Southern California's adult film industry requires all performers to be tested regularly for sexually transmittable diseases as a safeguard.

But a mother and her daughter — both performers in adult films — say their medical information was intentionally leaked to a blog, and now they're suing the clinic that performed their testing.

'It's Very Scary'

Diana Grandmason is a 50-year-old redhead who once ran an investments business in Florida. Perhaps an unlikely performer in adult films — but until a year and a half ago, she starred in X-rated movies, including Seduced by a Cougar.

Grandmason says she got into the porn business to follow her daughter, Bess Garren.

"Basically, she called me at work and said, 'I'm gonna go do this,' and I said, 'No you're not.' And she said, 'Mom I'm 21, this is a courtesy call, I'm doin' it.' So what choice did I have?" she explains.

But then, she decided to follow Garren.

"Originally it was signing up just so I could accompany her, and then I kinda got sold on the idea myself," Grandmason says.

Like every adult film performer, Grandmason and her daughter were required to get tested every month for HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhea. The tests are conducted by a nonprofit clinic run by AIM, the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation. AIM then provides the results online to patients and to adult film producers. The data are supposed to remain private, but Grandmason says hers has gone viral.

"Somebody who claims to be a producer has pulled my information and sent it to a popular industry blog, [which has] posted it online," she says. "So my health insurance and my private information is online for all to see. It's very scary."

Grandmason says she's gotten threats and now feels like she has a target on her back. She and her daughter have filed a class action lawsuit against AIM.

"They used it to damage my reputation. They post my private information; they posted stuff about credit and tax reports; they post nasty, defamatory comments about me; they've linked all my porn work to my real name, and plus a lot of lies," Grandmason says.

But AIM's attorney, Jeffrey Douglas, says the clinic is following health information privacy laws to protect patients. He says the lawsuit is unfounded.

"No one believes that they are providing information willy-nilly to anyone who wants it," he says. "Such an allegation is absurd."

As for medical information being widely available, Douglas points out that all adult movie performers have to sign waivers agreeing their data can be seen by anyone who makes or distributes their films.

"Just being in one movie means odds are, your ID and personal information is in the hands of dozens of entities," he says. "The choice is the performer. Not AIM."

Safer Sex, Too Much Exposure

Some in the porn industry say the lawsuit is more about an effort to force adult performers to use condoms. That's a position being advocated by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. In fact, the group's lawyers are representing the women pro bono.


AHF's president, Michael Weinstein, admits that the lawsuit is part of a bigger safer-sex message. "This could be ended today if the industry would agree to condom use," he says.

But most porn producers and production companies balk at such regulations, despite a few HIV scares.

"Everybody's just kind of left the industry alone, because we operate in our own little world and we've mostly contained any problems that have occurred through self-regulation," says Joy King, a vice president at Wicked Pictures, which bills itself as the only condom-mandatory adult film producer. King says most non-gay-porn companies that tried requiring condom use went out of business.

"Sales are definitely affected by condom use," she says. "This industry is largely based on fantasy and people don't want to see condoms in their fantasies."

For Grandmason and her daughter, the fantasy has turned into a nightmare as they argue they've been overexposed in a way they never imagined.

and they basically won't be happy until the adult film industry is shut down...

AIM is not perfect, but they have provided a great service since their inception in 1998....Personally, I've been going there the last several years & will absolutely continue to go there come hell or high water each and every trip to LA without exceptions..

I have trouble believing that UCLA Medical Center, Cedars Sinai Medical Center (or someone else) is going to welcome the adult film industry w/open arms, and offer to provide STD testing at their facilities...(well, Cedars Sinai might if someone makes a big enough donation, if you walk past that hospital, almost every dept. is named after someone "Mark Saperstein Critical Care Tower", "Johnnie L Cochran Brain Tumor Center", and so on and so forth)....But seriously, it's hard to imagine any other entity providing the services AIM does...

Some will disagree and that's fine, we all have our opinions....But mine are firm...

Here's the latest on Cal/OSHA (California Occupational Safety and Health Administration) vs. the porn producers regarding the possibility of making condom use in porn films mandatory by law.  Below is an edited version of an article that appeared in the July 2, 2010 edition of the "Cal-OSHA Reporter."  (Sorry I can't provide a link, but the Cal-OSHA Reporter does not have an internet edition, it is sent e-mail by subscription only.  I also appoligize for some bad grammar, but I'm copying it as written.)

LOS ANGELES-Nothing was resolved at what undoubtedly was a landmark Cal/OSHA advisory committee.  Pehaps the major achievement was that committee got the many sides of the adult film industry (AFI) talking.  "There are not just two sides to this story," one participant tells Cal-OSHA Reporter, "there are about 10 sides."

A five-hour meeting at the Caltrans Building in downtown Los Angeles that featured a fire drill, emotional accounts of abuse by former performers and language that at times would curl a sailor's hair defined the parameters of the debate.  But it's clear that much work has to be done before Cal/OSHA can even think about crafting a standard.  

The committee was formed based on a petition by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.  The organization seeks changes to the state bloodborne pathogens standard, to require a hierarchy of controls on adult film sets.  The centerpiece of the proposal is mandatory use of condoms for performers.

Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, director of communicable disease control and prevention for Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, outlined the many risks AFI performers face without protection, such as HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis, Chlamydia, and herpes.  The risk of infection from gonorrhea, for instance, is between 20% and 90% for one sex act, he said.  But they are preventable with condom use.

Between 2004 and 2008, AFI performers suffered more than 3200 cases of gonorrhea and Chlamydia, Kim-Farly reported.  Three-fourths of the infections were to female performers.  In addition, 8 performers contracted HIV in that period.  Half of them have been confirmed to have contracted the virus that causes AIDS while in production.

AFI performers are considered "core transmitters," Kim-Farley said.  Infections in the industry are high-sexually transmitted diseases run between 15% and 25%-are undocumented and contribute to the spread in the general community.

Kim-Farley said that the notion in the industry that testing ensures that performers are free from STDs and safer than the general population is a myth.

The L.A. DPH recommends a number of steps to keep AFI workers safe, including: mandatory use of condoms for all performers; screening for STDs consistent with incubation periods; medical monitoring consistent with the bloodborne pathogens standard, with costs borne by employers; maintaining confidentiality of test results; requiring full cooperation of test sites and production companies; and ongoing monitoring of performers.

Nina Hartley, a longtime AFI performer who still is active in the industry, argued against mandatory condom use, saying "I don't feel safer" with them, necessarily, because they can fail and often feel abrasive.

Marcy Greer, a former performer, leveled harsh criticisms of the industry, recounting alarming abuse she suffered on production sets.

Committee chair Deborah Gold, senior safety engineer for Cal/OSHA, said the bloodborne pathogens standard already requires AFI sets to use condoms.  The purpose of the committee, she said, was to determine what other measures could be adopted that would provide equivalency.

Adult performer Jeremy Shield told Cal/OSHA, "Making things safer does not make things safe.  If you're that paranoid, you should not be in the industry."  He opposes mandatory condom use and says performers should protect themselves by boosting their immune systems, eating healthy food and avoiding drugs.

Maxine Doogun, a self proclaimed prostitute, noted that Australia, which has decriminalized the world's oldest profession, has protocols in place for condom use.  A former adult film performer who now works in Nevada's legal brothels says that industry is a model that works and has been proven effective.  Nevada's sex industry requires condoms.

But current performer Angela Aspen stated, "I'm a consenting adult and I know what I'm signing" when she goes for testing.  "I f*** for a living.  How cool is that?"

Cal/OSHA has suggested that if condoms were mandated, production companies could remove them "post-production," but a representative from the sole condom-only production company said the cost for digitally removing condoms from films is prohibitive and time-consuming.  One estimate put the cost at $12,000 per minute of footage.

Attorny Eugene McMenamin commented that Cal/OSHA is merely "shadow boxing" with the adult film industry and has an obligation to force the industry to produce Injury and Illness Prevention Programs.

Cal/OSHA's Acting Chief Counsel Amy Martin noted that workers in their industries are not comfortable with safety regualtions, but comfort is not the determining factor.

Denise Bleak of Beyoned AIDS, which cares for HIV patients, commented, "I don't want to just see warnings in films about hurting animals, I also want to see warnings about not hurting humans."

....which allows certain people access to her information. She needs to sue the blogger who posted that personal info online.