"They keep trying to figure out who to blame, and now they’re blaming the agents."UPDATE 3/31/11: OSHA fines Hustler for porn stars without "protection"
UPDATE 12/8/10: HIV-Positive Porn Actor Calls for Condom Use in Adult Films
UPDATE 10/14/10: Discovery of HIV-positive sex "actor" causes voluntary pornography industry shut down
UPDATE 10/13/10: Free speech advocate says don't blame porn industry as "knee jerk" reaction.
-- From "Activists to target porn agents in latest push for increased regulation" by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times 4/14/10
An advocacy group that has been demanding greater government protections for adult film performers plans to file a complaint Thursday with state regulators against nine Los Angeles-area porn talent agencies.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation officials, opening a new front in their fight with the porn industry, said they plan to send a letter to State Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet arguing the agencies encourage porn performers to engage in unsafe sex that puts them at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
The nonprofit foundation, based in Los Angeles, has been campaigning for increased regulation of the porn industry since a 2004 HIV outbreak among performers in the San Fernando Valley.
[One] agency’s owner, a former porn actress known as Shy Love, said she believes AIDS Healthcare activists are on a witch hunt.
Love said she cannot dictate what sex acts the performers she represents are willing to do. She said her job is simply to match performers with production companies and projects, just as a mainstream movie agent would.
“We make sure our performers are well taken care of,” said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a Canoga Park-based porn trade association. “This is a legal, vital and important industry.”
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