The adult film industry's trade association has called for a moratorium on filming Wednesday after an actor tested positive for HIV.
Cameron Bay (NSFW link), a female performer who has reportedly been in and out of the industry since 2010 using names Ashton, Cameron Lane and Ryder, has tested positive for HIV, the Free Speech Coalition confirmed in a statement to The Huffington Post Thursday. FSC is the industry's nonprofit trade association that oversees a database of all adult performers' STD tests.
After Bay tested positive for HIV on Monday, she took a second test Wednesday, and the results of the second test came out positive Thursday.
"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," Bay said in a statement from FSC Thursday. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long term plan is to take care of myself and my health.”
FSC has been reaching out to any partners that Bay had starting two weeks prior to her last negative test, the coalition's executive director, Diane Duke, said to HuffPost. The moratorium will not be lifted until and unless all of those individuals test negative. So far, no other performers have tested positive.
Duke said to HuffPost that the industry has cooperated with the moratorium and that it is unknown whether transmission occurred on set or not.
"My heart goes out to the performer who has a positive result," Duke said. "We're making sure that all of our performers are very well taken care of."
Bay shot her most recent sex scene with Xander Corvus — the man who starred as scandal-laden politician Anthony Weiner in Sydney Leathers' just released porn debut "Weiner and Me," according to Gawker.
In 2009, before her porn career, Bay was on the first season of VH1's reality TV series "Tool Academy,' a show that sends couples to relationship boot camp. Bay along with her partner, Clarence, were eliminated in the third episode.
Last year, porn star Mr. Marcus, 42, admitted to altering his syphilis-positive test so that he could keep performing. The news prompted the industry to self-impose a 10-day moratorium last August while actors were tested and treated for syphilis. In June of this year, Mr. Marcus was convicted of knowingly exposing two co-stars to syphilis and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
The LA County Department of Public Health said to HuffPost that a suspected case of HIV in the adult film industry was reported to the department and that the department will investigate if the case is confirmed. In an email to HuffPost, the department said there have been approximately 1,200 reported cases of HIV in LA County over the past six months.
In November, LA voters passed Measure B, requiring condoms to be worn during porn shoots. The measure was sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has criticized LA County Department of Public Health for failing to enforce the law since it's been in place. Industry insiders say there has been no enforcement.
He wrote to HuffPost in response to Bay's test and the new moratorium, “How many adult film performers have to become infected with an array of preventable sexually transmitted diseases—including HIV, which is not curable—before the porn industry actually complies with the law requiring condom use?”
A few porn producers filed a lawsuit to block the implementation of the measure but last week, a federal judge found that the law is constitutional.
Check back for updates on this story.
Related
Before You Go
