industry will have to move to COLOMBIA. Because Rick Scott is a prick and he’ll have his state cops run everybody out of Miami and South Florida. Ohhhh boy!!!.
This Gay Kid “Benedict Burts” really fucked it up for the rest of us.
Of course nobody wants to help out with the investigation. Why would you when OSHA is handing out 14K fines to the people who shot the kid without a condom?
If you did gay and now you do straight porn and have no intention of going back and fourth weekly, Im cool with that. But after all of this crap this Burts Kid caused, makes me look carefully at what males to hire and not hire. And if they go back and fourth every other day, I’m not hiring.
I wont take the risk and I cant afford the 14K fine.
If they were listening to that markus guy the one who was screaming foul way before none of this would have happened but because he is considered a prostitute in Nevada and not a porn actor his assertions were mocked until the outbreak occured oh well porn valley continues on their twisted path
I said last year before all this happened that if the porn industry DOES NOT clean up their act the govt. will step in and clean it up for them. Hell I’m not even in the porn industry and I could see it coming.
You mean to tell me the studios, producers and other manner of brain trust could not tell the boat the industry was riding on was about to go over a cliff? Why are people still hiring crossover talent and bringing HIV+ people into the mainstream side of porn?
Dave I don’t know if I would call him Benedict Burts. He wasn’t different then a lot of guys in this industry as far as going back and forth between gay and straight porn and gay escorting, and it’s still going on. Burts got burned, and I don’t know if most guys that had a similar experience in porn as he did wouldn’t have done the same thing as far as turning to AHF.
Karmafan gay porn no longer pays what it used to, most aren’t even paying half of what they did 5 years ago. Most of these guys have no other options outside of porn as far as getting a real job goes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the crossovers working in straight porn at BangBros aren’t getting anymore then $100. A lot of them are financially desperate.