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Advisory panel would consider increasing regulation of California's porn industry
Mon, 03/22/2010 - 20:01 | by Shelley LubbenAfter hearing from industry workers, a board of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health votes to form an advisory group. Increased regulation would include mandating the use of condoms.
State regulators voted unanimously Thursday to create an advisory committee to consider increasing regulation of California's porn industry, including mandating the use of condoms and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.
Guy Prescott, director of safety for Operating Engineers Local Union #3 and one of six members of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s standards board, said he had planned to vote against the measure but changed his mind after hearing from performers and others in the porn industry.
Fellow board member Jonathan Frisch, principal risk manager at PG&E Corp., said that despite some people's distaste for the industry it was important to treat it as an employer. He said it was "extremely interesting to hear from members of the industry."
"It's going to be very, very important that we do have them at the table," Frisch said. Former porn actor Darren James, who tested HIV-positive during a 2004 outbreak in the San Fernando Valley's porn community, told the board that current testing in the industry is a false "security blanket."
"You think you're safe, but you're not. In between scenes, you don't know what other actors are doing," James told the board before turning to the crowd of about 40 at Costa Mesa City Hall. "I'm living your nightmare every day," he said.
But porn actress Angelina Armani told the board that during the last two years, she has appeared in many adult films, been tested regularly and never contracted a disease.
"My industry has protected my safety and continues to protect the safety of other performers," Armani said.
Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, director of communicable disease control and prevention for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, recommended Thursday that the board mandate condom use and require the adult film industry to pay for testing. Infection rates for chlamydia and gonorrhea, he told the board, are seven times higher in the porn industry than in the general population, and as many as a quarter of porn performers are diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease in any given year.
The vote Thursday was in response to a petition filed in December by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an advocacy group that has been pushing for increased regulation in the porn industry since the 2004 outbreak. Michael Weinstein, president of the foundation, called the board's vote a "big step forward" and said he believed it signaled an openness to increased regulation by the state.
Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a Canoga Park-based porn trade association, said her group backed the board's vote as long as the committee includes adult-film workers, producers or other industry representatives.
After the vote, James said he wished more hard-core porn actors had come forward to tell their stories, and that the board -- which will take a least a month to form an advisory group -- had acted sooner.
"They need to do more," he said. "They should have done this years ago."
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
Ex Porn Star talks with Laura Ingraham About the Truth Behind Pornography
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 10:10 | by Shelley Lubben
Ex Porn Star talks with Laura Ingraham About the Truth Behind Pornography
by Shelley Lubben
Laura said we needed to confront porn and we did it! Just listen here!
Finally a powerful conservative has the guts to take on the lies of the illegally operating and sexually diseased porn industry and how the smut it churns out is devastating our families and youth.
Pornography has many victims, from the modern day slaves who work in the porn industry to the youth who can easily access pornography using their cell phones or computers while doing homework. In fact, statistics say the largest group for viewing pornograpy online is ages 12-17. What a tragedy!
And now the porn industry openly preys on unsuspecting college students all in the name of education of course.
Recently a porn movie made its way to several college campuses in efforts to help the porn industry resurrect itself. Yes, with all the free porn available on the internet and major pressure on the porn industry by organizations such as Pink Cross Foundation, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Cal/Osha and Los Angeles Department of Public Health, the slow but sure death for porn is in progress and it's forcing the porn industry to seek creative ways to survive its imminent death.
Especially since they just spent an estimated $10 million dollars on the movie in question: "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge" starring several big porn names such as Belladonna, who by the way has Herpes a non-curable disease and yet continues to do hardcore scenes. Then we have Ben English, also known as Derek Hay, owner of LADirect Models who has been rumored to be under FBI investigation for prostitution as well as other illegal activities. Next we have Jesse Jane and Riley Steele who are shown as being wasted in a youtube video which you can see here. These are some of the "actors" in the movie that students will be viewing for "educational" purposes.
Why not discuss the backgrounds of these actors as well for "educational" purposes? Or perhaps a behind scenes discussion about the illegal exchange of bodily fluids filmed during the movie? Or better yet, the unsafe and hazardous work conditions that porn performers are forced to work in?
According to Cal/Osha, the California Occupational Safety Health Act, adult film industry employers are required to provide a safe and healthful workplace for employees, and pay the costs of their health and safety program.
These requirements include:
*Following a written safety and health program, known as an injury and illness prevention program, or IIPP. In simple terms, an IIPP identifies potential hazards specific to the workplace and ways to protect workers from those hazards.
*Training employees in health and safety hazards
*Protecting employees from electrical hazards, such as those associated with special lighting
*Protecting employees from hazards associated with bloodborne pathogens
*Providing sanitation facilities
*Not discriminating against employees who complain about safety and health conditions.
It also states very plainly:
"The kind of contact prohibited by the standard is contact between skin or mucous membranes and blood or OPIM (other potentially infectious material)."
You can't exchange bodily fluids while making a porn movie. That's the law. But of course the porn industry doesn't follow laws.
In fact, one industry leader and so-called doctor to the porn stars stated smugly in a New York Times article, "Honey, this is pornography. People don't pay attention to the Legislature."
Maybe the college campuses would be interested in learning that the porn industry doesn't pay attention to laws like the rest of us do.
Learn more about the California health requirements regarding the adult film industry at http://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/AdultFilmIndustry.html
Take it from an ex porn star, NONE of these requirements above are being fulfilled by the porn industry. The only fulfillment going on is is film crew members getting "off" during abusive and degrading sex scenes filmed in private homes.
Yes, the porn industry is modern day slavery. How can this be, you ask? For one, young naive girls are lured in through the internet by fraudulent pornographers and coerced to sign contracts they can't even read or understand. Once the signature is there, they are forced into hardcore sex acts they never agreed to and threatened if they don't do them. Just ask the former porn actress who was forced to do a porn scene with 75 men who ejaculated on her. The men weren't even professional male performers! Men off the street were solicited through a LA Weekly by JM Productions and Michelle says she wasn't shown any STD tests from these "civilians". By the way, she was drunk in that video and pornographers knew it. Hell, they gave her the vodka and beer!
To learn more about the hardcore truth behind pornography, read stories by former porn actresses here.
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free and with courageous conservatives like Laura and ex porn stars who have been there and done that like Shelley, porn won't be around much longer in America. It's just a matter of time and a good dose of truth.
And with the help of God whose morals this nation was built on, truly I believe America will turn away from porn and turn back to God who loves them and has a greater destiny for their lives than porn.
Thank you Laura Ingraham for being bold and confronting pornography. I thank you and your country thanks you!
History in the Adult Film Industry Being Made Thursday at Cal Osha Meeting!
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 04:12 | by Shelley Lubben
History is being made in the Adult Film Industry!
Read what adult industry is saying about Cal Osha meeting below where members from Pink Cross Foundation along side AIDS Healthcare Foundation will be testifying of the illegal activities and hazardous work conditions in the adult film industry!
Please pray for and support us at www.thepinkcross.org. We need your help! The adult industry is recruiting many to come out in large numbers so WE the TRUTH must also come out and fight!
To join us in this fight come to the address below:
Costa Mesa City Council Chambers
77 Fair Drive
Costa Mesa, California 92626
10:00 a.m. March 18. 2010
I also invite ALL industry workers who are tired of being human slaves to come and speak at the meeting and have your voice heard. Come, we will be there to stand with you!
Read more about meeting according to adult industry below:
On Thursday March 18, OSHA will hold a hearing to determine if they will create an advisory panel to amend the blood borne pathogen standard (section 5193) to be more specific for the adult industry. The standard (5193) as written is tailored for the medical community, but it does not exclude the adult industry.
This is going to be the most important event in the adult industry since the Miller, and Freeman decisions. It is imperative that all segments of the industry be represented at this hearing, producers, directors, performers, AIM, agents, and the FSC. While the FSC and AIM will certainly be present, it is performer testimony that will carry the most weight. But the main question is, Will performers testify?
Why is it so important for performers to testify? That is simple. Performers are the only people directly affected by STD’s on the set. Company owners, producers, directors,agents, and FSC lawyers are not the ones getting STD’s. It will look very suspicious if the only group of people not represented at the hearing are the very people who are affected the most. The FSC will not be there to speak on behalf of the talent, they will be there to speak on behalf of the production companies, and there only concern is to protect the producers right to produce porn.
Is this a good or bad thing? Contrary to popular opinion in the adult industry, this could turn out very good. If this panel to revise 5193 is created, they may end up coming to a compromise that does NOT require condoms for all sex acts. Then again, the exact opposite may happen. But without input form performers, the panel will surely go for the most draconian measures. If performers do not testify the AHF will surely make the argument that the performers were intimidated into not testifying, and they will make the argument that if performers did testify it would be the end of their careers.
As the law is written now, there is no doubt that the industry is in violation of section 5193. Only because of the lack of enforcement does the industry get away with breaking these laws. The handful of times that companies have been cited have all ended with the porn companies paying large fines.
Will the new LATATA be present at the hearing? Will they encourage their talent to testify? If they don’t, they will have no one to blame but themselves if OSHA decides on the most draconian measures. I think that LATATA should publicly advocate for the performers to testify, as well as testifying themselves.
Don’t leave it up to the FSC to speak for the industry. They have only the interest of the large production companies to protect, and rightfully so. Those are the ones that fund the FSC.
This day will go down in history for the adult industry. Will the entire industry be represented at this hearing, or only the large production companies? This is an opportunity for performers to have their say, whether they support more protections or not. No matter how you feel, this is the time to speak up. The industry will have no one to blame but themselves if they do not have all segments of the industry represented at the hearing. If performers do not show up, that will say more to the government panel than all of the FSC, AIM, and producers testimony combined. Performers are the ONLY people affected by this. For performers not to be present will, in my opinion, be the final nail in the coffin for the adult industry as it is today. Exercise your right to speak, but don’t complain if you just sit on your ass and let others fight the battle. The industry needs to show up in force at this hearing.
Cal/OSHA Meeting Will Explore Strengthening CA Adult Film Worker Safety Regulations
Wed, 03/17/2010 - 03:20 | by Shelley LubbenFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Ged Kenslea, AHF Dir. of Communications
E-Mail: gedk@aidshealth.org
Cal/OSHA Meeting Will Explore Strengthening CA Adult Film Worker Safety Regulations
Former Adult Film Actors, Public Health Advocates to Testify at March 18th Cal/OSHA Standards Board Meeting in Costa Mesa; Board to Consider Creating Advisory Panel to Revisit Adult Film Worker Safety
In December, AHF Filed Petition Seeking Amendment to State’s “Bloodborne Pathogens” Regulation to Better Encompass Adult Film Industry, Expressly Requiring Condoms to Protect Performers
LOS ANGELES (March 17, 2010) California’s Department Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) will explore strengthening adult film worker safety regulations in California during its next regularly scheduled Standards Board meeting (http://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/agendaMarch2010.html Item # IV “B”) on Thursday, March 18th in Costa Mesa. The action comes in response to a petition filed in December by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) seeking an amendment to broaden the Cal/OSHA’s “bloodborne pathogens” workplace safety regulations to better encompass adult film industry worksites.
At Thursday’s meeting, state officials will consider Cal/OSHA’s own staff’s recommendation to create an advisory panel to determine whether—and how—to amend state health statutes to better protect adult film workers. Several former adult entertainment actresses, a current producer/director/performer as well as several public health advocates will testify at the meeting in support of Cal/OSHA’s creation of an advisory panel as well as ultimately changing state health regulations.
WHAT: PUBLIC HEARING & TESTIMONY—10am
Cal/OSHA to consider creating advisory panel on adult film worker safety
http://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/agendaMarch2010.html (Item # IV “B”)
WHEN: THURSDAY, March 18th 2010—-10:00 AM Pacific
WHERE: Meeting: Costa Mesa City Council Chambers, 77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
WHO: Shelley Lubben, former adult entertainment actress and founder of Pink Cross Foundation
Jan (Meza) Merritt, former adult entertainment actress and member of Pink Cross Foundation
Madelyne Hernandez, former adult entertainment actress and member of Pink Cross Foundation
Dave Pounder, Producer/Director/Performer, President, Dave Pounder Productions
Tim Tritch,
Robert Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, Director, Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Program, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Cristina Hart-Rodriguez, Chair, Adult Film Industry Subcommittee, Reproductive Health Interest Group, UCLA School of Public Health
Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, President
Brian Chase, Assistant General Counsel, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Director, Public Health Division, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
CONTACT: Ged Kenslea, AHF Dir. of Communications (323) 791-5526 cell (323) 308-1833 office
Also:
WHAT: POST Cal/OSHA HEARING TELECONFERENCE–12noon
Advocates respond after Cal/OSHA hearing on adult film health and safety
WHEN: THURSDAY, March 18th 2010—-12:00 PM Pacific
Teleconference Dial in information: +1.877.411.9748 participant code #7931503
WHERE: Hilton Hotel Orange County/Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Late last week, Cal/OSHA officials released its staff evaluation of AHF’s petition as well as a proposed decision that the Cal OSHA’s Standards Board is expected to evaluate and act on during Thursday’s meeting. In its proposed decision (http://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/petition513.html), Cal OSHA officials wrote:
“In light of the evaluations, it is apparent to the Board that serious consideration should be given to the possible amendment of Section 5193 in order to give greater protection to employees in the adult film industry.” (Emphasis added)
“This is a huge step in the right direction toward protecting the health and safety of adult film workers here in California, and I want to thank Cal OSHA officials for their work on this and urge its Standards Board members to vote in favor of convening an advisory panel on this issue,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Although workers in adult films should enjoy protections under the current phrasing of Cal/OSHA’s regulations, the adult film industry has steadfastly refused to take any steps to protect its workers from diseases spread by bloodborne pathogens, resulting in thousands of employees becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases. AHF filed this petition because adult film industry producers were unwilling or unable to comply with current Cal/OSHA regulations and to take steps necessary to protect performers by providing and enforcing the use of condoms during filming.”
“I was a porn star living the glamorous life. Drug overdoses, herpes, suicide attempts and abuse at the hands of the porn industry,” said Shelley Lubben, former porn actress and founder of the Pink Cross Foundation, an IRS approved 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to offering adult industry workers emotional, financial and transitional support for those who want out of the adult industry. “In my time in the industry, I did some very hardcore movies, and only drugs and alcohol could get me through them. I played a crazy game of Russian roulette with my life. The industry did not and still does NOT enforce condom usage, so STDs and HIV were—and still are--a high risk among porn actors and actresses. While my own life has taken an entirely new and profoundly fulfilling direction and I now work to help performers leave the industry altogether, I wholeheartedly support the call to amend Cal/OSHA regulations to better protect those still involved in the ongoing production of adult films in California.”
“It breaks my heart to acknowledge that during my time as a porn star, I’ve done a scene with 25 men and even though I was assured that all of the STD testing had been taken care of by the producers, in my heart I realize now that this was probably a lie because I never saw the tests for myself,” said Jan (Meza) Merritt, former porn actress and member of the Pink Cross Foundation. “There are thousands of porn stars actively working in the adult industry. How much higher is the risk of getting HIV and other STDs in an industry where you have not only one sexual partner per day, but several or more and condoms are looked at as an unnecessary, negative component of this industry? I urge Cal/OSHA to convene an advisory panel to thoroughly consider amending California safety and health regulations covering the industry.”
Background on AHF’s Petition to Cal/OSHA
AHF filed its petition at the final 2009 meeting of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA) in mid-December in Sacramento. The petition sought an amendment to California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5193 “Bloodborne Pathogens” and asked Cal/OSHA to clarify protections for workers in the adult film industry and to explicitly include a condom requirement. As reported by the Associated Press at the time, (“AIDS group wants rule requiring condoms in porn” AP, 12/16/09) AHF said, “regulations to prevent the spread of bloodborne diseases in hospitals should extend to adult film sets. The current regulations aren't clear enough.”
Cal OSHA’s proposed decision also noted:
“In view of the fact that the Petitioner does not represent all stakeholders and in view of the complexity of the issues, the possibly differing approaches to potential rulemaking and possible issues regarding federal equivalence, the Board concludes that an advisory committee would be of great benefit in determining the manner (if any) in which Section 5193 should be amended. Labor Code Section 147.1(c) provides, in effect, that the Division is to take the lead in developing and presenting proposed health standards to the Board, in which case, it is appropriate that the Division take the lead with respect to the advisory committee discussed herein.” (Emphasis added)
“In view of the foregoing, the Board grants the Petition that is the subject of Petition File No. 513 to the extent that the Division is requested to convene an advisory committee representing stakeholders in order to consider possible amendments of California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5193 as it pertains to employees in the adult film industry. If determined necessary, regulatory language or amendments should be developed for the Board’s consideration at a future public hearing.”
Background on STDs—including HIV—in the Adult film Industry and AHF’s Ongoing Advocacy
AHF’s action was prompted by the ongoing epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in California’s adult film industry. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH), workers in the adult film industry are ten times more likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease than members of the population at large. LADPH documented 2,013 individual cases of chlamydia and 965 cases of gonorrhea among workers between the years 2003 and 2007. LADPH has observed that many workers suffer multiple infections, with some performers having four or more separate infections over the course of a year. In addition, LADPH has stated that as many as 25 industry-related cases of HIV have been reported since 2004. Included in the presentation will be two PowerPoint slideshows created by Peter R. Kerndt, MD, MPH, Director, Sexually Transmitted Disease Program for LADPH detailing the rampant epidemic of STDs in Los Angeles’ adult film industry and the need for condoms to prevent disease transmission.
This past August, AHF filed sixteen worker-safety complaints with Cal/OSHA over the lack of condom use in adult films made in California. AHF supported its complaints with the submission of nearly 60 adult DVDs filmed in California and in which the performers do not wear condoms. The complaints asserted that the films demonstrated unsafe—potentially life-threatening—behavior in a California workplace, as the sexual acts filmed without participating performers using condoms depict the unprotected exchange of bodily fluids.
The full text of AHF’s initial December petition to Cal/OSHA can be viewed here.
# # #
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the largest global AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 130,000 individuals in 22 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and the Asia Pacific Region. www.aidshealth.org
The Pink Cross Foundation is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to offering adult industry workers emotional, financial and transitional support for those who want out of the adult industry. www.thepinkcross.org, www.shelleylubben.com
The California Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/Osha) Standards Board Votes Unanimously to Protect Adult Film Workers
Mon, 03/29/2010 - 02:24 | by Shelley LubbenThe California Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/Osha) Standards Board Votes Unanimously to Protect Adult Film Workers, Thursday
By: Jan Meza-Merritt, former porn actress and member of Pink Cross
The adult film industry set itself up for failure by fallaciously recalling the events that transpired during Cal-Osha’s March 18th council meeting to amend state health statutes in order to better protect adult film workers.
Not only did the council vote 100% in favor of the amendment, but one of the council men stated that upon walking in the door he was against it, but when he heard testimony from Shelley Lubben, former porn actress and Executive Director of Pink Cross Foundation, Madelyne Hernandez, former porn actress, myself, also a former porn actress, David Pounder, Producer/Director/Performer and President of Dave Pounder Productions, Robert Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, Director of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Program, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and finally Darren James, former porn actor who contracted HIV in the 2004 HIV outbreak in the porn industry, he decided to vote for the amendment.
The adult film industry wants you to believe that they were all for the amendment, this is absolutely not true. They also want the public to discredit our roles as former porn actresses by downplaying the amount of scenes we were hired for and our actual experiences during our careers in the adult film industry. Avn.com’s writer Mark Kernes stated in his article regarding Shelley Lubben:
“Lubben, whose last direct contact with adult movie-making was in her short stint (12 movies) as a performer in the early '90s, spoke next, repeating her oft-stated claims that she is a "survivor of the porn industry."
"As a former porn actress, I have suffered much at the hands of the porn industry and their illegal activities and hazardous work conditions I was subjected to," Lubben told the board. "I was subjected to being forced to do scenes with five or six—several male performers while there was blood and feces and urine and semen and vaginal fluid all over me. These are conditions that were all over the set while we're working. We're actually staring sometimes at piles of rags that they just throw on the set, and because most of the scenes are filmed in private homes where there is no one to monitor what's going on, and as a young girl, who's your advocate on set? There's no one."
Lubben claimed that "hundreds" of performers had told her that they had been threatened by their agents if they asked to use condoms, and that she herself had caught herpes and HPV while working in adult (though the Centers for Disease Control recently announced that one-sixth of the population between ages 14 and 49, the vast majority of whom have not worked in adult, suffer from herpes), which supposedly led to her contracting cervical cancer….”
“Two more Lubben acolytes followed Cambria at the rostrum: Elizabeth Rollings (14 movies) and Michelle Avanti (80 movies). Rollings claimed to have contracted herpes during her brief time in adult, and castigated AIM for not testing regularly for a larger variety of STDs. She also claimed to have been forced to participate in a bukkake with 25 men, not all of whom, she charged, had been screened for STDs.
"I've been on sets where there was blood-soaked towels or wipes or semen-soaked towels and wipes just laying on the floor openly and nobody did anything about it," Rollings contended.
One of Avanti's first scenes, she told the board, involved 75 men though she had been told that she would only be working with five, and that when she complained to her agent, she was told she would be blacklisted in the industry if she didn't complete the shoot.
"I was given cocaine and alcohol to get me through the scene," she alleged, "and drugged out, I did the scene and 75 men that were not in the porn industry... went and basically ejaculated all over my face and my hair and my mouth, and there was no condoms, and I sat there after the scene, crying, and I actually had to be carried off in a chair into the shower and they filmed all of that while I was crying, and there was urine all over my face and it was awful."
Avanti also claimed that when she addicted to drugs and alcohol and went to AIM for help but was rejected.”
Well Mark, let’s get the facts straight shall we! Anyone can research Michelle Avanti (Madelyne Hernandez) and Elizabeth Rollings (which would be me, Jan Meza-Merritt) and easily see that Madelyne has actually done hundreds of scenes and I have done well over forty, excluding all of the adult websites I was hired for and performed in. Shelley Lubben might not of been a “hundred scene” actress, but was in the industry just the same, contracted a life altering disease and has been helping women and men in the adult film industry for the last five years overcome their emotional and physical abuses administered by the hands of producers and or agents and she continues to fight for the adult film performers rights to be protected and healthy and often helps them to transition into a normal life as well.
AVN.com also leaves out the fact that David Pounder was completely for this amendment, however Mark Kernes and his cronies seem to have a knack for selective hearing, they pick and choose want they want their public to see, can anyone say mind control?! David Pounder spoke for well over thirty minutes regarding the hazards in the adult industry and stated that the adult film actors and actresses are in fact employees and need better protection. AVN. com did no justice what so ever for speaker Darren James who has to live with HIV every day of his life since contracting the disease in 2004. AVN.com would love you to believe that Darren’s comments are somehow biased by stating that he is an “AHF employee”. I don’t really understand how that has anything to do with the fact that he contracted HIV while working in the adult film industry.
Angelina Armani, contract employee and actress for Digital playground read from her well scripted notes stating; “I have worked for multiple companies with my choice of performing with multiple people as a contract player for Digital Playground and independent worker," she said. "From my experience of almost two years in the adult industry, I have never participated in or witnessed any unlawful behavior with my producer, director or any on-set worker that would jeopardize my health or safety... AIM is a nonprofit organization that encourages healthy practices and lifestyles of performers. Due to AIM's superior knowledge and support, I have never caught a sexually transmitted disease in two years of active performing.” She also went on to later contradict herself by saying she wasn’t just a contract girl, but in just the last week had worked in many different scenes and was only a contract girl for Digital playground for one year.
The fact of the matter is that just like Shelley Lubben so eloquently stated after Angelina Armani spoke, She, Madelyne Hernandez and I represent the majority of women in the adult film industry. We represent the mass numbers of abused, enslaved, addicted, diseased women that have either come out of the industry or are too afraid to speak out against it. Contract girls are few and far between, they only represent about 5% of the women in the adult film industry. This is not a high number when you take into consideration that there are a couple thousand women actively working in the adult industry every month. It’s also kind of funny how the adult film industry only had one adult film performer come to speak on their behalf, where were all the bigger names at? Were they too busy to show or was it that they were to afraid to tell lies in front of the government?? And how are we to ever really know if Angelina Armani is telling the truth about not contracting any diseases or not being subjected to anything illegal on sets or by producers, I have my testing from a “real” doctor, does she? I’m praying for you Angelina, you know the truth and one day you’ll be willing to share it too.
Diane Duke, FSC Executive Director stuttered through her scripted notes as well claiming she was sorry for what had happened to us (while directly looking at Shelley Lubben, Madelyne and me) and that the FSC is there to protect us from things like that and if they had just known we could’ve received their help. Wow, well thank you Diane that was um, sweet and sincere?? We forgive you and the adult film industry like Christ forgave us, but try explaining the FSC’s lack of concern and help to the hundreds of other men and women in the adult film industry who come to The Pink Cross Foundation for help on a daily basis, aren’t we doing your job?
I could continue to penetrate (no pun intended) the lies of the Adult film industry all day long, but they have done a terrific job of exposing themselves and if they’d like to continue to set themselves up for failure, I say more power to them. Who am I anyway, according to Mark Kernes just a small fry, an “acolyte” not to be worried over.
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."- John 8:32
(Pink Cross Foundation is a Nonprofit Corporation in the state of California and is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) public charity. Contributions to the Pink Cross Foundation, a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, are entirely tax-deductible. We will send out receipts the end of the year. Our tax id number 80-0142359.)
