Simply click on your submission and enter my email address klubkk@gmail.com where it says cardholder and your tribute will be loaded onto my account. The maximum amount you can load is $1000 so to pay my rent you’ll have to make two tributes. Enjoy.

BILLS

Rent $1400
Car Payment $330
Car Insurance $185
Cell Phone $140
Health Insurance $160
Groceries $300
Gas $150
Film and Developing $200
Entertainment $400
Hair Cut & Color $200
Credit Cards $250

In 2009, the LA Public Health department and the LA Times claimed that there were 16 unreported cases of HIV among adult film actors. AIM Healthcare Foundation reported that these cases were actually members of the general public or people applying to work in the adult film industry that had not yet actually worked in films due to their initial test being positive. This is further evidence that testing has worked in keeping the industry HIV-free.

The system we had in place with AIM Healthcare wasn’t perfect, but we did have a central testing facility with one database. That is, until AHF (AIDS Healthcare Foundation) pushed the Public Health Dept to investigate AIM Healthcare and, due to legal expenses and harassment lawsuits, AIM was forced to close their doors in 2010. Now, there are multiple testing facilities and draw stations with no central database. This means that in the case of an emergency like an HIV outbreak, it would be harder to quarantine and track performers, basically making us less safe.

The gay porn industry is largely condom-only but doesn’t require testing. If the straight industry adopted these same standards, performers would be less safe because condoms break. Now, most porn veterans like myself, Belladonna and others get RNA HIV tests, which detects HIV within two days of exposure. And we get our results within 24 hours of testing. This is the most advanced HIV test out there and it is affordable and available to the general public.

The AHF championed this current condom law by paying people for signatures to get it on the ballot and pushing the city council to just pass a law rather than spend four million dollars creating a ballot initiative. The effect that’s had and is still having is that it’s decentralised healthcare in the industry and pushed it underground. Again, this makes us less safe.

The AHF has also pushed to have adult performers categorised as “employees” rather than independent contractors, so that we fall under the jurisdiction of State employee safeguard Cal/OSHA and face the same “barrier protection” requirements as medical professionals. (Which, by the way, doesn’t mean just condoms, but also dental dams, gloves, goggles and masks.)

The vast majority of adult performers work for dozens of different companies in a year and seldom the same one more than a few times. If that’s not an independent contractor then the law needs to change. Regardless, it’s illegal to require an HIV test of an “employee” in California (or most States).

Testing has kept us safe and while some performers might not mind the idea of condoms in some circumstances, no one would feel safer with condoms instead of testing! There has been a lot of speculation within the industry as to what the AHF’s motivations are. Headlines? Fundraising? Grant money? Nobody is naive enough to believe that its intention is to make porn more safe. Everything the AHF has done has made us less safe.

@KIMBERLYKANE

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