Who would have thought that a missing latex device worth less than fifty cents would grind to a halt a Los Angeles industry that generates five to nine billion dollars annually?

Recently, three adult entertainment actors tested positive for HIV infection. Most major companies in the adult movie industry have ceased filming for 60 days so that any performers who worked with the three can be tested and re-tested for HIV. This widely reported story gives us all an opportunity to clarify values and to imagine a healthier future.

First and foremost, AIDS Project Los Angeles extends its support, services and advocacy efforts to the three infected actors.

Second, we applaud the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation for its ongoing leadership in promoting the sexual and emotional health of sex workers and of all the individuals who work in the adult entertainment industry. We must remember that a voluntary, community-based program both identified the recent transmissions and contained them.

Now, another voluntary community response can further reduce the threat of sexually transmitted infections. We urge the adult entertainment industry to adopt an immediate and universal commitment to using condoms in all future films and videos.

As a consequence of these revelations, we are reminded again that across the industry, performers in adult films are paid more to work without using condoms, or work less or not at all if they are so bold as to want to protect their own health.

We demand that the adult film industry remove the financial incentives that put performers at risk. We demand that distributors stop buying and releasing films that depict sex without condoms.

We all know that the correct and consistent use of condoms, along with regular HIV testing, can further reduce the threat of future infections. There is no excuse for denying adult film actors the option of protected sex
or for paying them more to perform unsafe acts. Health is too valuable a right to compromise for the sake of a commodity.

Using condoms in all pornography makes sense at a cultural level, too. Like it or not, pornography plays a significant role in shaping the sexual pleasure and behavior of many Americans. A sexually transmitted infection, however, will shatter any fantasy. The adult film industry can have a tremendous influence on public and personal health by normalizing the use of condoms in adult film fantasies and thereby promoting their use in the real world.

The gay adult entertainment industry learned the importance of showing condom use back in the 1980s. Such depictions in gay pornography undoubtedly contributed to the adoption of safer behavior by gay men.

Sadly, a handful of gay production companies have recently traded in their responsibility to the community for the opportunity to make a quick buck. This cannot continue. Eroticising risk, despite a perceived audience for it, is bad business and a betrayal of gay men.

Condoms work. AIDS Project Los Angeles calls for the universal adoption of condoms by the adult entertainment industry. There is nothing entertaining about getting a preventable, life-threatening illness.