Lindsay Beyerstein has been doing a kick ass job as of late researching and reporting on the battle over mandated condom use in straight porn in California (it's already standard in gay porn). It's a story that has gotten some attention as yet another actor has tested positive for HIV and has likely exposed many women---often you can expose dozens---in the time since he became positive and turned up a positive test. It's hard to get people to care about this issue in more than a cursory way, in part because sex workers are still treated like they're not worthy of full human rights and in part because the public has become somewhat blase about HIV in general. It's an old story by now. The fact that there is a drug cocktail that is effective in allowing people who would have perished in short order back in the day to live long, productive lives has put the public in a place where they forget how deadly AIDS really is. But 11,000 people die of AIDS in the U.S. alone every year, and let's face it, having to take that drug cocktail for the rest of your life is no picnic and not that easy to do. Availability is also dependent on many factors. Despite the title "porn star", most porn actors don't make a lot of money and they are pushed out of the business at a relatively young age, and subsequently their access to regular health care is limited, to say the least. If you believe, as I do, that sex workers are full human beings deserving of the same consideration as everyone else, this is nothing to be blase about.
