The Dignity of a Porn Star: What Was Lacking in Our Response to Cameron Bay

Porn stars all across Fresno were told to put their clothes back on and go home a couple of weeks ago on the news that a 29 year-old adult actress named Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV.

The Internet lit up. News, judgments, and jokes shot left and right in newsrooms as freely as bodily fluids fly on set. 

Something important is lacking though: concern for Ms. Bay. This young woman just learned that she has an incurable and potentially lethal disease. Our first emotion, I think, should be concern. We should commiserate. We should be grateful for our health and hopeful for hers. 

I learned this from Jose*, a patient in my HIV clinic. Jose was a muscular guy who wore tight black shirts and a jet-black goatee. The list of movies in which Jose engaged in unprotected anal sex was long. Very long. None of the titles can be repeated here so let’s just say somebody is making good money dreaming up new variations on the Bareback Mountain theme. 

Read the full article at Scientific American guest blogs.  It was also republished at The Health Care Blog.