Fined porn producer fires back against AIDS healthcare group

A San Francisco-based adult film company that was fined nearly $60,000 for occupational safety and health complaints fired back at an AIDS healthcare group, saying it was “fear-mongering about HIV to push a political agenda.”

The statement from Marc Sterling, office manager at Factory Video, which specializes in gay porn, comes following an announcement earlier this week about the fines for violations that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said it had reported.

Michael Weinstein, president of the foundation, said in a statement that he was “very pleased to see that Cal/OSHA is really starting to step up its enforcement” of state laws requiring condoms on porn sets.

But Sterling took issue with the foundation’s tactics, saying in an email that Weinstein and the nonprofit were “once again using misinformation, intimidation and fear-mongering about HIV to push a political agenda.”

“As gay producers, we think it’s deplorable that Weinstein would prioritize a political agenda, and his prized role as condom police, over the health and well-being of his patients,” Sterling said.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation reported that Factory Video was fined nearly $60,000 for the violations. The nonprofit said it had filed a series of complaints over the last two years.

“All workers deserve a safe workplace,” Weinstein said.

But Sterling said all the complaints had been filed by the foundation, not company’s own people.

“The truth is,” he said, “there have been no worker complaints from Factory Video, and it was AHF, not anyone working on a Factory Video set, that filed the Cal/OSHA complaint.”

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ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com