The LA HIV-in-Porn "Outbreak" Series Continues: "Patient Zero" Gets Her Turn At The Mic

Nothing says that drama in LA will ever be boring....and the continuing saga of "HIV-in-Porn Outbreak: The Series" just reached another level in excitement with the emergence of the actual "Patient Zero" into the spotlight....armed with lawyers, of course.

The story, courtesy of Courthouse News Service:

ALAMEDA, Calif. (CN) - A porn film actress whose positive HIV test made news in June claims state health officials violated her rights by demanding her medical records. Filing her complaint under the name "Patient Zero," the woman sued California OSHA and the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation.

Zero claims that after she tested positive for HIV, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health subpoenaed her health care provider for her records and personal information, in violation of her right to privacy.

She says that in June the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), which provides health care to sex workers, told her she had preliminarily tested positive for HIV. She says the Foundation quarantined her and everyone known to have had sexual contact with her, and reported her case to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Cal/OSHA then conducted a surprise inspection of AIM and demanded the medical records of HIV patients, including Patient Zero, but AIM staff refused, she says.

After the inspection, she says, her attorney learned that Cal/OSHA was meeting with the medical facility's staff to try to get the records of patients with HIV.

She says her attorney wrote a letter asking that OSHA respect the actress's privacy when conducting the interviews. OSHA did not respond, though it confirmed receipt of the letter.

The actress says some of the news reports in June contained her true name and other identifying information. She demands damages for civil rights and constitutional violations, and violations of the health and safety code.

She is represented by Lori Rifkin and Elizabeth Gill with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Now, it's interesting to ask why AIM is a defendant in this suit of "Patient Zero", since they were probably acting under duress against their strict policy of confidentiality; and because the real threat of public outing came mostly from Cal-OSHA, the LA County Health Care officials, and (indirectly) the AIDS Health Care Foundation, which, as you all know, has been pushing just as hard for public outing of all performers involved as a means of promoting their mandatory condom usage policy.

Not so surprising, though, is the appearance of the ACLU in this; since they have been consistent on defending the rights of performers and HIV+ persons to the right of privacy and confidentiality.

As for the public outing concerns: while the one performer who was confirmed to have performed with "Patient Zero" after she was infected (and was confirmed NOT to have been infected, BTW) has been exposed to the public and has even posted in some adult message boards (per BPPA policy regarding respecting performer privacy, we will not reveal his name here), there has been nothing publically outing "P0" as of yet...and I'm sure that until she decides to reveal herself, there probably won't be any, either.

So...the saga continues.

The Obama War On Porn Begins: CCBill Bans "Extreme Porn" Sites

Apparently, in sexual expression matters as much as in everything else of late, the new boss isn't quite that different from the old boss.

Everyone who thought that the Obama Administration would launch a new, less repressive era in erotic expression and reverse the smash-mouth tactics of his predecessors in the Bush Administration got a huge shock last week...and the repercussions are beginning to filter down with rapid suddenness.

This article appearing in today's AVN Live talks about the move by the adult billing provider CCBill to restrict future sponsoring and signing of sexually explicit sites:

Payment processor CCBill will update its acceptable use policy (AUP), excluding sites that feature watersports and violent content.

A company representative said that sites within said niches that have already been approved will be able to process “for the time being.”

Official word is that “CCBill is no longer accepting new sites which contain or market person-to-person exchanges of bodily fluids. This mainly pertains to urine/urination, blood, or overall violent scenes or depictions.”

Several employees of the company refused to comment on the matter; however, the new AUP is said to be available this week.

Would that also include the kind of "rough sex", slapping, rough talk, and even perhaps "squirting" would also fall afoul of CCBill's regulations, too??

But it's the motivations for CCBill's change of policy that should be front page news, because it reflects directly on the new/old policies of the Department of Justice regarding "obscenity". Apparently Eric Holder's old antiporn instincts have won out, or the Morality in Media folks have still lots of influence, because.....

While CCBill is being tight-lipped about their reasoning behind the move, it comes on the heels of the May 5 announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice of the formation of its Obscenity Prosecution Task Force. Also of questionable consequence is a March 23 subpoena obtained by AVNOnline.com filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Missouri, which reveals that the government is looking for similar content, which includes fisting, urination and torture.

“In the current political environment, they probably see a high risk in this type of content and they probably see that as a risk they’re not willing to bear,” says Chicago-based First Amendment attorney Joe Obenberger of J.D. Obenberger and Associates.

Now...wasn't "torture porn" the main foundation of the attack on Kink.com's reciept of a California state grant for their photographers?? Doesn't Belladonna, Kylie Irleand, and some other porn performers include fisting in their scenes?? And while there are some who might consider watersports pretty gross, it's still only urine....why would that in a private website sold only to paying consensual adults be such a target for the Feds??

Maybe it's the same reason why Mary Beth Buchanan, who was the main prosecutor in the Max Hardcore case, is still employed as a US District Attorney and not an expert on FOX News Network: Antiporn sentiment is as powerful in the Obama/Holder circles as it ever was in the Bush/Gonzales/Ashcroft regime...though with a more radicalfeminist rhetorical "tinge" about "degradation of women" replacing the old "immoral filth" meme so favored by the Christian Right.

Of course, Obama's been tacking heavily rightward in any amount of political issues of late, in everything from health care (forget single-payer or even universal, let's make everyone buy crappy private health care) to extending the war in Afghanistan-Pakistan to make up for leaving Iraq, to the reversal on military tribunals from "Ban them!!" to "Let's keep them, but control them to UCMJ standards", among other issues. Maybe that tinge of liberalism and "change" that he presented in his campaign was just a ruse to cover a continuation of Bush policies, with a nice smiley face and a better syntax.

At this rate, even Stormy Daniels is looking better than the Democrats. At least, when she gets screwed, she gets something out of it...wish I could say the same for sexual/political Progressives/Liberals.