Porn actors worry as AIDS spreads in industry

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 02 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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As AIDS spreads in the porn industry in the USA, actors worry and ask for improved health care, more pay and better schedules. Many porn industry actors are attempting to unionise.

Earlier on this week a group of 35 actors had a private meeting. Every single one of them voted to draw up a list of demands and a bill of rights for people who work in the porn industry.

The porn industry in the USA is a large employer and a huge earner.

The actors are arranging for more meetings where they will discuss health care provision, pay and scheduling.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, porn industry actors are paid either per scene or per day, there is not overtime pay. On some occasions they have to work 20 hours in one single day.

So far three people have tested positive for AIDS, the first one being Darren James. The industry in California has closed down voluntarily for two months.

Porn actors in the USA tried to unionise in 1993 and 1998 and failed.

It is said that this AIDS outbreak originated in Brazil where Darren James played scenes without a condom. However, Brazilian porn industry actors (in Brazil) have expressed concern that the American porn industry actually films sexual scenes without the actors wearing condoms. Apparently, this habit of not wearing condoms when shooting scenes is more common in the USA porn industry than the Brazilian industry.

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