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Los Angeles – www.blogs.laweekly.com – Freeze. Now give us a blood sample.
Scary enough if the people asking are carrying a badge. But in this case they weren’t.

At least according to the Free Speech Coalition, the L.A.-based porn lobby.

The group claims this week that L.A. County Public Health officials appeared at the home of a porn star and demanded blood, ostensibly to test for STDs.

A statement on the incident is thin on detail.

“The LACDPH agents offered no court order or other lawful justification for this shocking intrusion into fundamental civil rights,” it reads.

The coalition urges any other adult performers who encounter such a situation to lawyer up before giving a sample.

The group also alludes to an incident in which county health officials tried to seize 2257 records. We’re told that refers to a case in which officials allegedly tried to obtain medical data — in the case we’re guessing mostly porn stars’ STD test results — on file at the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) clinic in Sherman Oaks.

The clinic recently reopened after the county shut it down for not having a state license. AIM, a nonprofit, went private in order to avoid county oversight. A statement from AIM called the county’s actions “pointless oversight.”

The background for all this, of course, is the battle between the industry and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which wants to force condoms on porn shoots. State officials say condoms are mandatory, but that they don’t have the resources to enforce the rule.

The industry says people won’t buy condom-on porn and such a enforcement would send production outside L.A. and California, to underground locales where conditions will be less safe.

As part of the battle AHF and the county have focused on AIM, which is the industry’s safety net for STDs. The clinic organizes the regular voluntary testing of porn stars and gives results to producers. That system, adult industry folks say, works just as good as condoms. Performers arrive on-set with a clean bill of health.

AHF says it doesn’t work and points to a recent HIV positive test for a male performer.

Meanwhile, the Free Speech Coalition’s chair, Jeffrey Douglas, warned porn stars to keep up their guards.

“You are not a serf living under the whims and dictates of a feudal Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. You can and should ask for a written list of any demand and the authority for those demands. Know your rights and protect yourself.”