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HIV-Positive Porn Stars Argue For Safer Sex On Set

Celeste Alvarez |
September 19, 2013 | 4:40 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Adult film performer Cameron Bay (right) poses with boyfriend Rod Daily next to Michael Weinstein (left), the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. (Celeste Alvarez/Neon Tommy)
Adult film performer Cameron Bay (right) poses with boyfriend Rod Daily next to Michael Weinstein (left), the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. (Celeste Alvarez/Neon Tommy)

Cameron Bay had worked in adult entertainment for three months when she found out she was HIV-positive.

For the adult film star, the memory of on-set risky behaviors made her question the industry's health standards.

“Asking for condoms is not what you did because you could be replaced,” she said. “I didn’t realize how unsafe it was until I saw the pictures.”

An emotional and teary-eyed Bay spoke Wednesday alongside four other current and former porn stars during a press conference in Hollywood. Sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the conference hoped to shed light on the reality of contracting HIV in the adult film industry. 

But industry officials say adult film stars are tested regularly and that Bay and other HIV-positive actors contracted the disease off set. 

READ MORE: Porn leaders rag on the passing of Measure B, which requires actors to wear a condom.

Bay believes the real issue is the lack of condoms on sets. 

During one film shoot for Kink.com — a San Francisco-based bondage and fetish pornographic site — Bay said her costar cut his penis and bled on set. The two were allowed to continue the scene without a condom until a replacement came.

Bay said she didn't think her male costar needed to use a condom because he had recently tested negative for sexually transmitted diseases, according to The Huffington Post. She left the choice up to him. Kink.com said Bay was offered a condom, but it was not used.

Bay said she tested negative for HIV on July 27 and participated in 10 scenes before learning she was positive on Aug. 21. 

Her boyfriend and adult film actor, Rod Daily, found out he was positive for HIV shortly after Bay received her results. He spoke at the conference and vouched for the effectiveness of condoms.

“I do know for a fact that condoms will work, have worked, do work,” Daily said.

Daily made hundreds of adult films for primarily gay audiences for over eight years. He said he always used a condom and never contracted HIV because it was more widely accepted.

He said in the straight adult film industry condoms are stigmatized.

“It’s just big industry, and [the pornography industry's] main concern is money, not their performers,” Daily said. 

Peter Acworth, the founder and CEO of Kink.com, shared his feelings on the performer's claims. 

“Our hearts go out to the performers," Acworth said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. But he accused AIDS Healthcare Foundation of playing "loose with the facts" to "generate hysteria around HIV."

Industry officials told the Associated Press that when they tried using condoms after an HIV outbreak nine years ago, the $7 billion industry saw revenue decline as much as 30 percent.

Audiences made it clear they didn't want them, officials said. 

Bay said she would continue to be an advocate for condoms in the adult film industry and would continue to stay strong. 

"I want to push the knowledge and education of [HIV] … and just try to get it out there about HIV awareness,” Bay said. 

 

Reach Staff Reporter Celeste Alvarez here or follow her on Twitter here.



 

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