"rock the red pump" with safe sex porn

You may have noticed my "Rock the Red Pump" badge in the header of this site for a while now, leading up to today's National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD). NWGHAAD is a nationwide initiative to raise awareness about the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls, encouraging ladies to take action. Leading up to NWGHAAD, bloggers were encouraged to participate in the annual "Rock the Red Pump" campaign by adding a badge to their sites to help build awareness.

New porn makers are committed to safer sax and STD & HIV/AIDS testing in the industry, promoting the use of condom. Many feature it in their porn films as well, in a way that makes using condoms look sexy. Check out Matinee (2009) for instance, by Jennifer Lyon Bell's Blue Artichoke Films (for more, see my LOVE, SEX, AND FAMILY Amazon Shop under "European Adult Sex Films").

Condom use and mandated testing are important initiatives by new porn makers in protecting the health of women and men. The mainstream industry was unregulated until the late 1990s when a string of actresses contracted HIV and filed lawsuits against production companies. As a result, the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM) was founded. Since 1998, the nonprofit clinic, supported by the industry, has offered health tests to actors, and producers agreed not to hire those who had not been tested in the last 30 days. When infections were detected, the clinic would investigate their sources and coordinate halts in filming, tracking down actors who had been exposed to get tested.

However, last December the AIM clinic closed after clashing with county health officials (see New York Times article about this closing here). AIM reopened in February under a new name and as a profit-making clinic, now under the oversight of the California Medical Association. STDs, however, remain rampant in the industry. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, it is diagnosed in a quarter of all performers each year and rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea infection are seven times higher than those in the general population.

Los Angeles city lawmakers have voted unanimously to draft an ordinance that would require condoms to be used on the set of every pornographic movie made here, but mainstream porn producers oppose this, arguing that sales would drop and that regulations are difficult to enforce. New porn makers like Jennifer Lyon Bell can show the industry the way on how to ensure safe sex on the set, sexily modeling the use of condoms.