On May 11, I read this in the Tarot cards www.adultcybermart.com/StoryAdultIndustrySwami.html: Free Speech Coalition: AIM is dead. At least AIM as we know it. But how about the Free Speech Coalition? Their work and goals seem to be heavily favored. “This organization has the luck card very much with them. Unlike the AVN and XBiz leadership which appears to be in flux, FSC looks fairly rock solid…
Look for either a physical move of headquarters or moves simply in the sense of changing URL addresses or web servers. The financial card looks particularly strong for them as FSC seems to be working on a new revenue stream.”
By Jove, I think they’ve found it:
from www.dailynews.com – A health program that requires porn stars and other performers to be tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases will now be overseen by an adult entertainment industry trade organization.
The Free Speech Coalition, a group based in Canoga Park, announced Thursday it will continue some of the health protocols established by the well-known Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation before it closed earlier this month.
Known as AIM, the 12-year-old clinic shut its doors due to financial hardship, co-founder Sharon Mitchell said in a statement released to Adult Video News on May 5.
“With the closure of the AIM clinic earlier this month, a crucial gap was left in the industry’s system for self-regulation and for protecting the health and safety of the performers,” according to a statement by the Free Speech Coalition.
“The absence of an established (sexually transmitted infection) testing protocol for adult productions is unacceptable.”
Performers will continue to be tested for HIV and other STDs once a month. Their results will be entered into a database where adult entertainment filmmakers can check on the actors or actresses’ health status.
But there will be some differences from AIM, said Diane Duke, the executive director for the Free Speech Coalition.
The new program will be called the Adult Production Health & Safety Services or APHSS and will be available nationwide through a thoroughly researched network of clinics and laboratories.
The new program is expected to be up in a few days, she said. From 1,000 to 2,000 performers are expected to get tested. But unlike AIM, there won’t be a clinic to go to.
Instead, performers can choose from a network of pre-screened clinics or other providers, she said.
Duke and members of her board said they are well aware that their work may be criticized.
In the last several months, AIM had been accused of withholding information about HIV infections and for allowing a breach in its database that leaked out information on actors. Both accusations were false, said Jeffrey Douglas, an attorney working with the coalition.
The announcement of the new health program comes a day after the Los Angeles City Council in a 10-0 vote planned to ask state and county officials to allow Los Angeles to make the use of condoms on adult-film sets a condition of getting a film permit.