The Joys of Sex Roulette

Matt Grills

So an AIDS scare has temporarily crippled the porn industry.

Only a cruel person wouldn’t feel for stars Darren James and Lara Roxx, who have tested positive for HIV. OK, maybe “feel” isn’t the right word. Let’s try “sympathize.” It’s tragic that they must now deal with a life-threatening virus. But could the media act more like a ditzy blonde about this whole thing?

When your day job has you getting naked and nasty with hundreds of different people, it’s quite likely you’ll end up infected with something. Let’s face it: monogamy will always be the healthiest choice.

I know the world wants it to be different. Wouldn’t it be so great if we all could have sex with anyone we want, however we want, as often as we want, without any consequences? Well, for whatever reason, nature doesn’t look kindly on that. A few promiscuous people might slip through the net once in a while. On the whole, however, it seems your best bet is to enjoy the pleasures of sex with just one person, as in “marriage.” And when you and your spouse are one another’s first and last sexual partner, you’re virtually immune from raging cases of herpes and the like.

The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation claims to screen about 1,200 adult-movie performers a month for sexually transmitted diseases. Can you imagine taking an HIV test every single month and hoping every time that it comes up negative? Talk about pins and needles. I’m a military reservist, which requires HIV testing every few months. With great relief, I know my results will always be negative, since I live what pop culture considers a “boring” life of sex with only my wife.

Naturally, county and state officials in California see this shocking “outbreak” as another opportunity to push the almighty condom, guarantor of sexual licentiousness free of health risks. Porn industry lawyers protest, pointing out the obvious fact that people who watch porn don’t watch it to see men with Trojans. I’m guessing movies like “Oreo Lovin’ 2: Black on White” and “Brianna Lee’s Red Hot Wienie Roast” are popular because their performers actually engage in sex, not just steamy love scenes cut to appear as sex.

“The bottom line is, customers don’t like [to see] condoms,” Mark Kulkis, president of Kick Ass Pictures, told The Los Angeles Times. “When you see an action movie and you see the hero jumping out the window, you don’t want to see the wires holding him up. Nobody wants to see condoms. It’s a fantasy.”

Um, well said, Mark.

How fascinating it is to warn people against playing with fire. They ignore the warnings, not only going on to play with fire but insisting that more people should loosen up and play with fire too. Then two people suddenly are burned and we start talking about how we must “safely” play with fire. And how exactly is that done?

Believing condoms are sexual salvation is like trying to stop fire from being hot and from burning people who touch or are touched by the flames. In 1997, Father Jacques Suaudeau angered the condom bloc with a study showing that the possibility of contracting HIV using a condom in high-risk sexual relations is about 15 percent. That risk rises 20 percent to 30 percent when the act is homosexual, when sexual promiscuity is high or when another sexually transmitted disease is involved. I don’t know about you, but any percent above zero is too high in my mind.

When medical technicians deal with substances containing HIV, Suaudeau pointed out, they are instructed to wear two pairs of gloves. Why, then, is the condom so revered? It’s completely ineffective in preventing some STDs and only marginally effective in protecting people from others. Many of these viruses, once transmitted, are incurable. They are only managed.

I weary of news reports and celebrities crying about the horrors of HIV and AIDS. What about the horrors that cause HIV and AIDS, like sleeping with anything that moves? Like gay sex? Yes, that’s right, I said it: gay sex. It especially can result in HIV and AIDS, even with a condom.

This is one news story that falls into the “well, duh” category. I marvel at the quotes, like adult film star Mary Carey, who felt compelled to cancel her lesbian porn shoot in the wake of the revelation. “It’s very scary,” she said. “This is kind of a wake-up call for everybody.”

A wake-up call? Where has Carey been since the 1960s? And, no, I’m not going to rent a video to find out.

Or this gem from Summer Tyme, a newcomer to the porn business. “I’m going to change the way I do things now – probably just girl-on-girl shoots,” she said. “Guys, but with condoms. No money is worth risking your life.”

Money, no. Promiscuous sex? Apparently so.

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Matt Grills is a writer and conservative activist living in Indianapolis, where he works for a nonprofit organization. In 1997, he earned a bachelor's degree in religious studies from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. He has written for a handful of Hoosier newspapers and is a member of the Indiana Leadership Forum, a program that encourages emerging community leaders to increase their involvement in the Republican Party.
darthgrills@hotmail.com