Embedded in that cultural experience is the belief that condoms provide the best protection against HIV - better than testing, which comes with a window of potential false negatives, and certainly better than taking someone's word that they're negative. Producers and directors took it upon themselves to incorporate condoms into their films,” he says. Adams, an author and editor on Gay Porn Times and the author of 'Gay Porn Heroes,” explains: “In the late '80s and early '90s, gay adult (porn) performed a very real public service. It required 'a few activists' to push the issue, however.
Unlike in straight porn, condoms became the norm in gay porn because “gay male culture lives with HIV as a day-to-day reality,” says Joanne Cachapero, spokesperson for Adult Production Health and Safety Services (APHSS), which now oversees testing for the industry. Testing positive means that you're blocked from performing, even with condoms - and for some in the business, this raises concerns about discrimination and medical privacy. But that's changed in some corners, where testing for sexually transmitted diseases is being mandated alongside rubbers.
A self-regulating policy of condoms and no testing - the inverse of the straight porn world, which prefers testing and no condoms - has allowed it. The gay porn industry has always had HIV-positive performers.
