Porn actor tests negative for HIV; filming can resume, group says

An adult film performer whose HIV-positive test prompted a weeklong shutdown of Los Angeles-area productions has been retested with negative results, according to a porn industry trade group.

The Free Speech Coalition, a Canoga Park-based national trade organization to the adult entertainment industry, recommended that the filming moratorium be lifted as it looks into the reasons for the false positive test.

“After discussion with our medical expert, he has advised that it would be appropriate for production to resume and the focus of attention [be] brought to those who had worked with the performer. That group is already receiving care,” the group’s executive director, Diane Duke, said in a statement.

The performer, whose name, age and gender were not released, received the initial positive results at a Florida testing facility that Duke said did not appear to have procedures in place for testing first- and second-generation partners or for follow-up care.

Local production companies were notified Aug. 29 of the test outcome and agreed to hold off on filming. Those who had been in scenes with the performer were contacted and urged to get tested.

The performer’s subsequent test was administered by the Adult Performer Health and Safety Services, which is run by the Free Speech Coalition and recently launched a database that will allow porn industry agents and producers access to results from testing facilities.

“Industry self-regulation and best practices are alive and well in the adult entertainment industry,” Duke said.

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, however, said that although he is glad to hear about the performer’s negative results, he takes issue with a health screening process that does not include public health officials.

“Subsequent tests showed the person to be negative, but in terms of validating how all of this was being handled, we still don’t really know,” Weinstein said.

“We don’t know how they validated it,” he said. “It’s like if you were dealing with mine safety or construction or food contamination, and we would have to be satisfied with what the company involved is telling us about it. The whole scare around this and the confusion that it’s generated just reinforce that relying on testing to protect the performers is wrong.”

Weinstein’s organization has been pushing health and safety officials to mandate condom use in adult films and is gathering signatures for a petition to put a measure on the June 2012 ballot that would force filmmakers to submit to periodic city inspections and limit Los Angeles filming permits to companies whose performers use condoms.

California industry standards request that adult film performers get tested every 30 days and show proof of a negative test before production.

corina.knoll@latimes.com