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from www.sfgate.com – A second actor for Kink.com, the San Francisco-based adult film company, announced Tuesday that he tested positive for HIV.
The actor, who goes by the screen name Rod Daily [pictured], wrote on his Twitter account that he contracted HIV in the past month. Kink.com’s chief executive, Peter Acworth, said Daily and an actress known as Cameron Bay – who tested positive two weeks earlier – had been dating off-screen for at least six months.
The adult film industry’s trade association, Free Speech Coalition, issued a moratorium on shooting following Bay’s diagnosis. Her last shoot with Kink.com was on July 31, and all her on-screen partners have since tested negative for the disease, Acworth said.
Daily performed mostly in gay scenes, Acworth said. The industry standard is for actors in gay scenes to wear condoms to protect against transmission of HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases. Condoms are optional for actors in straight scenes, but testing is mandatory.
“We can say with some degree of confidence that there was no transmission on set” involving Daily, Acworth said. “Rod Daily wore condoms in all his scenes. The strong indication is that Rod contracted it and transmitted it to Cameron Bay.”
Daily’s diagnosis arrived amid an ongoing debate over condom use in adult films. Last year, Los Angeles County passed a law requiring condoms in films shot in the county.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation filed a complaint with the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health last week following Bay’s diagnosis, calling for Kink.com to better protect their employees by mandating condom use in all scenes.
Acworth said industry standards for testing are rigorous. He said Kink.com only hires actors and actresses cleared to work on the Free Speech Coalition’s database. The group requires testing every 28 days, and is considering a shift to every 14 days.
Daily wrote on Twitter that he felt blessed that doctors discovered his HIV early so he could get treatment. He said he was leaving the adult film industry.
“When something like this happens you just have to accept it,” he wrote Tuesday. He said that “the sun still shines on my face.”