Derrick Burts, HIV-Positive Porn Star, Pushes Condoms for Adult Films (PICTURES)

Derrick Burts is calling for mandatory condom use in adult films after testing positive for HIV. (personal photo)

(CBS/AP) Make condom use mandatory for adult film actors.

That's the urgent recommendation from someone who learned the hard way about the dangers of unprotected sex in the age of HIV/AIDS: A porn star who recently tested positive for HIV.

PICTURES: Derrick Burts Calls for Condom Use

Derrick Burts, 24, who acts in straight films as Cameron Reid and gay films as Derek Chambers, told the Los Angeles Times that he learned last October he was HIV-positive - an infection that sent fears through California's adult film industry.

The staff at the clinic that did the testing told him they wanted to perform a follow-up test and begin notifying performers he had worked with since his last negative test result Sept. 3. He was told those performers would be placed on a quarantine list and also would be tested.

When Burts returned to the clinic Oct. 23 to review the second test results, he said he was told that the clinic had traced his HIV infection to a fellow actor they described as a "known positive." The clinic would not identify the performer because of patient confidentiality.

What do doctors say about the idea of mandating condom use in porn films?

"It's really commonsensical that the actors should be using condoms," said Dr. Shilpa Sayana, an AIDS specialist with the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has been a strong advocate of condom use in adult films. "The actors are tested every month, but that is insufficient because they could be in a window period."

That's the span of time known to exist between the time of infection and the time when antibodies to HIV become detectible in the blood. The window period can last up to three months, Sayana said.

Burts said he believed he may have contracted the disease during a gay porn shoot in Florida. But clinic officials released a statement last month that said he had acquired the virus through "private, personal activity."

"That's completely false," Burts told the Times. "There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend."

She tested negative, he said.

30 Photos

Derrick Burts: HIV-Positive Porn Actor Calls for Condom Use

[darkterry85]

Its crazy they havent found a cure for it yet. http://jdtentertainment and http://fohmat.com I believe the websites was for the companys who did aids treatment

[agnesdeo]

Guess what???? a person pays for sexual immorality in one way or another. Let's hope he/she repents before it is too late.

[dsinla81]

View the Award winning documentary "House of Numbers" to see why questions about this
must be raised, and why deeper issues about HIV and AIDS need to be
discussed. Lives are at risk. This is the first documentary ,with the worlds
foremost authorities, that highlights the fundamental problems with HIV
testing, science, and statistics, It sheds new light on a misunderstood
phenomenon., for which there is still no cure. GO to
houseofnumbers.com to see the trailer.

[DekeMasters]

So, "the only person he slept with in his personal life was his girlfriend"?

Check out Derrick Burt's GAY ESCORT AD on RentBoy.com

http://board.freeones.com/showthread.php?t=448349&page=4

This is yet another failed, clumsy attempt to shake down the adult industry for publicity by Michael Weinstein of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.


Here's a short video about AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Michael Weinstein:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9MOWF94_II&hd=1

[JamesBagram]

Let me see.....HIV been around since the late 1980's....information been going around since the early 1990's. And he still put himself at risk. Now he wants to be an advocate to make mandatory the use of condoms in the pornographic industry?
My question is....Would he be advocating if his latest test was HIV-Negative?

[pozloves]

Living with HIV/AIDS is not so terrible if we know how to control it.. Maybe you can check more HIV/AIDS blogs and inspirational stories at HIVlover,com. The STD counselor on the site will give you some advise about how to control it.

[DekeMasters]

Wow. You write: "What do doctors say about the idea of mandating condom use in porn films?" Then you quote ONE doctor, who happens to work for AIDS Healthcare Foundation -- the organization that has been leading the political charge against the adult film industry.

Let's get this straight: we are to believe that this "mostly straight" man only had sex with other men for pay, and was so inexperienced and naive, that he didn't know to ask/check/verify whether the other male performers he was working with were HIV+ or not.

Compare that to this video of Burts, posted October 15, 2010, featuring him speaking (on the set of a gay movie) about shooting straight and gay porn, credited under his gay nom de porn "Derek Chambers."

This "mostly straight" guy talks about how gay porn was always what he wanted to do, how much he enjoys bottoming (which he implies he's experienced at), how he's "always been a fan of JetSet" (a gay porn company), among other things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohcyp5S6Lm0

This story does not add up -- UNTIL one realizes that Burts "just so happened" to run into the loving arms of the adult industry's (and AIM Healthcare's) nemesis, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, grandstanders and opportunists per excellence.