Seizure of Porn Files Criticized

Raising privacy concerns, adult film industry advocates denounced Los Angeles County health officials Thursday for taking the files of more than 50 porn actors that contained personal identification information and their HIV test results.

County health officials ordered Sherman Oaks-based Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation -- a nonprofit group that provides testing and counseling for the pornographic community -- to turn over the records on Wednesday.

“We consider this a violation of our clients’ medical privacy,” said Ira Levine, chairman of AIM’s board of directors, at a Universal City news conference.

He called the taking of the records a “fishing expedition into our confidential files.”

But county health officials said they were only doing their job, and that the actors’ names and medical information would remain confidential.

The information will be used only to help the personal partners of actors who have been exposed to HIV, said Dr. Peter Kerndt of the sexually transmitted disease program for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

“We want to offer them the same opportunity to determine whether they’ve been infected,” he said.

No one, Kerndt added, will be compelled to reveal information about his or her sexual relationships.

The department’s standard procedure after a significant injury or illness at a workplace is to “inform and protect” others who may have been exposed, he said.

“No one would bat an eye were one of these actors to have had tuberculosis and were we to go in....It’s the same thing,” Kerndt said. “I think they don’t understand the role of public health and what public health does.”

HIV is not reportable by name in California, as it is in most other states. Instead, those infected with the virus are given what is called a “unique identifier.” County and state agencies track identifiers to monitor the number and rate of infections.

Since actor Darren James and actress Lara Roxx tested positive for HIV last week, AIM has publicized a “quarantine list” of at least 50 performers -- identified only by their stage names -- who worked with them or their sex partners. The outbreak -- the straight porn industry’s first since the late 1990s -- prompted many companies to temporarily halt production.

Although privacy laws generally bar disclosure of medical information, AIM’s clients sign waivers allowing their HIV status to be disseminated to the rest of the adult film community using their stage names.

Southern California is home to more than 6,000 porn professionals, including 1,200 actors and actresses.

The records turned over to the county contained real names, contact information and up to four months of HIV test records, AIM officers said.

“I’m extremely upset,” said Sharon Mitchell, executive director of AIM.

Mitchell, a former porn star who went on to earn a doctorate in human sexuality, said the fear of public disclosure -- no matter what the county plans to do with the information -- might discourage performers from undergoing voluntary testing on a monthly basis, which is now the industry standard.

Too much government involvement “scares people away,” she said.