FSC Outlines Goals of New Performer Health Program

STUDIO CITY, Calif. — The Free Speech Coalition on Thursday gave an overview of its new health program called Adult Production Health and Safety Services (APHSS) during a meeting of adult industry stakeholders.

The goal of the program is to provide reliable STD testing and treatment protocols through a system that is sensitive to the needs of its users. It has been created to fill the gap left by the closure of AIM earlier this month.

APHSS is being spearheaded by FSC Executive Director Diane Duke, FSC attorney Jeffrey Douglas, workplace safety attorney Karen Tynan, clinical virologist Dr. Gary Richwald, Kink.com founder Peter Acworth and Evil Angel general manager Christian Mann.

“What we’re doing is important and good,” Mann told XBIZ.

The meeting, held at the Sportsmen's Lodge, consisted of various adult industry professionals including First Amendment attorney Paul Cambria, performer Nina Hartley, talent agent Mark Spiegler, Girlfriends Films' president Dan O’Connell and others.

“We need something to replace AIM,” Spiegler said. “It wasn’t perfect, but it was unique and a good-faith attempt to help the talent. They [APHSS] will have real medical people doing the testing and they will not give out any medical information.”

The FSC will coordinate, provide oversight and receive input from stakeholders through an advisory council. The advisory council, which will be made up of performers, producers and agents, is projected to be in place by June 30. Dr. Richwald will provide medical consultation.

“This is a big project, but I think they can pull it off,” Cambria said. “They understand the issues and the critics and they have the benefit of superior medical and legal advice.”

Duke said APHSS will provide performers a list of recommended providers nationwide and will make sure these medical providers understand the unique needs of adult performers. She said these labs will serve the adult client base and “treat performers with the respect they deserve.” The standard three-panel test will check for HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia, and will cost $130.

Duke also said these testing labs will all work from a secure database that ensures performer privacy and protects producers’ liability.

The database will only provide information on whether the performer is available for work and no medical information will be disclosed.

“We’re starting from scratch,” Duke said. “We need to start populating the database.”

Acworth, who has years of experience dealing with hackers on Kink.com, is handling the technical side of the database. He said he is confident in it because it doesn’t contain any sensitive data. But he’s still taking steps to ensure its security.

“We’re putting in safeguards to prevent brute force attack and a two-stage login process to prevent phishing,” he said.

Performers can now pre-register to part of the APHSS database here. Once the database is launched it will be populated with information gathered from the pre-registration. Pre-registration for producers and agents will begin soon.

The cost for performers is $50 per year; for producers and FSC members it’s $150 per month; or $250 per month for non-members of FSC. 

For more information, contact Joanne@freespeechcoalition.com.