Industry News

Should HIV Testing be Required of Gay Bareback Studios?

From the HDK blog:

White Tiger Releasing (WTR), a small gay video/dvd distribution company, who until recently distributed for Hot Desert Knights Studios, just announced Wednesday, August 29, 2007, that they were bringing on board a news sales manager, Greg “Spanky” Shearer, who is going to insist that any bareback studio who wishes to be distributed by WTR, must test their models for HIV.

Long before this decision was made or announced, HDK made the decision to leave White Tiger Releasing.  In a letter from Bill Gardner, President of HDK, dated August 13, 2007, to Lynton Appleson, President of WTR, Mr. Appleson was informed by Mr. Gardner that due to violations of the Distribution Agreement by WTR, HDK was exercising the termination portion of the Agreement effective September 13, 2007. 

HDK was aware back in July that Greg Shearer was considering joining WTR when a meeting took place between Greg Shearer, Lynton Appleson, and the management of HDK.  At no point during this meeting did any representative of WTR mention that they were going to require HIV testing of models.  In fact, Greg Shearer asked if HDK tested models and was informed that HDK did not do testing of models.  HDK explained that testing was not done for several reasons but primarily because testing can create a false sense of security among models since it depended on what the date of testing was and what type of sex the model participated in between testing and filming.  This was demonstrated recently when a straight model with a negative HIV test went to Brazil and participated in several straight bareback films during which time he acquired HIV.  That model returned to the U.S. and, since his negative HIV test was still considered current, was permitted to participate in a number of straight bareback films subsequently infecting several women with HIV.   Further, it was explained by Bill of HDK that HDK respected the privacy and confidentiality of their models and would not subject them to something that might later become public.

That explanation was accepted by the representatives of WTR and the issue of testing models became a non issue.  Apparently, that is, until HDK notified WTR on August 13, 2007, of it’s intent to terminate the Distribution Agreement for cause effective September 13, 2007. Apparently WTR’s decision to require HIV testing was decided upon at some point after receiving the termination notification from HDK on August 13th and realizing that they were losing their largest producer.

You Might Also Like