AHF’s Questionable Affiliations, namely Derrick Burts

Derrick Burts contracted HIV last year, during which time he worked on both sides of the adult industry–gay and straight. He has since been the poster boy for AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its fight to force condoms on the straight adult industry.

As reported by The Real Porn Wiki Leaks in this article (NSFW) two days ago, not long after Burts’ public statement coming out as “Patient Zeta” and endorsing AHF in December 2010, adult industry talent agent, Mark Spiegler, propositioned Burts to take a polygraph test because Burts claimed to have contracted HIV on a gay condom set in Florida a few months prior.

The gay adult industry recognizes strict condom use in favor of the straight-industry-preferred option of clinic testing and condom-optional filmmaking. Not all gay shoots are condom-mandatory, though. A few gay companies shoot “bareback” product. The way in which each side handles their STI and HIV prevention causes most straight porn producers to look down upon male actors working on both sides of the industry. Derrick Burts got around this by performing as “Cameron Reid” in the straight industry, and as “Derek Chambers” in the gay industry.

Many details around Burts claims were sketchy at that time, especially Burts affiliation with AIDS Healthcare Foundation as AHF was trying to shut down Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), the then-central testing clinic for the straight adult industry. The famous agent offered to pay Burts one thousand dollars to take the test, regardless of the outcome. Why would Mark Spiegler make such an offer? One reason is because Burts had an escort ad on RentBoy boasting “AIM TESTED” status. The claim that he contracted HIV on an adult set married well with AHF’s agenda to shut down AIM and police the straight industry through a condom mandate (Burts shifted blame of bad health care onto AIM and in favor of AHF even though AIM never outed Burts as “Patient Zeta”), but any doubt about a porn-set-contraction would render Burts testimony useless for AHF. Another reason for asking questions would be Burts’ conflicting stories about how he contracted the virus on that set: oral vs. semen dripping into his anus. But what’s most telling is how Burts handled the question portion in the preliminary stages before the polygraph test.

According to the article:

Regarding his alleged “escorting” activities – which came to light when his ad on the gay hook-up site Rentboy.com surfaced — Burts wanted to narrow the questioning to: “Did you ever meet or have sex with anyone from escorting on RentBoy?”

Burts explained that because he had never acted on his RentBoy ad, there was “NO WAY possible for me to have contracted HIV from escorting….”

The article also offers Burts as writing:

“I would never risk having bareback sex as I am aware of the high risks involved of getting HIV from that method,” Burts wrote. “My agency is 100% against bareback porn and I never participated in a bareback shoot.”

Asking things like “If I ever did this or that” could refer to any point and time in my life before contracting HIV. I would like to stick to the time frame in which I may have contracted HIV which is between August and September as the widest gap. Based off the Western Blot test I contracted HIV around mid September. My last negative test was September 3rd… I tested positive on October 8th. There is a 60 day time frame for HIV to show in the body. So that would be all of August and September.

Yes, I did have sex with partners while swinging without a condom. Is it possible that I got if from swinging? No. It was outside of the time period and every girl I did swinging with was cleared on the quarantine list. Have I EVER had anal sex with a guy before? Yes… long time ago before starting porn…. If I am going to do this test then the 4 questions have to be specific and not broad.”

But broad questions are exactly the reason for giving such a test, even if the questions are kept within time constraints. The only reason to be specific is to avoid answering questions that might point to how he actually contracted the HIV virus, if there were, in fact, other avenues from which he could have contracted it. The article ends with this paragraph:

Many in the industry continue to speculate that Burts sought to alter the questions because he may have contracted HIV from someone involved with his Florida gay porn shoots with whom he had sex off –camera – perhaps even on set.

The polygraph test never happened.

But it gets worse.

Today AVN (NSFW) posted an article about Burts and what appears to be a laundry list of legal problems, beginning with a court hearing tomorrow on charges of burglary and embezzlement. The article also lists probation violation and warrants for arrest. I contacted Michael Whiteacre–the source for background materials–and he forwarded his compiled notes on Burts’ legal issues:

On March 18, 2010, Burts was arrested in Orange County and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving without a valid driver’s license, straddling or changing lanes when unsafe, and reckless driving.

On April 19th, Burts failed to appear in court in Westminster, CA, and a warrant was issued. He was eventually arraigned on May 6th, where he pleaded guilty to reckless driving in exchange for all other charges being dismissed. Burts was sentenced to 3 years probation, as well as a 12-hour Alcohol and Drug Program, and ordered to pay a $250 fine.

Then, in August 2010, Burts was arrested in LA County and booked for domestic violence and misdemeanor-level assault. Burts pleaded to a charge of disturbing the peace in a Van Nuys courtroom on August 3rd, and he was fined and sentenced to 52 weeks of classes.

But this arrest constituted a violation of his Orange County probation, and it was reported to the court in mid-August (Orange County notes case activity on August 18, 2010, and his probation was revoked on that date). Following an arraignment on September 21, 2010 for violating the terms of his probation, probation was re-instated.

Back in the LA County court system, a progress report from January 2011 shows that Burts had paid his fine, and that he requested his court-ordered classes be moved to Riverside County.

He was supposed to show up in court in Van Nuys on July 6, 2011 to inform the court that he had complied with its order and taken his classes, but he failed to appear. A $50,000 warrant was issued in his name on that date.

According to LA County, that warrant is still outstanding.

On July 31, 2011, Burts was arrested by Hemet police and charged with felony embezzlement and burglary in Riverside County. He posted $5,000 bail through a bondsman on August 4th.

Due to his Riverside County arrest, Burts’ Orange County probation was revoked on August 31, 2011. The Orange County Superior Court website currently lists Burts’ status as “Fugitive”.

Burts is scheduled to be arraigned on September 29th at Riverside County’s Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

Southwest Justice Center
Dept S201, 2nd floor
30755-D Auld Road,
Murrieta, CA 92563

Even more damning, is the Op-ed at LukeIsBack, entitled “The Dark Past of AHF’s Poster Boy, Derrick Burts”. It is a fully crafted story chronicling Burts’ adolescence, and then following him on a troubled path that eventually led to his meeting Crystal Tustison, someone also with a list of legal problems. By far the most unsettling excerpt reads:

However, his financial debts and troubles at home might not be the only reasons Burts left Hemet to take his magic act on the road. Two local parents, who did not know anything of Burts’ life after 2005 – including his porn career – and were surprised to hear that he’d returned to live in Hemet in 2011, offered an alternative explanation involving Burts and some minors at the Ramona Bowl Ampitheatre.

What is amazing to me (and as Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals so eloquently points out in her own article on the .XXX sTLD), is that the adult industry is accused of profiteering and immorality (to name a few), yet no one questions the moral intentions of people and organizations from the outside who gouge the industry for their own profit. AHF’s Michael Weinstein has been unrelenting in finding any means necessary to insert himself into the Los Angeles-based adult industry in what appears to be an effort to take over and reap the financial rewards of policing the industry through condom mandates and clinical testing. It didn’t matter that their first personality for the ‘dangers of the porn industry’, Shelley Lubben of Pink Cross Foundation, is anti-gay, or that her own credentials and testimonies are dubious. (Lubben touts a theology degree from a non-accredited college and claims that god cured her herpes, though she has no medical data to prove she ever had herpes.)

And now AHF is using Derrick Burts to parade their campaign, even though it appears he is just as questionable at the core of his intentions. In fact, Burts is scheduled to appear on behalf of AHF at a UCLA discussion on performer health and safety this October 11th, 2011.

Mark Kernes ends his article with this:

“… Why would anyone believe anything Derrick Burts has to say about either his career in the adult entertainment industry or how he became HIV-positive?”

I have two questions.

How many questionable people will Michael Weinstein slap his brand name upon in the name of performer safety? And how many details is Michael Weinstein willing to overlook in his unceasing effort to mind the details of adult industry performers?