Clinic Offers Aid, Haven to Region’s Sex Workers

At the Adult Industry Medical clinic in Sherman Oaks, people talk as casually about sex as they do the weather.

“Have you had sex today?”

“How many partners?”

“Did you use a condom?”

Leading the discussion five days a week is former porn star Sharon Mitchell, 43, executive director of the nonprofit health clinic whose fliers speak of serving “the special needs of the sex worker,” especially those in the pornography business.

The main need is preventing sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV, which causes AIDS, in a line of work in which men and women may have dozens of sexual partners in a matter of weeks.

“We talk about sex in great detail, and in a nonjudgmental manner,” Mitchell said. “We don’t deal with shame.”

After an outbreak of HIV among porn stars, Mitchell and a Northridge doctor--with help from some X-rated companies--founded the Adult Industry Medical HealthCare Foundation in 1998. AIM soon became the leading clinic nationwide catering to workers in the multibillion-dollar, San Fernando Valley-based pornography industry.

So far, Mitchell said, AIM has identified 11 HIV-positive cases among porn actors who might otherwise have gone undiagnosed and exposed the virus to dozens, if not hundreds. She added that adult film actors, producers and directors recognize the profession’s hazards but consider the risk of infection so slight that they often don’t insist on using condoms. In fact, most porn stars receive extra money--as little as $50 per sex act--if they forgo condoms.

“Basically, I put Band-Aids on shotgun wounds all day,” Mitchell said. “I can’t stop HIV, but I can help prevent it.”

AIM is in an office building on an aging strip of Ventura Boulevard, near a piano school, a Judaica gift shop, a tropical fish and reptile store and a children’s liver foundation. The clinic would blend in with the palm tree-lined boulevard if not for the white blood and urine deposit box hanging outside the door.

Facility Sees as Many as 500 Clients a Month

Each month, AIM sees 400 to 500 adult entertainers, who are required by most of their employers to provide blood and urine samples for HIV and STD tests. Mitchell and others enter lab results into a database that tracks cases. If the clinic finds that a disease has been contracted, AIM notifies those infected and any of their partners they may remember.

AIM’s services don’t end there. A sign in front of the office attests: “Health for the Sex Worker in Body, Mind, Emotion and Spirit.” The clinic offers 12-step programs on drug abuse as well as an anonymous support group that addresses negative body image, low self-esteem, abusive pasts and other afflictions common to the industry. Meetings are closed to the public to prevent fans from pestering porn stars.

The holistic approach also means making the clinic’s atmosphere as comfortable as possible, porn-style. A coatrack with condom-shaped hooks adorns one wall. A bowl of condoms greets visitors, and a sign warns interlopers, “Absolutely No Soliciting or Casting.” On a table sits a gift basket of lubricants, ready to be raffled off, with proceeds benefiting AIM.

The clinic also helps prevent disease from spreading, said Peter Kerndt, director of the STD program for the county health department, which does some of AIM’s lab work.

The screening system, however, isn’t foolproof. For one thing, adult performers can get tested at any medical office, and the porn industry’s STD database only includes those tested at AIM, Mitchell said.

“We don’t offer a 100% guarantee,” said Steven York, a Northridge internist and AIM co-founder. “We’re trying to make porn as safe as being a prizefighter. We don’t pretend for a moment that there aren’t risks. We just try to reduce those risks.”

Kerndt agreed. “The risk is certainly not zero. But AIM is providing an important service to high-risk professionals vulnerable to STDs. Having an advocate for their health is important.”

As an advocate, Mitchell describes herself as the “auntie of porn.” The Valley Village resident left the industry five years ago after a two-decade career. She greets patients with hugs and reminds them to eat their fruits and vegetables. She compliments the gold necklace with the triple-X charm worn by one client and the “Porn Gone Public” T-shirt of another.

And when a porn actor admits he cannot remember how many partners he has had in the last two weeks, Mitchell gently scolds.

“You have to keep track,” she told him. “You have to remember.”

Later, Mitchell greeted another actor, 30-year-old Chris Evans, like an old friend. “So good to see you,” she said, handing him a plastic cup and directing him to the bathroom for a specimen.

Evans said he worries about HIV. “Getting an STD is one of the realities of working in the sex industry,” said Evans, who would only agree to have his stage name published. “But I don’t want to die from AIDS.”

AIM also helps Evans and his girlfriend, also a porn star, grapple with the emotional pitfalls unique to the adult industry, such as jealousy when partners have sex with other actors.

Clinic Battles Negative Image in Community

Funding for the clinic comes from porn companies, donations and fees for health screenings. Mitchell said AIM is struggling for grant money from companies and agencies hesitant to help a nonprofit associated with pornography.

The clinic has its critics. They say AIM, by embracing the porn lifestyle, actually promotes unsafe sex, let alone immoral behavior. They contend such a negative message is particularly harmful to minors.

“Porn stars pervert teenagers,” said Richard Enrico, executive director of the Foundation for Moral Restoration, a Christian anti-pornography group based in Chantilly, Va. “They shouldn’t be surprised if they get STDs. You do something wrong, you deserve what you get.”

Mitchell is familiar with the objections. She says she co-founded AIM in part to clear her conscience “because I’m not quite right with everything I did in the industry.

“I can’t give people morals,” she said, sighing. “But I can help them.”