US Sex Sells News

Tucson City Council has voted unanimously to increase the age for adult entertainers at fully nude establishments from 18 to 21 years old.

According to the Arizona Daily Star, an assistant manager and several other employees from the Bunny Ranch said the decision discriminates against women's equal opportunity employment rights. This is a women's rights thing. It's discriminatory against their rights and our business, said 23-year-old assistant manager Marcus Richardson.

The move by the council, which takes effect Jan. 1, will have an immediate impact on the Bunny Ranch, which features more than a dozen performers, only two of whom are 21 or over.

Richardson said he was unsure whether the Bunny Ranch owners and manager would consider applying for a liquor license, which would set the employee minimum age to 19, reported the Star. A liquor license would also prohibit full nudity inside the business.

In a situation that seems drawn directly from a Franz Kafka novel, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has tried to stop the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation from serving the adult performer community all because AIM put the wrong name for the clinic on its operating permit application.

Although the official name on AIM's lease is The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, AIM submitted its application as AIM Medical Testing Center, and in a letter dated November 30, Travis Green of the state's Licensing & Certification Program kicked the application back to AIM, saying I found that the package is incomplete and contains information that is unclear and/or inconsistent.

And what information was unclear or inconsistent? Under the heading, Office Lease, the letter reads, Please initial and date next to each line-through of 'AIM Medical Testing Center' and replaced [sic] with 'The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation.'

That's it! All the state wants is for AIM's application to reflect the name of the clinic that's on the property lease rather than the name by which everyone in the adult industry knows the clinic. No other corrections are necessary.

But even though the letter from the state clearly states, Please note that you will be allowed sixty (60) days from the date of this correction letter to submit the requested information, nonetheless, the L.A. County Health Department served AIM with a cease-and-desist letter requiring AIM to stop collection blood samples from its clients—an action that apparently was taken at the instigation of AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein.

But despite the county's cease-and-desist order, AIM is still operating. However, performers who need their blood drawn and urine sample taken will have to do so at one of AIM's draw stations which are located all over the city of Los Angeles.

People can pay for the tests online, and pick up their tests at AIM, just like they always do, said AIM general manager Jennifer Miller. It's exactly like coming in here and the price is exactly the same, and it's the same turn-around time.

John Leslie, the multi-award-winning actor and director, passed away on Sunday of an apparent heart attack at his US home in Marin County. He was 65 years of age.

Leslie began his film career in the mid-1970s, and had his first major role in the Mitchell Brothers' production Autobiography of a Flea (1976), where he shared acting duties with legendary stars such as Annette Haven, Jean Jennings, John Holmes and Paul Thomas.

Leslie continued hardcore acting until the late 80s, though he essayed a few hardcore scenes after that.

By 1988, however, he had turned his attention to directing—one of the first performers to do so—creating 27 movies for VCA Pictures and later nearly 100 for his own production company, John Leslie Productions, all of which were distributed by Evil Angel Productions.

Over his career, Leslie received 10 acting and directing awards from AVN, and several others from the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO), the Adult Film Association of America (AFAA) and the California Adult Film Association (CAFA), and was inducted into the AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame, as well as the Legends of Erotica.

A New York man who runs a travel company specializing in trips to Thailand and the Philippines has been charged with promoting prostitution.

He was the victim of a sting operation. An online investigator pretended that he wanted to use Allen's company, Big Apple Oriental Tours, to go overseas and have sex for money. The district attorney's office said the investigator paid Allen $2,500.

Allen allegedly told the investigator he would be taken to Angeles City in the Philippines, where he could negotiate with women for sex acts.

If convicted, he faces to up to seven years in prison.

Alabama is the only state in the USA that has outlawed sex toys—until now.

Pleasures sex shop proprietress Sherri Williams has managed to fight the good fight all the way to the Supreme Court, but they kept the ban in place. However, there is a loophole in the law does allow for sex toy sales if there is a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose.

Taking advantage of that, Ms. Williams has opened not just the first adult toy store in Alabama, but the first adult toy store drive-thru in the world. Using an old Wells Fargo bank building in Huntsville, she plans to cash in by selling whips, lubes, and vibes through the chutes in discreet paper bags.

Williams has all of her customers fill out a medical questionnaire explaining what health-related needs the purchase of a sex toy will fill.

After completing testing for two generations of partners of the HIV-positive patient, AIM Healthcare said that all performers tested negative for HIV on two occasions using multiple testing methods.

AIM, which refers to the HIV-positive patient as Patient Zeta, said it had established that Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity and there was no transmission of the HIV virus from Patient Zeta to any performers.

This event affirms the efficacy of AIM Healthcare Foundation's testing protocols, as voluntarily implemented by the adult entertainment industry, AIM said in a press release: It is regrettable but inevitable that people continue to acquire the HIV virus in their personal life. The protocols and other industry practices have resulted in only one incident of HIV transmission on set in more than a decade. That is a remarkable record. AIM Healthcare Foundation is proud of its contribution to the health and well-being of the adult industry and wider community.

In another development, Vivid Entertainment announced today that the company is set to resume production on Monday, Nov. 8, after being shut down for almost a month because of health safety concerns.

Digital Playground already resumed production last week. Hustler is also back in production.

Nonprofit organization Restore NYC is set to open the first safehouse in New York City dedicated to women who have escaped the global sex trade on Nov. 1 in Queens.

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services has recorded 29 arrests for sex trafficking in the state from January 2008 through September 2010; of those, 25 of the arrests have been in NYC, and only five of those 25 were sentenced.

In the wake of the latest incident of HIV infection found in a performer in California's $13 billion adult film industry, adult film icon Jenna Jameson has called on the industry and performers working in it to practice safer sex.

In an interview given to the website RadarOnline.com, Jameson, the highest earning single performer in the industry called the industry a ticking time bomb noting that the fact is that safe sex is not continually practiced in the adult film world. She added, I think a lot of the women feel pressure to not use condoms because they're in fear of not getting hired by that company again. It's very sad and disgusting.

Since the news regarding a performer testing positive for HIV broke on Tuesday, a voluntary industry quarantine has been in effect and at least five adult film companies have voluntarily stopped production, including some of the larger companies, Wicked, Vivid Entertainment and Hustler Video.

Back to the Grind

Based on article from examiner.com

Even though it was disclosed last week by The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), that an adult performer had tested positive for HIV, the Los Angeles City Council appears unlikely to suspend any new porn production permits.

Los Angeles nutters, AIDS Healthcare, have demanded the Council to instruct FilmLA to halt issuing new permits to the tax dollar generating San Fernando Valley based sex production industry until the latest case is investigated by AIM, reports the LA Times.

Update: Is 'condom-free' worth a life? worth the loss of business? or worth the cost of a lawyer?

18th October 2010. Based on article from  mb.com.ph

The Los Angeles City Council has refused to impose a moratorium on filming permits for the city-based porn industry, fearing that this could lead to costly lawsuits against the city.

As much as many of us are appalled by that activity, they are completely willing and capable of defending themselves with the highest paid lawyers to fight for their civil rights and, to date, they have been able to fend off these kinds of challenges, Councilman Richard Alarcon said at a session.

I don't think there's a majority or even close to a majority (on the council) that are even interested in this subject, Alarcon added.

Earlier in the day, anti-porn AIDS activists appeared before the City Council, calling the city to stop issuing permits to San Fernando Valley-based adult industry after an adult film performer was recently tested positive for HIV. Adult film star Jenna Jameson said: I always told them that it was better to practice safe sex. Is one movie worth your life? She called the industry a ticking time bomb, and noted her production company gave female performers the option of using condoms.

Batman XXX: A Porn Parody has won best parody at the 17th Annual NightMoves Adult Entertainment Awards Show.

The movie is a parody of the classic 60s era Batman television series. Since the movie was released on May 24, 2010, it has remained at the top of the adult sales chart and its trailers on YouTube have over 1.5 million hits.

Braun, who also won the award for Best Director, next plans to attack a second superhero parody based on Superman, which is scheduled for a December release.

NightMoves Adult Entertainment Awards Show isn't the largest of its kind but it has developed a reputation as an eye for for the industry. NightMoves has been the first to present awards to a long list of stars and movies that have gone on to become industry heavyweights including the film Pirates , a pornographic spoof of Pirates of the Caribbean starring Moore, Oklahoma's own Jesse Jane.

Expectations were high six years ago when the Utah Legislature enacted a 10% tax on escort services, and semi-nude and fully nude clubs.

Lawmakers predicted the tax on sexually oriented businesses would rake in up to $1 million per year, which was earmarked to pay for sex offender treatment programs and investigations of Internet child sex crimes.

But the potential tax base was whittled down when the Utah Tax Commission exempted semi-nude clubs. And later the Utah Supreme Court struck down the portion of the law applying to escort services.

As of Tuesday, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the tax mounted by strip club owners, just one club remains affected by the decision: Southern Exposure in Salt Lake City, which features full frontal nudity.

There's not enough money in this tax to justify collecting it, said attorney Andrew McCullough, who represents the owner of Southern Exposure.

Charlie Roberts, a spokesman for the Tax Commission that the amount of tax collected from Southern Exposure was not very much.

No nudes is bad news for two Texas men's clubs, after a judge issued injunctions barring them from showing fully nude dancing.

XTC Cabaret and Paradise Entertainment were the San Antonio's only two clubs that offered such entertainment.

State District Judge Michael Peden signed orders on Wednesday that the clubs are specifically restrained from allowing individuals to appear in a state of total nudity.

Attorney Jim Deegear, who represents the two clubs, said that he would advise the clubs to abide by the orders pending appeals.

I think he may have completely banned nude dancing, but I'm not sure that he'll ultimately be allowed to do that by an appeals court,

Free Wi-Fi and widespread availability of Web-based adult-entertainment viewing may be contributing to pressure on LodgeNet, which provides various electronic guest-services to 1.9 million hotel rooms.

LodgeNet gets more than half of its revenue from providing hotels with guest services, including movies and entertainment viewing, Interactive TV, high-speed Internet access, and other connectivity solutions.

The decline in per room revenue continued to be driven by conservative consumer buying patterns as well as less popular theatrical content during the quarter as compared to the year-earlier period, LodgeNet stated.

Adult-entertainment viewing undoubtedly is a big-ticket item for LodgeNet and other vendors in their in-room, on-demand offerings, and the widespread availability of porn on guests' laptops these days may be contributing to the less popular theatrical content which LodgeNet referred to.

Overall, LodgeNet has been hurt by the slump in business travel and materially lower purchases by consumers.