May 03, 2011 19:22 ET
AIM Closed, Condoms Should Follow Says AHF
AIM Medical Associates — Formerly the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) HealthCare Foundation — Closes; AHF Calls on Industry to Protect Performers’ Health by Requiring Condoms on Set; Says LA County Should Step Up, Enforce Condom-Use on All Porn Film Shoots
LOS ANGELES, CA–(Marketwire – May 3, 2011) – In response to the news that AIM Medical Associates (formerly, the Adult Industry Medical Foundation) — an adult-film industry-funded health clinic in Sherman Oaks — is now closed, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today expressed concern about performers’ health. AHF has been spearheading a workplace safety campaign to require the use of condoms in porn.
"Now that AIM has closed — and the industry ‘fig leaf’ is gone — the responsible thing for the industry to do is to put performers’ health first and require condom-use on all adult film sets," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "Testing adult film performers for HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases is important, but has never been an effective substitute for safer sex and condom use. Performers were poorly served by AIM and are poorly served by an industry that places profits above worker safety. If the porn industry won’t protect its own workers, it is time for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health — the government body charged with safeguarding the health and welfare of its citizens — to enforce condom use on all adult film sets in the County."
Mounting Troubles for AIM
The news of AIM’s closing comes on the heels of mounting troubles for the clinic including accusations of poor treatment leveled at AIM by Derrick Burts, a 24 year-old adult film performer who tested HIV-positive in October at AIM, as well as a California lawsuit against the clinic by two former adult film actresses alleging privacy breaches of their protected patient health data.
In addition, in March more than 12,000 current and former adult film performers who tested for HIV and other STDs at the AIM had their privacy breached when their personal data collected from AIM was published illegally on a Wiki-leaks type website. In response to news of the widespread online privacy breach, AHF said: "This breach should not come as a surprise to any care provider who dutifully manages and cares for populations of patients. The entire business model of the AIM clinic has been flawed from the start, and as a result, its patients’ privacy has been violated."
According to the Los Angeles Times (3/30/11), "The AIM clinic opened in 1998 but was shut down in December by Los Angeles County public health officials two days after state health officials denied its application to operate as a community clinic based on what regulators called ‘business-related issues.’ The clinic was sold and allowed to reopen last month as AIM Medical Associates P.C., part of a doctor’s office regulated by the Medical Board of California, according to state officials."
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the largest global AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 156,000 individuals in 26 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and the Asia Pacific Region. www.aidshealth.org
Well…Michael Weinstein and his cronies should enjoy his short little victory in his vendetta, because if one performer happens to get infected with HIV from here on out, it’s on HIS hands.
If he thinks that mandating condoms and restoring the inferior ERISA test will do anything but drive performers underground into much less safe environments, then he is even more deluded than usual.
Of course, it’s always been about the money…and the drive to use performers as stepping stones and guniea pigs for their personal agenda.
We will see what we will see, I guess.
Anthony
Watch Porn Valley become a ghost town now and most of the business move to Miami.
This entire matter will ultimately end up in the courts, there can now be no question. Every governmental entity involved has been kicking the ball on regulation and/or enforcement back and forth — the city, the county, the state…. Larry Flynt is already challenging his OSHA citation. In the end this is nothing more than an unconstitutional attempt at an end-run around free speech, using, in the name of “public health”) a regulatory scheme or regime to do what the courts and legislature may not, and it is for that reason it will ultimately fail — but not before having maliciously inflicted damage upon many innocent, hard-working, taxpaying members of the adult production business in California.
This is a grizzly science experiment being perpetrated on living subjects. And all for the enrichment, fame and glory of despicable charlatans like Michael Weinstein, Shelley Lubben, Dr. Paula Tavrow, and Mark Roy McGrath.
@karmafan most of the talent that shoots in FL still live in the LA area, I wonder how many of them would actually be willing to relocate to FL? Also, I don’t know if FL would be all that welcoming to a large migration of porn people considering the current political climate down there.
Weinstein, you’re a turd, you’re agenda blows, any time you want to debate this issue with anyone in the business comeout you coward, I’ll debate your dumbass. Why didnt you guys go after Burts for his selfish behavior, he did privates too, lying little weasel. As for Desi and Elli and their lawsuit, f**k you, you knew what the porn business was about, besides Desi/Diana, you’re forty odd years old, you that naive and stupid, we know you’re a crummy mom and a poor suitcase pimp.
This is all foreshadowing. The other shoe is about to drop.
MICHAEL,
Now here is someting we completely agree on, and I am glad to see someone else besides my self bring up this subject.
I have wriiten on these boads for over four years now how the County, and OSHA have been playing ping pong with this issue for ten years now. Its a public health issue, says OSHA, becuase we cant require testing. Its a workplace issue says County Health because its job related. And the California Legislators refuse to even debate the issue. Then you throw the AHF into the mix. They file complaints that legally must be addressed by OSHA and the County. I said it years ago, County Health, and OSHA would love to just ignore the porn industry and let it go on its merry way, if they hadnt been dragged into this by the legal manuvers of the AHF. Just look up some of County Health’s Dr. Kernts statements about AIM from years ago, how he would praise the program and congatulate them for the fine job they were doing.
The fingerpointing between OSHA and the County and the State has now been bought to a head only becuase of the AHF. WIthout the AHF invovement, the county and OSHA would have just continued to ignore the industry as they have for decades.
Larry is currently going through the OSHA appeals process. If or when he loses this appeal it will be interesting to see if he takes it to the courts. Only time will tell on this. Funny thing about oneof Larry’s citations. He was cited for not having an IIPP in place. The fine is cheaper for not having an IIP&P, than it is for actually having a written IPP&P and not following it. Thats pure governmental b.s. at its finest.
And then the State says AIM hasnt had a ‘proper’ license for ten years. Not like AIM was hiding from anybody. They were perhaps one of the most well known clinics in the state, and it only took the state ten years to discover that they had an improper license. That says more about the government agencies that are supposed to oversee these establishments, than it does about the clinic itself.
http://adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=48333
Michael,
I am sure you will agree with the last three paragraphs of this aricle.
From what I understand, in the past two years 2 performers have been found to be HIV positive… Maybe someone can correct me on that, but everyday thousands of people in Africa, South America, and Asia contract the disease….
Do people who donate to AHF or the government grants I assume they recieve really want AHF to spend so much time, energy, and money on an industry that isn’t nearly as dangerous as your average construction job? I thought the goal of AHF was to help with aspects of HIV (treating it, etc), not waste time on a moralist crusade that has everything to do with an individual’s right to make their own decisions.
This screams of meglomania from AHF… I’m the expert, listen to me or I’ll go to the government. Pathetic…
@Joe – I absolutely concur with those three paragraphs — I also spoke with Dennis Romero at length several days before he filed that blog. (He is considering writing a longer piece in the near future concerning the larger picture of the state of the adult business.) And, I also agree with your description of the last decade of “ping-pong.”
One area where we differ here, however, is that it took the state ten years to “discover” that AIM had a deficiency in its licensing. The drive to suddenly require that license, and to insist that AIM fill out their paperwork a certain way, under terms dictated to them, was 100% politically motivated.
You likewise won’t get any argument from me about government BS, mismanagement, and incompetence — it’s rampant. Throw in one grandstanding megalomaniac (and whatever private promises he threw around); toss in some of campaign donations and the picture of blood in the water billowing forth from a hemorrhaging porn industry, and the stage was set for this travesty — a condom-peddling “health organization” (which provides testing services) forcing a heath clinic (which also provides testing services — using arguably superior tests) out of business in the name of public health — all the while citing a man (Burts) who they claim contracted HIV in the very paradigm that they trumpet as the cure for a problem which was not (under AIM’s paradigm) really a problem!
To quote Bridge on the River Kwai — “Madness. Madness.”
It’s not like there are no other options for STD and HIV testing for porn performers in LA or anywhere else. AIM was but one of many outlets. Most producers accept other testing clinic certificates, and they continue to do so.