By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times from the The adult film performer who tested HIV-positive at a San Fernando Valley clinic this fall spoke out for the first time Tuesday, calling for mandatory condom use in porn productions, improved testing for sexually transmitted disease and follow-up care for fellow performers.
Derrick Burts, 24, said he tested HIV-positive in October at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks after working in both gay and straight porn films for a few months. He had previously been identified only as Patient Zeta.
Producers of straight porn regularly check performers’ test results using a database maintained by the clinic, known as AIM, to clear actors for work.
Burts, who performed in straight films as "Cameron Reid" and gay films as "Derek Chambers," said he was tested at the clinic Oct. 8, then received a panicked call from clinic staff the following afternoon, summoning him to the office.
When he got there, he said, clinic staff told him that he had tested HIV-positive. They wanted to perform a follow-up test and begin notifying performers he had worked with since his last negative test result Sept. 3. Those performers, he was told, would be placed on a quarantine list while they, too, were tested.
Burts said he gave clinic staff the names of about a dozen performers he had worked with in California and Florida in both gay and straight productions. The list included his girlfriend, who also works in the industry as a performer. He watched as clinic staff began scanning a performer database, notifying those he had named and placing them on a quarantine list.
The clinic has since said that none of the performers on its quarantine list tested positive. Burts confirmed that his girlfriend tested negative.
He said that when he returned to the clinic Oct. 23 to review the second test results, clinic staff told him that they had traced his HIV infection to someone he had performed a scene with whom they described to him as a "known positive."
Although straight porn performers must show negative HIV test results before filming, the gay porn industry does not have the same restrictions, although condom use is typically required.
Burts said he asked who the performer was and clinic staff told him they could not reveal the performer’s name or gender due to patient confidentiality.
Clinic officials could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night. An attorney for the clinic was traveling outside the United States, according to an e-mail received from him earlier in the day.
Burts says he may have contracted the disease during a gay porn shoot in Florida. He said the performers used condoms during intercourse but not during oral sex.
Contrary to Burts’ account of what he was told, clinic officials released a statement last month saying "Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity."
"That’s completely false," Burts said Tuesday. "There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend."
Before he left the clinic Oct. 23, Burts said clinic staff put him in touch with a doctor affiliated with the clinic and promised to arrange for his follow-up care.
Burts said no one followed up, and he felt neglected.
"AIM promised they would help me set up a doctor and get treatment," he said. "They did none of that."
Burts said AIM staff had warned him not to contact the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose officials have been among the clinic’s chief critics. In frustration, Burts said he went to an AIDS Healthcare Foundation center in Los Angeles on Nov. 24 and saw a doctor, never identifying himself as Patient Zeta.
Pleased with the care he received at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Burts contacted the group’s leaders last week, identified himself as Patient Zeta and said he wanted to speak out on their behalf and in favor of enforcing mandatory condom use in porn productions. Foundation officials have scheduled a news conference with Burts for 10 a.m. Wednesday.
"AIM likes to state that testing is enough. That’s completely false," he said, noting that in the months before he tested positive for HIV, he had also contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes.
"It’s very dangerous," he said of adult film work. "It should be required that you wear a condom on the set."
Burts, who grew up in Whittier and Hemet, graduated from Hemet High School and a hotel management school in Florida and worked as a hotel manager and cruise ship magician before becoming a porn performer for the money. He said he earned $200 to $800 for filming a straight scene and $1,000 to $2,000 for a gay scene.
Looking back, he said he wishes he had known more about the risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases in the industry.
"Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn’t worth your life," he said. "Performers need to be educated."
Am I reading this right… he got HIV from another gay performer that was already previously known to be positive? If so that positive should not still be working on porn movies AT ALL!
He’s not being honest about not having sex with anyone off camera other then his girlfriend. He had a rentboy ad up that was taken down around the time he was diagnosed as HIV+.
Is Cameron on Sustiva, now? That shit is really bad news! If only we’d learn the evil history of AIDS drugs like AZT we’d not be blinding trusting the pharmacuetical industry controlled ministrations. Take note of ferbrazilian’s comment on Targa in Spain! DO THE RESEARCH!
I’ve got a comment on moderation from cbs news about a “Woman Misdiagnosed With HIV Awarded $2.5M”. It also mentions, “In her lawsuit against a doctor who treated her, Audrey Serrano said the powerful combination of drugs she took triggered a string of ailments, including depression, chronic fatigue, loss of weight and appetite and inflammation of the intestine.”
Also, blaming porn for herpes is strange to me. Accoring to herpesonline dot org, “up to 80 percent of Americans have the most common form of herpes (HSV-1) at some time”.
If most have or have had herpes in some form (chicken pox is also a form of herpes), then what’s the problem, and why scapegoat and regulate the porn industry against the industry and consumers’s will? Man has something that works all the time, called an immune system, and as long as we don’t constantly compromise our immune system with drugs and other immune stressing factors, usually we turn out fine.
“Burts says he may have contracted the disease during a gay porn shoot in Florida. He said the performers used condoms during intercourse but not during oral sex.”
I am going to call bullshit…
he is calling for condoms, but according to him, he got it by oral sex… well why call for condoms if you got it while using them….
just saying he is pissed off because they wouldn’t tell him who it was.
Can you say,,,”Game Set and Match”
This, along with the company putting out apres release about hiring HIV+perfromers,,,what do you expect OSHA to do?
If thats the case they will push for condom use on sexual contact (penetration and oral). Don’t think I have ever seen a porno where the girl blows the guy while he has a condom on but I bet I’m gonna be seeing one soon.
He’s now saying he got it from semen leaking into his asshole and not from oral sex as he first stated to the LA Times. Here is a screencap of his rentboy ad. He was most certainly lying about not having sex with anyone other then his girlfriend when he wasn’t doing porn. Cindi I think the screenshot itself deserves a thread of its own.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/205236759.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1291856566&Signature=qPDZ%2BJWNjePe8PhX5eUGzvn4IjQ%3D
Even though he came out and said he’s patient zero, its been known for weeks and his name has been mentioned here a few times without reference to why, by commenters only. Might want to look at some of the names who used Cameron’s name in their posts/responses, interesting. $1K? $2K? Why did Ryan Driller come on over and why isnt the Trannyfucker following the money.
Even if say 50% of this is accurate. AIM for one has some serious issues especially with after care. AIM also should be giving a list of known cases of HIV people still known to be working in gay. That is like playing Russian roulette every time you go to work. OHSA needs to come down hard on the gay industry. If known HIV’s are working that is insanity. Straight needs to ban any cross over male talent. It is only a matter of time before adult is shut down completely by OSHA.
the story broke on NPR this morning that AIM have lost their license to operate, namely due to this story.
i am surprised this is not on the front of this site..
Well?? sounds like the Industry is doomed folks! Thanks Cam ole’ boy!! like they say 3rd time is a charm and the industry is all over the Backpage.com and elsewhere trying to find more talent? Like I said before move it out of here and go to Miami and pay off those republicain lawmakers and take care of biz dudes!
Sirecumalot says that this story is the reason for the closure. LO fucking L.
Their lease says “AIM”,,,,their license application says “Adult Industry Medical”
The two dont match so the license was rejected and they have 60 days to fis it,, but it will probably be done BEFORE the close of business tomorrow.
Where do you guys come up with this shit?
You have to logically figure that individuals and organizations would be taking fire at AIM. After all, their banner logo is literally a target sheet.
Now they’ll have to update their logo to a target sheet with bullet holes and even some barbaric arrows… fired by Big Pharm sponsored weapons… the same entities we trust for “therapies”.
It truly seems everyone is in the porn game these days.
Why was this guy doing straight stuff? His look screams Twink/Bottom/Oral, of course Driller was sucking cock as was the TF in his early days.
Larryhorse,,,you should be asking, why are producers hiring this guy, and why are agents booking him for work in the straight industry? Are agents telling other performers that the guy they are booking for their scene is a gay crossover?
I doubt most agents are telling other performers, look how long they’ve been booking folks like Seth Dickens and of course The Trannyfucker and now booking guys like Driller. The Earl probably had to do something symbolic cause I bet some of his top girls stood up to him and said something, and the Earl still needs those girls or its back to sucking tranny cock. And the big girls clear a lot of cash for his limey ass…and help him wash some green.
Well I waited a while to see if anybody had even thought about this, and since nobody posted anything about it I will.
Cameron is now with the AHF. So how long do you think it took for Cameron to tell them the names of every company,producer, agent he worked for. And how long do you think it to AHF to forward that info to OSHA?
Submitted for your discussion.
Does anyone remember the compalints filed by AHF a few months ago agains the AGENTS. An agent is required by law to make sure that the place he is sending his client for work is insured, and not possible hazardous to the performer. It is the agents LEGAL DUTY to use reasonable efforts to ascertain the safety of the work place where they send a client.
OC Modeling(AGENT) was booking guys on both sides of the fence. Considering gay porn has about 40% positve HIV rate I wuld say that could be considered “possibly hazardous.”
And dont think that Cameron hasnt given them ALL the names of everyone he worked with and for.
This has barely just gotten started. If you all think this is going to kill the insutry, you aint seen nothing yet.
Agents booking scenes where no condoms are used,,’possibly hazardous.” If cameron was being truthful, one of the performers he worked with was known to be HIV positive, which he found out AFTER the fact. Dang this industry sure is making it easy for these guys.
Good point Joe, AHF also may trip over a lot of the info the Feds have left to wilt, depends how smart these folks are. Wonder if AHF has thought about visiting an inmate in the Washington State Penal System or maybe some ex-Earl employees in North Carolina or mother of the year candidates in Florida and other states. I bet Shelley could supply a nice list for some funding.
Shelley would give them the info for FREE as long as they put her name and picture in the papers.
So Karmafan, it’s okay if the porn industry promotes their hardcore movies or if someone like Nina Hartley wries a book and promotes it and makes hundreds of thousands off of it but if I dare try to promote the truth about pornography and at the same time HELPING people then I am labled an attention whore.
Hypocrisy at its finest. Obviously I need to cause awareness about my cause so we can continue to educate the powers that be while we ALSO HELP those who are suffering from sexually transmitted diseases as well as being forced to work in a hazardous and illegally operating workplace.
Who else gives a shit about these people? You surely don’t. Otherwise, where’s your non-profit and outreach to women and men in porn. What are YOU doing to help your fellow co-workers?
Everybody want to criticize me but doesn’t want to do the actual hard work of helping women and men who are forced to work without condoms and without protection in the workplace.
So, Karmafan, I dare you to be the first and really care about those in porn and start helping them!!
Stop using your energy to complain about me but use it instead to help your brothers and sisters who being sujected to a diseased and unsanitary workplace.
oh shut up shelly… give me a break…
you blame everything on the choices you made on porn..
yes people need to be educated before entering, but you still choose to do it..
@BrianJay, Shelley is a professional victim. Nothing in her life was her fault. Her dad didn’t pay attention to her and stopped taking her to church, so she fell away from the Lord, started acting out, drinking, doing drugs and having sex. I’ve been to Glendora, where she lived at that time. There are so many churches there they’re hard to count. There’s a Baptist church ACROSS THE STREET (and a few doors down) from her old house. She had a way out other than whoring, she didn’t take it.
She says, “Nobody told me I could get an STD in porn. They told me I’d be safe.” You know what responsible people do when they enter porn — they go to a library or a bookstore and read a book on STDs. Whose job is it to look out for you? YOURS.
Then, she says, “I was forced to work without condoms.” Really? She entered a business where condomless sex was the norm. She sought that employment — she wasn’t kidnapped and brought to a set. Imagine if you applied for a job as a cook a a restaurant, and during the interview you said, “You know, I don’t really care for knives all that much, and I’ve got a thing about working under pressure…” Every job has requirements — you apply, and if you meet them you do the job and live up to them. Every job. Is porn riskier than being a fry cook? Sure. But the pay is better, too. People earn far lower pay in the armed forces — where they can be killed of maimed.
As for being labeled an attention whore — all she ever talks about is how much she craved attention. Even when Jesus visited her in her room when she was 7, she says, He told her one day she’d be famous. Cant you see, she’s fulfilling His will! I mean, why would she lie about something like that? Now make those checks payable to Pink Cross Foundation. . . .
It also appears that part of AIM’s license denial, aside from the AIM/Adult Industry Medical typo, was the fact that AIM did not have a legally mandated agreement witha hospital to refer patients who have medical issues beyond their capabilities to take care of.
\Might this lend some credence to Camerons claim that AIM did not get him into any treatment program for a few weeks? Was it because AIM did not have anywhere to send him?
I get the feeling, and I’m not alone I bet that Mr Reid is out for a payday, not that he got HIV on purpose but that he can get something out of AIM now after they “slipped” up, but I bet AIM didnt do anything different than before. This guy has been talked to by someone anti-industry and I wouldnt be surprised if there is a payday for this low rent fruit hustler. Shelley, where did you get your dollar figures on Nina’s book? Bababooey probably didnt get than much for his book. Why dont you get you and your girls together and do a Scared Straight Calendar, pink bikinis and such. Also, where the hell is Mr PAW? Stuffing his fat face?
Well, you’re right about that part Michael. I am definitely fulfilling God’s Will for my life. What about you? What about the other “responsible” people in porn? Are they fulfilling their God-given destinies by defending and working in a slave trade where young women work on mostly male sets and are so messed up from drugs and alcohol more than half of them require drivers and handlers? (That’s what Ron Jeremey calls babysitters for drunk and drugged out porn stars.)
You want to keep defending an industry where porn producers blatantly admit they abuse women:
“Where else but in porn can you see a guy who just met a girl that day crack her around, choke her out.” – Brandon Iron, porn producer
“The girls get torn up like usual.” – Vince Vouyer, porn producer
“Degradation drives the business. … There are things going on right now that are way over the line.” – Khan Tusion, porn producer
“Even the mildest pornography is shocking to the average person. I’m surprised it’s legal.” – Paul Thomas, porn producer
“I find myself not that much unlike the slaves and slave traders of some 400 years ago. I participate in the most heinous of ALL trades- THE BUYING AND SELLING OF HUMAN FLESH. I trade my own flesh for monetary compensation and I sell the flesh of others for the same.” – Lexington Steele, porn performer/producer
Since you are SO responsible, why don’t YOU go into a library or bookstore and read about how to end a slave trade or even better YET since you think you’re up on the laws these days, why don’t you go ahead and check out Title 18 of the US Code under section 1591 sex trafficking and see if it sounds just like the porn industry and then ALSO be sure to RE-READ the current health and safety laws and then why don’t you do something RESPONSIBLE and help these men and women who are lured into porn through false information and blatant lies (like Sharon Mitchell saying AIM keeps the adult entertainment safe – um yes I have that on video and more), who are forced to do sex acts they never agreed to some of which I seriously doubt YOU have ever had to experience and who have been lied to by fraudulent slave masters (oops I mean porn agents and producers) and a fraudulent “doctor” Sharon Mitchell who loves to put bandaids on shot gun wounds all day as well as send young naive porn stars to “other” doctors who love to give prescriptions for xanax, vicodin, prozac, norcos and whatever else these slaves need to get through the scene.
YES I KNOW EVERYTHING.
So, now Michael why don’t you do something RESPONSIBLE and HELP the very people you claim to defend. You love porn so much, then protect the people who make it!
And the NEXT time you want to fight with me during a panel you better come over to me and say it to my face. I want to be SURE everything you say to me gets videotaped so I can show adult industry workers your terrible attitude about not caring for them as human beings.
Truth shall prevail. God will have His way and soon this industry will be no more. And women and men in porn will be set free to TRULY live the powerful lives they were meant to live.
YOU ARE MADE FOR GREATER THINGS THAN PORN!!
I love you all, and yes that includes you Michael.
Love,
Shelley
PS: Michael, I’ll see you in court soon. 🙂
Larry,
Camerons payday is free treatment or his HIV for the rest of his life.
@Joe Know
If AIM is anything like the testing center I work for, when you get a positive, you have to do another series of test, which can take up to two weeks before you get the results back (that would explain why he may have not heard anything in a few weeks)
I am curious as to why you would be referred to a hospital, you are referred to a doctor, or YOU can go to your PCP and he will refer you.
I truly feel bad for him for getting HIV, its not a treat for anyone, but I feel as though he didn’t protect himself, so now he wants to punish anyone who “gave him” hiv, which is industry..
@Brian,
Yes, the follow up confimation tests can take a while. In California most labs will send the confirmation tests(western blot) to another laboaratory to confirm the results. And that lab will usually run the test at least twice to oonfirm results.( in california it usually take at least 7 to 10 days to get a western blot result)
A clinic like AIM does not have the capability to treat HIV patients. Legally they are supposed to have a faciltiy where they can “immedeately” refer someon to. That facility may end up refferiing that patient elswhere, to a specialist.
AIM knew this kid was positive when his PCR test came back. He should have been IMMEDEATELY reffered for treatment, right there when they told him, that day. But this is a he said/she said situation and I would take anything that anybody says about this situation with a grain of salt. I think there is bullshit coming from ALL sides here. I think it is interesting that Cameron thinks he got infected during a shoot if FLorida. You can rest assured that Florida health officials, and Federal OSHA will be looking into it. Cameron also mentioned that he thought it was on a Bang Brothers set. I expect Bang Bro will be getting a visit very soon, along wiht every ohter company Cameron worked for.
And for AIM to make a public statement that he got it in his private life is a clear HIPPA violation. They have no right to make public statements about their patient. How can anybody, especially and HIV counselor(Brooke Huunter) at an std clinic tell a newspaper where one of her paitints contracted a disease. AIM cries privacy, then tells a newspaper where the kid got infected, and then they stillhave passwords to everybodys results.
Steele, with all your reading and Clark’s bag full of knowledge cant you find someone to heal Cameron so he can go on sucking cock for cash as a rent boy. I’ll give the TF credit on his gay testing stance, of course TF isnt stupid, arrogant yes, but not stupid.
Is Cameron actually sick, Larry? If not, then why take deadly drugs? Then again, if he was sick, then why take deadly drugs?
Poisons are good at killing everything, good and bad. That’s why taking it a few times if you have a real virus, germ or bacterial infection can be one thing… Poisons also cause an anti-body response (which used to mean you were getting better until Gallo’s HIV diagnosis came around) and at first, if it’s not an overdose, it can cause patients to get and feel better, overall… but constant bombardment day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year is death by presciption. We’ve got to wake up or we won’t wake up because we’ll all be dead! If they had their way, their predictions would have been true. AIDS would have been a pandemic, Gallo would be a lot richer and Bilderbergers would have their sought after global population reduction goals met.
“We’ll all be dead”
“The global population reduction goals”
“If they had their way thier predictions would have come true”
But thanks to the porn superhero, The Man of Stool,and his sidekick, The Boy Clarkie, we have all been saved.
All hail THE MAN OF STOOL!!!!
@slubben – Mrs. Lubben placing the words “modern day” before the word slavery does not change the definition of slavery. No, Title 18 of the US Code under sec. 1591 does not sound like the porn industry. I can see your confusion, since you also believe that not only pornography, but also stripping, and phone sex constitute prostitution.
But this statement of yours is a killer: “And the NEXT time you want to fight with me during a panel you better come over to me and say it to my face. I want to be SURE everything you say to me gets videotaped so I can show adult industry workers your terrible attitude about not caring for them as human beings.”
First of all, I did say what I said it to your face (during the panel). I wasn’t going to stop the proceedings and walk across the room to get in your face. That would have been rude and inappropriate — and the hosts would not have allowed it (nor should they have). In any case, it was not your presentation I interrupted — it was the remarks of Paula Tavrow, elevating your UNPROVEN and ridiculous claims as scientific fact.
Second, our exchange WAS VIDEOTAPED, and every word of it is included in my YouTube video of the event. I posted it to YouRTube becuase I want THE WORLD to see what a fraud you are.
Finally, you have a lot of nerve talking about “caring about porn performers as human beings.” You and every other reader will know what I mean shortly.
I DO want to protect the people that make porn — from parasites like you, and from the cabal of interests that is AHF, LA County Dept Health, UCLA, OSHA and the rest.
And, Shelley, for the record, I do not hate you. I was raised with a decent religious upbringing, an I hope you and your family have a happy life. I simply do not agree with you, I have serious doubts about many of your assertions and I have many, many misgivings about the way you do business.
Fortunately, I also see you as so bizarre as to be ineffective.
Take this report, from 2009:
The Swift and Quiet Death of AB 847
On June 23, California Assemblywoman Mary Salas, D-San Diego, amended an existing bill that sought to levy a 20 percent tax on adult entertainment — specifically brick-and- mortar stores, including gentlemen’s clubs. The bill went up for a vote before the Assembly Revenue and Tax committee July 6.
You, Mrs. Lubben, testified that the industry is wrought with prostitution, slavery, drug deals, HIV, meth addicts, murder and suicide.
The swing vote was Assembly Member Saldana. She had previously taken a position in support of the bill but changed her vote and the bill was defeated before it even got out of committee. When asked what changed her mind, she said that she had read the industry trade group’s materials, there was no law enforcement support for the bill, and that Ms. Lubben was way over the top.
The Lubben Effect in action.
Oh, and by the way, Mrs. Lubben, how much did Pink Cross fork over to record your new album?
See me in court — that would be a dream come true, Shelley. If you’d ever like to debate, I would relish that opportunity as well, as long as it’s on neutral territory.
Cordially,
MW
I decided to look at Michaels “Shelley: videos on youtube today. i think there are two of them. And WOW, they each have about 400 total views. WOW, after being posted for a few weeks a whole 400 views.
So then I decided to look at Julie meadows series of shelly videos about their financial statements. There are four of firve of them and they each have about 350 to 400 biews. WOW, a whole 350 views after months online. And you know its the same people viewing each one. WOW, online for months and a whopping 400 views. Look out
Then I looked at Shelleys youtube site which has alot of videos posted, granted alot of them have been up for a long time. And Shelley’s vids have thousand, tens of thousands, and several of them hundreds of thousands of views, one of them has over 500,000 views.
I bet shelley sells more albums than ever watch your youtube videos.
400 total views. LOL
I’m about as far away from being a Lubben supporter as you can get, BUT honestly – her music isn’t that bad.
I personally would have liked to have seen her musical efforts go into the women that she gives assistance to however. I think it would have been a better idea to start an all girl “Spice Girls” type music act featuring Lubben’s ex-pornstars.
Considering that you have better chances of making it in music when you’re under 30, that would have been a better move than Lubben herself rapping.
Does she have a music video?
@joe know – You make me laugh.
Try comparing the YouTube vids with the Anti-Piracy PSAs I wrote and directed for the FSC. About 710,000 total views since April for all four versions (three of the “all-star” psa and one of Charlie Laine). What made them attract viewers? They were complete projects, on a mater of great public interest, and they were picked up by the press. Mainstream press. Let’s see what happens when the final version of the Lubben video is released. Neither Julie nor I ever hoped or planned that a short teaser video featuring Ernest Greene would attract much attention outside of industry circles.
The same goes for a hour-long (or more) discourse on a series of tax forms. That’s how long it took to cover them thoroughly, but that does not make it a substitute for entertainment.
In my opinion, you also underestimate the number of people who check those Lubben videos out to see the freak show, or to do what my confederates and I have done — analyze them. Clown schools probably study her make-up stylings, as well.