Porn Producer, Tristan Taormino, Makes Condom Use Mandatory On Set Following HIV Scare
On the heels of porn actor and actress Rod Daily and Cameron Bay confessing to being HIV-positive, and a brief industry-wide shutdown to allow mass testing of other actors, one porn producer has decided condoms will now be required in all of her future work.
Tristan Taormino, a Los Angeles-based pornographer, announced soon after Bay’s admission that making pornography without sufficiently protecting her talent is irresponsible in her line of work. As a producer of heterosexual porn, Taormino is one of the early adopters of the practice, as many producers fear their fan base — i.e. profits — will evaporate. However, Taormino believes the move will be accepted by consumers once they have time to acclimate themselves to seeing condoms in films.
"It just struck me we need to take a step back and look at how we can give people the safest work experience possible," she told CNN, after getting wind of Bay's and Daily’s confession. "I can no longer roll the dice on my set."
Producers who fight against mandatory condom use point to a similar incident that took place in 2004 after another HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) outbreak. Condoms became mandatory, and the $14 billion-a-year industry saw a 30 percent drop in sales. For many directors, the scars still haven’t healed. They say the recent cases are unique and separate to what happened nine years ago because the majority of HIV infections now are not happening at work.
Because of the most recent outbreak, the industry shut down for two weeks while actors got tested. Now the industry requires performers get tested every two weeks.
Any actor or actress who has reservations about a particular colleague can access a database that says whether a person is clear to perform or not, according to the Free Speech Coalition, the adult entertainment industry’s trade association.
"We support choice for performers, as well as the successful testing system that has been in place since 1998, which have resulted in no on-set transmission of HIV in nine years, nationwide," says the CEO of the coalition, Diane Duke, on the group's website, which adds that HIV testing is still imperfect in its current form. Performers can get infected in between each testing period, and if they are already infected, they may test negative for seven to 10 days after contraction.
Health officials point to the negative physiological effects of sustained condom use, such as micro-abrasions on the inside of a female performer’s vagina. Like scrapes you would get on your knee, these small cuts can become infected if they stay open and get exposed to bacteria. Continual condom may exacerbate the issue, argues Dr. Craig Stafford, a past vice president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Stafford calls the injury “floor burn,” a nod to the friction produced by a latex condom irritating the vaginal wall. Non-latex condoms are available for performers, but many of the men who require larger condoms have trouble finding latex varieties that fit. Nevertheless, "not using condoms is not an option," Stafford says.
Taormino maintains her resolve despite the rest of the industry pushing back. She says requiring performers to use condoms may cause viewers to bristle at first, but over time they will get used to the condom’s presence.
"I know there's a lot of talk about how porn watchers don't want to see condoms and sales will plummet and everyone's going to be miserable," she told CNN. "But I'm not buying it."
At the end of the day, the condom controversy boils down to how much choice performers are comfortable having in order to maintain their personal safety. Adult film star Danny Wylde has written extensively about the issue on his blog, and says despite preferring not to use a condom, he is not opposed to it if the producer so chooses.
"If a porn producer is confident that he/she is able to maintain a viable business and provide the extra safety of barrier protection for performers,” he told CNN, “I'm 100% on board.”