The 28-year-old porn star, who goes by the name Cameron Bay, tested positive for HIV this week after an earlier screening for sexually transmitted diseases came back inconclusive, the adult news site AVN Media Network reported. The Free Speech Coalition, an industry trade group, said that additional testing confirmed the positive results.
They announced a nationwide shutdown on adult shooting Wednesday after preliminary test results were positive. The shutdown will remain in effect until Bay's sexual partners have been tested and cleared. Identification and notification of those people are nearly complete, the organization said. "We are saddened to report that the tests involving performer Cameron Bay have been confirmed as positive for HIV," the group said in a statement.
"As we are all trying to absorb this information and take appropriate actions as necessary, I urge each and every performer to refrain from any production until the moratorium is lifted industry wide," Mark Schechter, owner of Adult Talent Managers LA, which represents the actress, said in a statement. "We have already taken the necessary steps to cancel any and all shoots that are scheduled through ATMLA."
Schechter said she went in for her regular screening for sexually transmitted diseases on Monday and the results came back inconclusive. She went in for a second test Tuesday with a new blood sample. Preliminary results came back Wednesday as potentially positive for HIV. He expressed that the porn actress's "courage should be lauded." "Cameron is obviously distraught over this conclusive information," he said, adding that the actress has been cooperative with medical personnel. "Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time."
Bay added in a statement of her own: "As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected. I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health." According to Bay, she received her last clean bill of health on July 27, and just days later, she filmed an unprotected sex scene for a series called Public Disgrace. Her male partner was Xander Corvus.
Corvus is best known for having portrayed Anthony Weiner in a recent porn parody of the New York politician's sexting scandal. That film, "Weiner and Me," was shot this summer and released this week, and it involved an unprotected sex scene with Sydney Leathers, one of the congressman's actual mistresses. In a statement, Leathers said both she and Xander got tested prior to shooting their scene, and both were deemed "healthy," However, the presence of STDs sometimes does not come up in tests for up to three months after exposure.
Leathers released a further statement this morning: "I do not have HIV and have not been exposed to HIV regardless of the reports out there saying otherwise. I was not contacted by the Free Speech Coalition to re-test, I reached out to them to see if I should re-test and was told I did not need to. I took all the necessary precautions before and after my scene for Vivid and acted responsibly and therefore was able to protect myself from exposure to anything. As an added precaution I retested 2 days after my shoot and again yesterday and was negative."
Word of the latest incident quickly drew critical responses from porn industry opponents, most of them the ones who successfully lobbied voters last year to adopt an ordinance requiring actors use condoms in the making of most porn films. The Free Speech coalition, however, said there was "no evidence whatsoever" that Bay had contracted the infection on set. The adult industry has maintained that mandating condoms on set, as the city and county of Los Angeles have now done, harms business and is unnecessary because performers undergo regular testing. They added that the audience does not want to see condoms, and are now fighting the Los Angeles County measure in court.
What do you think? Did Cameron Bay contract HIV on set or not? Do you think Sydney Leathers will test positive if she were to take another test in a few weeks? Do you agree with making adult film performers use condoms? Sound off in the comment section below!
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