Porn Is Not Glamorous

White Ribbon Against Pornography Week begins Sunday, October 31, 2010 and runs through Sunday, November 7th, 2010. The White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) movement is intended to educate the public about the extent of the pornography problem and about what can legally be done to fight back against the flood tide of obscenity.

If you regularly read our blog, you are aware that in our work at Enough Is Enough, we feel as though our children’s access to harmful to minors (HTM) content and illegal adult pornography, a.k.a. obscenity, is one of the key Internet dangers today. Seven in ten of our children accidentally encounter pornography online. More and more children and families suffer from addiction to pornography. As our children watch pornography and encounter celebrities and media promoting pornography use, it is easy for them to begin to believe that pornography use is healthy and the life of a porn star is glamorous.

As we look towards WRAP week, we thought it would be helpful to share the comments from our event to educate congress about the harmful impact of pornography by former porn star, Shelley Lubben to remind us of the fact that pornography is not glamorous.

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Comments from Shelley Lubben: Porn Is Not Glamorous

Out of about 1,500 porn performers that work in the US Porn Industry:

66% have Herpes, a non-curable disease.

Chlamydia and Gonorrhea among performers is 10 times greater than that of 20-24 year olds in LA County.

25 cases of HIV have been reported among porn performers since 2004.

Since 2000, there have been 23 suicides and 30 drug related deaths that we know of.

Los Angeles County Public Health Department recently reported that 70% of sexually transmitted infections in the porn industry occur in females.

I am one of the females. As a survivor of the porn industry, I contracted HPV and Herpes, a non-curable disease, which later led to my battle with cervical cancer where I had half of my cervix removed. I’ve had three miscarriages and hemorrhaged for twelve years, enduring severe anemia. I was also diagnosed at the time with mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse and denial.

I went back to the porn industry 10 years later and started Pink Cross Foundation, a non-profit organization, offering help and a way out for adult industry workers at porn conventions, nightclubs, and in their local area and through this outreach hundreds of women and men have poured their hearts out to me about the violence and abuse they’re being subjected to.

Some of the acts of violence and abuse in the porn industry include:

Verbal and physical abuse on the porn set.

Porn Star Jersey Jaxin made this shocking statement about her experience in porn, “Guys are punching you in the face. You have semen all over your face, in your eyes. You get ripped. Your insides can come out of you. It’s never ending.” Porn star Reagan Star describes in an interview with Talk magazine, “while sex acts were performed on her she was hit and choked until she couldn’t breathe.”

Women are also forced into sex acts they never agreed to, including prostitution.

Agents send girls to do scenes but upon arrival are tricked into doing “privates” with men off the street. If they complain to their agents, they are threatened they will be sued, blacklisted from working, or worse, they receive physical threats. It IS SEX TRAFFICKING.

Pornographers are also drug traffickers and often offer performers drugs and alcohol to get through violent scenes. Even local doctors are in conspiracy with the porn industry prescribing Vicodin, Xanax and Valium like candy to drug addicted workers. Alcohol and drugs are rampant in the porn industry. A majority of the women who make porn have to have drivers because they’re addicted to drugs and alcohol. Some women even have “handlers” who are basically babysitters of young drunk and drugged-out girls. Drivers and Handlers are common terms used in the porn industry.

Widespread Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the Porn Industry include but are not limited to Herpes, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, HPV, Hepatitis A, B, and C, Syphilis, and HIV. Condoms are not used in the majority of pornographic films. The industry relies solely on STD testing every 30 days. With multiple sex partners on and off the porn sets these tests become unreliable very quickly. Porn workers are only tested for HIV, Chlamydia and Gonorrhea. They are not tested for Herpes, a non-curable disease. According to Los Angles Public Health Department in a report released last year, there were 2,396 cases of Chlamydia, 1,389 cases of gonorrhea, and 25 cases of HIV since 2004 reported by AIM, the Adult Industry Medical Clinic.

Besides widespread sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution, drug addiction, and physical and verbal abuse on the porn set, sadly there are many who die tragically. Earlier this year, there were reports of multiple deaths in the porn industry. Two porn stars were killed, two porn stars were injured by a samurai sword on a porn set and one porn star died after jumping from a cliff in a standoff with the Los Angeles Police Department.

No other industry has these kinds of statistics.

The Truth: PORN IS NOT GLAMOROUS. Porn destroys human lives and is destroying our nation. But we can change. We can heal and I am living proof of that. US Members of Congress, Department of Justice and citizens of America please hear my plea. I urge you to enforce current federal obscenity laws and protect human lives. The children need you. Young women and men need you, and I need you.

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