California: AIDS Activists File Complaint Against Larry Flynt

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) filed a complaint with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) on Thursday, claiming Larry Flynt Productions creates an unsafe environment by not requiring condom use by its porn performers.

To underscore its point, AHF delivered to Cal-OSHA's Los Angeles office 100 DVDs of hardcore Flynt videos. Just one single scene in one of the films shows a performer using a condom, said Ged Kenslea, AHF spokesperson. The videos "clearly demonstrate workplace activities highly likely to spread blood-borne pathogens in the workplace," said the filing, which urges Cal-OSHA to order the use of condoms on film sets.

AHF filed similar complaints earlier this year against nine talent agencies it says promote porn actors willing to work without condoms. Cal-OSHA is investigating, but agency spokesperson Krisann Chasarik did not provide further details.

Requiring condom use on film sets is unreasonable, argued Michael Klein, the company's president. "We won't budge when it comes to condomless productions. That's what the consumer wants, and we deliver it."

Federal law requires all porn performers to be tested for HIV 30 days prior to the start of filming, and Klein said Larry Flynt Productions complies with those standards. None of the company's actors has ever tested positive for HIV, he added.

Porn performers are 10 times more likely to be infected with an STD than the general public, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The department documented 2,013 cases of chlamydia and 965 gonorrhea cases among performers between 2003 and 2007; some actors had four or more STD infections over the course of a year, it said. Since 2004, around 25 industry-related HIV infections have been documented.

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