- Ally, Friend and Supporter of AntiPornography.org 

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Darren James is a U.S. Navy veteran who spent eight years in the porn industry as a performer and director, from 1998 to 2006. He experienced racial discrimination and many other challenges as a black male performer in porn. Darren also contracted various STDs, including HIV in 2004, which was spread to several female performers and caused a temporary shutdown of the porn industry. (See this documentary "The Dark Side of Porn: Porn Shutdown," which covers this time and which features Darren.)

Darren was ostracized by the industry, and not being educated about HIV and the possibilities for treatment, he became suicidal and went to Mexico and overdosed on prescription pills. He was thankfully rescued but his suicide attempt caused him severe kidney damage and other major health issues.

After several years Darren fully educated himself about his HIV status and committed himself to helping others. He is now an HIV counselor and educator, as well as a public speaker. Darren has also been on the front lines of the campaign for mandatory condom use in the porn industry, advocating with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation against the porn industry's lack of concern for the health and safety of their performers.

Darren is available to speak, write, debate, or be interviewed about anything to do with the harms of working in the porn industry. To contact Darren, please email him at darrenjamesthetruestory@gmail.com. And for more information about Darren's story of his time in porn, how he contracted HIV and the consequences, and his current advocacy concerning health and safety in the industry, please scroll down to read articles or watch documentaries, interviews and other videos. For more information about the other aspects of Darren's life, and to read his own life story in his own words, please visit his new website: 

The True Story: Darren James

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DARREN JAMES ON ABC'S NIGHTLINE TALKING ABOUT GETTING HIV IN PORN

(Darren appears at 1/3 of the way into the video. He is interviewed by Lisa Ling)

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ABC NIGHTLINE - Keeping It Safe After the Clothes Come Off

- By Lisa Ling and Arash Ghadishah - Nov. 13, 2009

Darren James once led a busy life as a porn star.

"Sometimes it'd be 10 women in an orgy scene -- nonstop," he said, talking about his career at its busiest. "And you work from eight in the morning to maybe eight at night. And that's one scene. All these women. Nonstop."

It was part of a job James did successfully for nearly eight years. Until he got the call all porn performers dread.

"I get that call," he said, shaking his head. "Everything stops. I had the virus. I'm like, whoa, what happened? This can't be happening to me. ... I thought I did everything right. And my whole world just crashed."

James learned he was HIV-positive in 2004. And he doesn't know, he said, how he got infected.

"I don't. There was just so many women pressed up in that short period of time," he said.

James passed the virus to co-workers, although "not knowingly," he said.

"I'd known three girls I'd infected and I knew them," James said. "They're nice people and I felt bad."

James' HIV infection shut down Southern California's porn industry for a month. When his identity as the original infection was made public, he says the isolation that followed drove him to attempt suicide.

"I know porn ain't the best business in the world, but it's all I had," he said. "At that point I wanted to end it because I know I couldn't recover."

James is now campaigning to make condom use mandatory in adult films. He predicted years ago that his infection would not be the last the industry would see. In June of this year he was proven right when another performer was diagnosed with HIV.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/porn-industry-debates-mandatory-condom/story?id=8902451

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- By Rong-Gong Lin II - October 12, 2010 

The former adult film actor at the center of a 2004 HIV outbreak among porn performers on Tuesday criticized the industry for failing to protect actors from infection.

“I knew it was going to happen. And how many years has it been? Again. They went right back to the same habits,” Darren James said in an interview with The Times.

James’ comments came after a San Fernando Valley clinic that caters to people who work in the porn industry confirmed to The Times that an adult-industry performer has tested positive for HIV, and that a quarantine was in place for performers who had sexual contact with the person.

Officials from the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, known as AIM, would not disclose the number of performers who may have been exposed and also declined to provide details about the person infected or the production company or companies involved.

James, a well-liked porn star known for his courteous nature on set, was at the center of an HIV outbreak that shut down the San Fernando Valley’s multibillion-dollar porn industry for a month in the spring of 2004. He had tested HIV negative just days before performing on screen. After a later test came back positive, James learned that he had spread the virus to three actresses with whom he worked. 

In recent months, James has become a advocate of mandatory use of condoms on porn sets to protect performers from HIV. At a hearing of California occupational safety officials in Orange County in March, James called the industry’s reliance on testing performers for HIV  a "false security blanket."

"You think you're safe, but you're not. In between scenes, you don't know what other actors are doing," James told the board before turning to the crowd of about 40 at Costa Mesa City Hall. "I'm living your nightmare every day," he said.

On Tuesday , James renewed his criticism of the industry for failing to protect actors and actresses.

“The actors ... they’re not getting the protection that they need. There should have been mandatory condoms,” James said. “Good grief, it’s like my deal, all over again. I hate that.”

In an interview with The Times last year, when AIM officials confirmed that a female porn performer had tested positive for HIV, James talked extensively about his belief that condoms should be required on set.

"That's why I want to come out and do a little more, if I can. And if it's just to help ... just to get them to listen. Not to boast up porn, not at all, just to make people be aware that I got caught up, man. I thought I was invincible, and I got shot down so fast,” James said at the time.

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- Interview with Darren James by Poz.com 

[Selected excerpts]

- By Regan Hofmann - Dec. 2008

Darren James was on top of the adult film industry before unintentionally infecting female costars with HIV. He’s kept silent in the media storm aftermath—until now.

When former porn star Darren James tested HIV positive in 2004, it rocked the adult film industry—and brought it to a grinding halt. By industry standard, James took a PCR-DNA test for HIV at least once a month (each test cost about $100; the expense was his to cover). After he was infected while working on set, he infected three other women before his own test came back positive. All of those women worked for a while before learning they were HIV positive. As a result, the adult film industry shut down while other actors got tested to determine their status.

From the moment he was aware of his HIV-positive status, James stopped working. He did not spread the virus knowingly. Coworkers and directors affirm that he was one of “the nicest guys working in the business,” someone who always respected the women he worked with. And yet, the women to whom he passed the virus waged an angry campaign in the media that drove James underground. Four years later, James is ready to tell his side of the story—not to refute accusations or point fingers at the porn industry, but rather, to hopefully help others, especially those making adult films, stay safe and HIV free. 

Tell us about your background.

I was born in Detroit in 1964. I grew up a poor kid in the projects. I loved to build RC [radio controlled] models. That was my thing (and still is), and I also liked to play guitar. I had an older brother named James—that’s where I got my stage name—who I really looked up to, and he looked out for me. After high school, I joined the military and went off to conquer the world. I spent seven years in active duty in the Navy and decided that I wanted to go into law enforcement. I studied and tried really hard but ultimately wasn’t successful. I ended up in L.A. and was homeless until somebody turned me on to a modeling agency that was looking for nude models. It wasn’t modeling as such; it was more modeling in action, if you know what I mean.

What is life like as a porn star?

Once you’ve been in for a while, it’s easy to lose touch with reality, and the industry becomes your family. The rest of society might watch you in their bedrooms but won’t admit they know you if they see you on the street. So you hang out with people like yourself. Emotional relationships are difficult.

Most guys I meet are like “wow” when they find out what I did for a living. They say stuff like, “Dude, you’re the man, you’re living my dream!” and for a while I guess I was. Sex with beautiful women (sometimes two and three at a time), money, glitz, glamour, parties, cars, travel. It was one big rush. 

Your reputation for treating women with emotional and physical sensitivity on and off set precedes you…

I have always loved women in general. Everything about them. I always respected them during scenes. 

Working in adult films, were you concerned about getting HIV? 

We always thought being tested was our safety net. Even though there’s a lot of information out there about the disease, a lot of actors gauge their risk based on pre-existing beliefs and values. Some guys, and even me to some extent, were like, “I only do chicks.”  

This gave us some sort of comfort—even though the activities may have been just as risky. I think it briefly crossed my mind at times—but it was a fleeting thought. After while you start to feel invincible. Just like most people, you never think it’s going to happen to you. 

Were you surprised to discover that you were HIV positive? 

Hell yes! I thought I had been doing everything right. As some of my peers who worked with me over the years will tell you, I was one of the more health-conscious actors out there. 

I rarely drank, I didn’t get high, and I took care of my body. I worked out and tried to eat well. I got regular medical checkups and tried to live a fairly normal life considering the work that I was involved in. I had an apartment, a dog that I loved, some fish and a few hobbies. I was just a regular guy. 

How did you feel when you were diagnosed? 

I was devastated. It was like a huge kick in the gut. In an instant, everything in my life was turned upside down. One moment I was working and happy—at the height of my game—and in the next, I was unemployable, my name was all over the news, and instantly I was an outcast.

Did you tell anyone?

My friends and family found out from the media before I had a chance to tell them. They were horrified and shocked. I felt ashamed and bad for bringing them into this.

The women you infected were angry, and they vilified you in the press. Why didn’t you tell your side of the story then? 

I apologized to the women. Part of the reason I didn’t come forward is because I was in a state of shock. It was like a tidal wave came crashing down around me. Everything was happening so fast, and the entire situation was out of control. The same night they gave me the confirmatory results, I was all over the Internet and CNN and CBS. It was crazy. It was like I was tried, convicted and hung before I even knew all the facts myself about everything that happened. I had so many people pointing fingers at me, people calling saying crazy stuff. The media wanted to rake me over the coals. My life was threatened, and beyond that, I hadn’t even had a chance to come to terms with the fact that I had just tested positive and this disease was going to irrevocably change every aspect of my life as I knew it. 

At the time, I didn’t see much light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, in those first hours I didn’t see anything but blackness and hopelessness. A few friends tried to reach out to me but…. [Pause.] I’m sorry, I really haven’t talked much about this period of time. I felt like I had no other options than to check out, and basically that’s what I tried to do. For whatever reason, I wasn’t successful.

What made you decide to come forward now? 

There are a lot of reasons, but the main one is the hope that in some small but significant way I will help somebody else. 

My story has a prevention angle too. There are a lot of guys out there (and women—even women in the HIV community) who think that men can’t get HIV from sex with a woman. There is so much stigma about that. A lot of positive women don’t want to believe you when you tell them you got it from a female. While I know the risks are greater for the receptive partner in any relationship, I am living proof that straight guys get HIV too. It’s all about the activity and the fluids involved. 

Many heterosexual guys with HIV experience a double stigma, which is different from that of our gay and female counterparts. Not only do you have HIV (big stigma there), but everyone you run into, even people within the positive community (even those who profess to be knowledgeable about transmission), will insist you must have gotten it some other way. They might not say it to your face, but they’re usually thinking it. That part about living with this disease as a heterosexual guy really sucks.   

Given the nature of the adult film industry, do you feel that you had an obligation to educate yourself better about the risks? 

In this industry, getting HIV is a risk. No one in this industry can guarantee you safety from harm—if they do, they’re lying. There are things that can be done to reduce risks to the performers, but frankly few people want to make the necessary changes. 

The system is flawed. It’s only a matter of time before it happens again. What are people going to do? Get a really expensive, super-sensitive viral load test at their own expense an hour before every shoot? Some actors work three, four, five times a week. That’s not very realistic. 

So who should be responsible when something happens? 

There’s a lot of discussion lately about requiring the use of condoms in the industry. It will be interesting to see how that all pans out. I have my own feelings about the issue, but I also understand all too well how the other side thinks and how (condom use) will impact the industry’s bottom line. 

I hope that opening up will shed some light on the realities of the work and what the potential hazards are. It’s more than just HIV; there’s a lot of other STDs out there, and the rates of those are increasing dramatically. There are some really good actors and actresses who don’t mind using condoms, but they are not really free to speak out. If they do, they might not get work. I can be a voice for them.

How does it feel to speak about this after four years of silence? 

Choosing to talk about it was hard. It is not always pleasant opening up old wounds, and some of the feelings about it had been blocked out for some time. But in the end I know that this is the right thing to do. Like I said before, if I can help somebody else, that’s great. 

READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE:

http://www.poz.com/articles/darren_james_porn_hiv_2271_15639.shtml

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 Talking to Darren James, Porn’s First Patient Zero, Ten Years After His HIV Diagnosis

"I tell anyone with a chronic illness, you can do anything. It's all there for you. It's just a question of doing it."

 - By Sam Benjamin - Nerve.com - March 2014

[Selected Excerpts]

Ten years ago, porn performer Darren James made global headlines as "Patient Zero" in a highly-publicized HIV outbreak in LA's adult film industry that left multiple performers HIV positive and out of work. James is thought to have contracted the virus during a condomless anal sex scene shot in Brazil; upon his diagnosis, it was discovered that three of his female co-stars had also contracted HIV. James immediately retired from porn, saying few goodbyes. After struggling through a period of intense emotional turmoil, he eventually sued the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Center for making his test results public. A decade later, the industry has successfully prevented further on-set transmissions – but with increasing numbers of performers contracting HIV in their personal lives, some say it’s a question of when, not if, the next outbreak will occur. We checked in with James – now an HIV/AIDS awareness advocate and highly sought-after public speaker – to discuss the life of a man finding peace with chronic illness, and what other performers can learn from his experience.

NERVE: How'd you get into porn in the first place? Why'd you want to do it?

JAMES: Years ago, I was trying to be a police officer – around 1998. But I got caught up in the budget cuts. Right around that time, I had a female situation go south on me. A girl I was in love with met a guy, got married, got pregnant, and I had no idea what to do. A friend of mine who was an actual real actor, in mainstream, said he knew about some modeling down in the Valley. I figured I'd check it out, just to get some quick cash, pay my way through the academy. Honestly, I just wanted to have some money, so I could eat. 

I walked in the office, Jim South's office, World Modeling [an adult talent agency], and I got lucky. A producer came in, and they happened to be looking for a black guy that weekend. My first job was for VCA. It wasn't the biggest role, but it was big for me. 

And of course I didn't know what to do when I went to that set. I had a script to read – I knew everybody's line. It was funny, because I was sitting there, all hyper, ready to go, and [porn actor] Byron Long, I remember watching him walk around. He thought I was the dumbest motherfucker in the world. "Who is this new guy, looking all stupid?" 

Did you get to be friends? 

Byron was cool as hell, later. But right at the beginning, those dudes didn't like me. I was just another new guy, getting in the way. (Laughs). It was kind of like feast or famine. You're sitting on Jim South's couch, waiting, starving like an animal, waiting for the meat to be thrown to you. [...]

After your exposure to the HIV virus became public in 2004, you disappeared for a while.

I was suicidal, man. It's been a hard road.

Did you feel rejected by the industry after the whole thing came out?

Yeah. I was really angry, for a really long time. Because you notice one thing, just like in cigarette companies, you don't have the owner smoking. In porno, the producers don't f**k. The owners don't f**k, either, because they know the dangers out there. That's why they have us do it.

You've been vocal about lobbying for mandatory condom use in adult films.

Absolutely. And I'm proud of that. The companies complain they'll make less money. But they're making their money. People are going to buy porn regardless. Ain't gonna stop people from being horny.

They say, "It's going to stop the industry, drive it underground." But when has porn ever been above ground? [Laughs] When have you walked to a scene, walked to your neighbors, and hey, by the way, I'm shooting a triple-anal next door, you don't mind? Sure, neighbor!

You seem like you've come around to a better place right now.

I've still got a lot of work to do. I'm still mad. But I've been working out and training. I did martial arts my whole life, and that was the only thing that kept me afloat when I got really down. And the organization that I work for, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, working in the community, testing people that are affected by HIV, trying to educate people about prevention – I like that. That keeps me more focused. [...]

How is your own health, ten years after learning you were HIV-positive?

It's great. I'm very lucky. But I work extremely hard at staying healthy. I work out all the time. I'm a big jiu-jitsu guy. I tell anyone with a chronic illness, you can do anything. It's all there for you. It's just a question of doing it.

Has living with HIV changed you as a person?

Yeah, it has. I care more about other people now. I have more empathy. To me, the most fun thing I can do is reach out to other people, try to give back to my community. I wasn't really like that before. Not that I was a bad guy or anything, but helping other people just wasn't as big a priority for me. Now, I really love hearing other people's stories. I truly want to see people succeed.

I've also had to deal with being a public figure. I used to get stopped every once in a while by some fan, some guy saying, "Man, I got you at home on the movie!" Now it's way different. But I'm getting used to it. I'm even trying to write a book about the whole experience. I'm about halfway done. I think it's going to be good.

Do you have any final words for your fans out there?

Wrap your **** up. It can happen to you. 

FULL INTERVIEW:

http://www.nerve.com/love-sex/talking-to-darren-james-porn%E2%80%99s-first-patient-zero-ten-years-after-his-hiv-diagnosis

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Photo Credit: Stefano Paltera / For The L.A. Times