Kink.com found itself at the center of an industry-wide HIV scare in recent weeks after a female performer tested positive during routine testing. Now a second, male performer who was dating her off-screen has also tested positive.

The statewide porn industry halted shooting and Cal/OSHA launched an investigation, as it has in the past in similar situations, after it came to light that performer Cameron Bay [link NSFW] had tested positive for HIV during a monthly screening of performers. As has been the custom in the industry, straight performers typically have unprotected sex on camera and get tested for STDs every 28 days, while gay performers (mostly) use condoms.

Bay had tested negative in her previous, July screening, and performed in a scene for Kink on July 31. She then tested positive on August 21, and all her screen partners were subsequently tested and found to be HIV negative. Cal/OSHA subsequently cleared the company to resume production, but pressure is now coming from various directions either to increase the frequency of routine testing to every 14 days, or to require condoms in all porn — something that L.A.-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been pushing for for years. (Last year, they got a law passed requiring condoms on porn shoots in L.A. County, which has mostly just pushed shooting of straight porn permanently out of the county.)

Transmission of the disease seems to have come from Bay's off-screen boyfriend, Rod Daily (a.k.a. Joshua Rodgers), who also performs for Kink in primarily gay scenes — meaning he is what they call gay-for-pay. Kink CEO Peter Acworth is saying "We can say with some degree of confidence that there was no transmission on set" involving Daily, because he and his scene partners wore condoms in all his scenes, however it is apparent that Daily contracted the disease in the last month or so and then transmitted it to Bay, but it took longer for him to test positive. Daily has shot five scenes for Kink in the last year, but he has performed for other companies as well.

Kink stresses that even in straight shoots they are "condom neutral," meaning they never require performers to do scenes without condoms and performers can request a condom at any point before or during a shoot.

In a statement yesterday on Twitter, Daily said, "I'm blessed for the fact that I caught it so early that I can blast that shit with meds," but he also expressed concern for the fact that shooting without condoms was ongoing, and that HIV+ people are able to be so well medicated that their routine tests might come up negative, insinuating this may have been the case for whoever infected him. He says he'll now be leaving the adult industry. Bay, because her test happened through work, will no longer be allowed to perform.

Bay, for her part, acknowledges the risks involved with performing in porn, and is taking it all in stride. "Nothing really is ever 100% safe..." she writes. "If porn was not at least a little "risky" or unsafe there would be no demand for it because everyone would be doing it." Still, hecklers are asking her about her other behavior off-screen, including drugs, and asking if she informed private escort clients of her status.

Because they're both porn performers, Bay [NSFW] and Daily have remained quite active on Twitter discussing their diagnoses with fans:

[LA Times]
[Chron]
[HuffPo]