Oral sex transmission rates are pretty low...the one source I have estimates transmission at .06% with a partner known to be positive (in 6 out of every 10,000 acts the recipient will seroconvert). Receptive anal sex has a transmission rate of .82% (1 out of every 122 pos top/neg bottom acts will seroconvert the bottom) For more stats: http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite?page=kb-07-02-02#S3X

To specifically address the concern about the transmission of HIV during oral sex; as Michael mentioned, there is some risk in all activities. For example, you can kiss somebody with herpes and although they have no immediately visible outbreak, you can catch herpes from them.

On the other hand, the empirical evidence is that HIV transmission through unprotected oral sex is quite rare and occurs chiefly when the negative partner has cuts in his mouth and takes semen from a positive top with an out-of-control viral load. I stay well abreast of these issues and it does not seem to me that Jake is correct when he says that cum eating is one of the biggest risk factors for HIV transmission, and people who do eat cum with healthy mouths aren't at "great" risk.

Studies have been done on sero-discordant couples in which the top has an undetectable viral load and the two perform reciprocal oral sex to completion regularly over the course of years without the negative partner ever becoming infected.

One thing that's too often left out of safe-sex education is an honest discussion of the hardships of safer sex. For most people, having no oral contact whatsoever, not even kissing, and using condoms during both oral and anal sex becomes so frustrating that after a while they could just rip their hair out, howl at the moon and collapse in a anguished heap. The undying libido, for most people, must be fed or it becomes a beast that will eat them whole from the inside out. Because eliminating all risk of STDs is virtually impossible on a psychological level, managing risk as intelligently as possible is what the smart money does.

What it really comes down to for negative people who wish to stay that way is trust and an exercise of due caution. Obviously, if you really want to stay negative, you should not have sex ever with a person you don't know well enough to trust 1001% that they are telling you the truth about their status. The real key would seem to be limiting the number of your partners, and only interacting with partners you can trust absolutely. A person could then have oral sex without a condom and also without fear of HIV. But sticking to that requires a lot of self-discipline. What's better; going hog wild at every occasion and winding up infected, or being extremely cautious and yet managing to have really hot, satisfying sex and staying negative?

Now, it's understood that a pornographic film is depicting fantasy scenes. Michael and others are to be saluted for always using condoms for anal sex, but really, oral sex with condoms is as big a dud visually as it is in real life. If porno were consistently ultra-vanilla, with men not kissing, not sucking, not doing anything with each other's cum, it would be as stimulating as Disneyland on a rainy day.

That isn't to say that viewers should copy everything they see in a fantasy pornographic scene in their real lives. Every negative person has a responsibility to himself to remain negative, and every positive person has a responsibility to be honest about his status with his partners.

I also think it's a good idea for everybody to stay up-to-date with sexual health information. When in doubt, talk with a trusted doctor who makes no judgment calls but can accurately inform you about the risks of each activity you're considering. When consulting with such an authority, you should be more honest than you normally are with yourself.

One possible solution for a porn studio would be to require that models be tested and then to put only positive with positive and negative with negative. There would be no need for informing the public who is negative and who is positive. There wouldn't even be any need to tell the actors who's who, though of course, the negatives would know they were with other negatives and the positives would know they were with other positives. I however have no idea of the casting logistics of all that.

These are difficult issues that impact all our lives. There are few absolutely correct answers and a whole lot of absolutely wrong ones.

Ironically I have some "pre-condom" porn films where this never happens, yet in many "mainstream porn" films it seems to happen more frequently than ever. Besides Michael's films I have seen it in recent All Worlds and Bel Ami films.

I am going to be selfishly blunt here, but when I watch these videos I know I am not watching them for educational purposes, so when I see the guy ejaculate and then make contact with another guy's mouth, I find it extremely hot (I am thinking of Mario Ortiz in Dangerous Liasons, or another performer who does it with Michael Lucas in one of his early Fire Island films.)

I concur with Scott Rose that oral transmission of HIV with a positive partner has a low risk factor. I am nowhere near as informed as he is, but the little research I have done bears this out. I don't mind that Monsieur Lucas gives his performers lattitude, within strict parameters, regarding the level of risk they choose to take on. I think that gives the films a level of playfullness that might not have been there otherwise. I will also agree with Richard that seeing a performer clean off his partner's cock after ejaculation is very, very hot.

Dear Michael,
Herewith I would like to thank you for your sincere answer and that you gave my message honest attention in your blog. I´m gratefull for this. The reason for my question arose while concerning contracting HIV, in The Netherlands we are educated to not have intercourse without a condom and not receive sperm from a partner in your mouth. By reading everybodies replies (thanks Maggie, Scott, Richard, David, really appreciate it) I realize it´s a complex issue, and it´s important to keep having honest, open discussions about it. So that in the end we are well informed and (to put it in your words) should use our common sense, good judgement, and our beliefs to draw our own (sexual) lines in life. Thanks again, and did I mention me and fellow Dutch friends love your movies :-)) Jake