Mormon Marriott`s Moral Masquerade: Hotel Chain Profits off of Unsafe Porn, Says AHF

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As Part of Ongoing Campaign to Require Condom Use in Adult Films, Advocates from
AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Pink Cross Foundation will Protest the
Mormon-founded Marriott Hotel Chain as Middlemen Selling Condom-less Porn via
Its Entertainment Lineup in the Chain`s Hotel Rooms

Group to Host Press Conference, `Porn In,` and Protest Wednesday, October 21st
at 9:15 PM at the Downtown Los Angeles Marriott (on Figueroa) and Launch Viral &
Print Ad Campaign for a Hotel Boycott
LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
AIDS Healthcare Foundation:

WHAT: Press Conference, `Porn In` & Protest to call for a Boycott of Marriott
Mormon-founded Marriott hotel chain profits off the sale of unsafe, condom-less porn;
Former adult film actresses join protest and call for Marriott Hotel boycott

WHEN: Wednesday, October 21st 2009--9:15 PM Pacific

WHERE: Marriott Hotel, Downtown Los Angeles (Figueroa Street)
333 Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071

WHO: Shelley Lubben, former adult entertainment actress and founder of Pink Cross Foundation
Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, President
Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Director, Public Health Division, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
And advocates from AHF and Pink Cross

CONTACTS: Ged Kenslea, AHF Dir. of Communications (323) 791-5526 cell
Lori Yeghiayan, AHF Assoc. Dir. of Communications (323) 377-4312 cell

B-roll: 9:15pm-Press Availability and `PORN IN` (Penthouse Suite #1427) Officials from AHF and Pink Cross Foundation will speak to the media while a `porn in` showing the Marriott`s unsafe porn (films without condom use) will stream on the hotel room television in the background
9:45pm-`Porn In` and Press Conference conclude; PROTEST BEGINS Advocates from AHF and Pink Cross depart from the hotel room to street level to protest the Marriott`s profiteering off of unsafe porn

NEWSDESK: GO LIVE at 10 pm or 11 pm from CONDOM PROTEST in front of Marriott L.A. Downtown - Protesters will be carrying signs, banners and three foot wide condoms

(October 21, 2009)--As part of its ongoing campaign to require the use of
condoms in porn films in an effort to reduce the spread of STDs including HIV,
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a press conference, `porn in` and
protest tomorrow evening, Wednesday, October 21st starting at 9:15 PMPacific at
the Downtown Los Angeles Marriott Hotel (333 Figueroa Street) to highlight the
Mormon-founded international hotel chain`s profiteering from its promotion and
sale of unsafe, condom-less pornography sold to hotel guests purchased for
viewing through the chain`s hotel room televisions. Marriott`s corporate website
devotes considerable space to the role of the Mormon faith of its founder, John
Willard Marriott, and its guiding hand in his life and work building the
international hotel chain.

"Marriott is certainly not alone among major hotel chains that promote and
profit off the sale of unsafe, condom-less adult films to their hotel guests,"
said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "However, we
want to highlight the brazen hypocrisy-the Mormon Marriott`s moral masquerade-of
such a so-called family-oriented hotel chain profiteering off adult films that
endanger the lives of the performers acting in them. Sexual acts filmed without
participating performers using condoms depict the unprotected exchange of bodily
fluids, an action that violates occupational safety laws and places the
performers at risk for a number of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
We urge Marriott`s corporate leaders to only make those adult films which
portray safer sex practices-chief among them the use of condoms-available for
purchase and viewing by their guests, and until we get such a commitment from
Marriott officials, we are urging a public boycott of the entire Marriott Hotel
chain."

AHF is hosting its press event-which will feature a `Porn In`-the streaming of
unsafe porn available on television in one of the Marriott`s guest rooms at the
downtown Los Angeles hotel-in conjunction with the Pink Cross Foundation and its
founder, Shelley Lubben, a former porn actress from the adult entertainment
industry. The `Porn In` will take place starting at 9:15 pm. (For the room
number of the `Porn In,` please call AHF`s Ged Kenslea (323) 791-5526 or Lori
Yeghiayan (323) 377-4312.) Among the new release adult film titles that Marriott
is offering its hotel guests are, "Just Explicit Sex," "Naughty Office Workers,"
"Mothers Do It Better," and "Daddy`s Girl Takes it All."

"I fully support the campaign to require condoms in all porn production, and
believe putting public pressure on middlemen such as the Marriott-latter day
purveyors of porn who are profiting richly off the depiction of unsafe sexual
activity-can only help the health and safety of performers who are forced to
work in unsafe and hazardous work conditions every day," said Shelley Lubben,
former porn actress and founder of the Pink Cross Foundation, an IRS approved
501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to offering adult industry workers emotional,
financial and transitional support for those who want out of the adult industry.
"The industry did not and still does NOT enforce condom usage, so STDs and HIV
were and still remain a high risk among porn actors and actresses. I know
because I risked my life and caught herpes and developed early cervical cancer.
While my own life has taken an entirely new and profoundly fulfilling direction
and I now work to help performers leave the industry altogether, I know that
condoms are one way to help save lives and prevent disease among those still
working in the industry."

Group to Launch Viral & Print Ad Campaign Urging Boycott of Marriott Over Unsafe
Adult Films

As part of its Marriott protest and boycott demanding safer sex adult films in
Marriott`s hotel rooms, AHF will launch a viral and print advertising campaign
urging the public to avoid booking rooms at Marriott Hotels until the chain`s
executives make a commitment to do so. The viral online component of the ad
campaign will launch later this week; the print ad campaign follow next week and
will focus initially on newspapers in the Salt Lake City area, home to the
Marriott founder`s Mormon religion.

History of AHF`s Advocacy for Condom Use in Porn Films in California

As part of its ongoing campaign to require the use of condoms in adult films
shot in California, AHF has been mounting a high profile advocacy campaign
directly targeting the industry, including key players like Hustler`s founder
Larry Flynt; it has also publicly pressed Los Angeles County political and
health officials to comply with the law as far as legal reporting of HIV and STD
cases-including those found among performers in the industry-and to require the
use of condoms on adult film sets in LA County; and it has also recently sued
the County to achieve this aim. Most recently, AHF and Pink Cross also filed 16
workplace safety complaints with Cal OSHA (the California Department of
Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health) based on
unsafe sexual acts depicting the exchange of bodily fluids filmed in unprotected
sex acts in more than 56 films submitted to Cal OSHA with the complaints.

AHF filed its lawsuit against Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
after exhausting all other methods to compel the County to fulfill its
obligation to protect the public`s health in the wake of the revelation in
mid-June that an actress working in the adult film business had tested positive
for HIV. At that time, AHF had urged the County to better monitor HIV and STD
prevention in the region`s adult film industry-and require condom use-or to shut
down porn sets.

Since the June 17th reporting of the latest HIV outbreak-and the subsequent
reporting by the LA Times that as many as 22 porn performers may have tested
positive in the last five years-no action has been taken by the County to halt
the spread of STDs on LA porn sets or to conduct the proper and legally required
public health follow-up with those thought to be infected.

AHF, the US` largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider, which operates the
largest community-based alternative HIV testing program in California conducting
more than 14,000 free HIV tests annually, has also been trying to sponsor
legislation in Sacramento that would mandate the use of condoms by actors
performing in films produced by the California industry. AHF believes a
so-called `condoms in porn` bill should be drafted as a worker safety provision
of California`s Labor Code akin to how the Labor Code currently requires the use
of hard hats and other garments and barriers as safely precautions on certain
California work sites and locations. To date, the legislators approached have
been unwilling or unable to author such prudent public health legislation.

STDs in the Industry in Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County`s Department of Public Health is aware of an ongoing and
pervasive sexually transmitted disease crisis in LA`s pornography industry, a
fact that is well documented. DPH has cited numerous figures confirming an STD
epidemic among performers in adult films, including the fact that performers in
hardcore pornography are ten times more likely to be infected with a sexually
transmitted disease than members of the population at large.

According to figures cited by DPH, there were 2,013 documented cases of
Chlamydia among LA porn performers between 2003 and 2007. In the same period,
965 cases of gonorrhea were documented. Many performers suffer multiple
infections. In the period April 2004 to March 2008 there have been 2,847 STD
infections diagnosed among 1,884 performers in the hardcore industry in LA
County. DPH attributes the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in the porn
industry to a lack of protective equipment for partners, including condoms. The
agency recommends condoms be used during production, but has never taken steps
to ensure their use, or to protect the performers who are essentially required
to endanger their health in order to remain employed.

"This is not just about one industry, but about our entire community, as the
spread of disease among adult film performers endangers themselves as well as
their sexual partners in and outside the industry," added AHF`s Weinstein. "Los
Angeles County Public Health officials cannot keep passing the buck on this by
playing ping pong on this with the state and the industry itself. That is why we
are filing these complaints with Cal/OSHA today."

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the US` largest non-profit HIV/AIDS
healthcare provider. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more
than 115,000 individuals in 21 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean and the Asia Pacific Region. www.aidshealth.org

The Pink Cross Foundation is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated
to offering adult industry workers emotional, financial and transitional support
for those who want out of the adult industry. www.shelleylubben.com

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Ged Kenslea
Mobile: 323-791-5526
gedk@aidshealth.org
or
Lori Yeghiayan
Mobile: 323-377-4312
loriy@aidshealth.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009