It is the best of times and the worst of times for sex workers. OnlyFans, Modetize, and other new platforms allow adult entertainers like myself to film, edit, and distribute our content. For the first time in porn history, girls are earning most of the profits. Simultaneously, FOSTA-SESTA is endangering sex workers, and congressman Mark Meadows and his fellow Republicans are begging Attorney General Bill Barr to enforce ancient obscenity laws that imprisoned pornographers like Larry Flynt. Other hypocritical conservatives are once again painting porn as a “public health crisis.” (Never mind that President Donald Trump allegedly cheated on a pregnant Melania with Stormy Daniels.)
But if porn stars’ greatest fears come true, COVID-19 could lead to an STI outbreak in our beloved but controversial adult community.
Let me explain. As long as I have shot girl/boy porn and reigned as the internet’s favorite dirty stepmom, performers have relied on the Performer Availability Screening Service, or as we more affectionately call it, PASS. Run by the nonprofit porn advocacy group the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), PASS is a network of medical care providers that enters adult performers’ STI test results into a secure private, HIPAA-compliant database. At least 24 hours before a shoot, performers get tested for an STI panel at a PASS-participating medical provider, which enters test results into PASS, labeling if a performer is “clear or not clear” to work. Producers, agents, and co-stars then check if we are clear before shooting. (Following HIPAA laws, the database didn’t show our results, but only if we are clear.)
Porn star Cherie DeVille
HandoutMost importantly, PASS implements a plan of attack if a performer tests positive for HIV. If a star tests positive, FSC uses PASS information and issues a “moratorium” on production until they trace the virus and assure workers are safe. An HIV transmission hasn’t occurred since 2013, and PASS has worked so well, medical experts see it as a possible road map for COVID-19 tracing.
When some porn production resumed in the summer, performers were happy to learn that PASS had added a COVID-19 test to the test panel. Although many porn stars earned a killing during the COVID-19 OnlyFans boom, other girls have struggled to make ends meet. Make-up stylists, directors, and other below-the-line crew members hadn’t received paychecks since March. With Congress declining to renew COVID-19 unemployment benefits, people needed to work. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that the most popular PASS-participating clinic, Talent Testing Service, pulled out of PASS for unknown reasons. (Talent Testing Service and the Free Speech Coalition did not return requests for comment.) This decision turned the adult industry into the Wild West. Many performers have continued to get tested at Talent Testing Service. A few performers have brought printed test results to set. Some directors have forced performers to log in to their online medical performer and show their results, but not every director works with a conscience. According to accounts I’ve heard, a few directors aren’t checking tests at all, leaving it to the talent to navigate.
This scenario quickly turned into a disaster. On July 31, the Free Speech Coalition announced that several crewmembers contracted COVID-19 on set. “Because the testing was done outside of PASS, there has not been adequate accounting of the incidents or ease of tracing the results,” the Free Speech Coalition’s representative said at the time. “We do not know the identities of the performers or crew involved, but the lack of disclosure around such incidents is concerning.”
Replace COVID-19 with HIV and the Free Speech Coalition’s statement is, for lack of better words, fucking frightening.
The entire industry knows Talent Testing Service pulled out of PASS, but we have kept relying on their tests because we’ve used them for a decade. But we only used PASS-participating tests for a reason. A test must enter PASS so doctors can trace illnesses within the porn community and call for shooting moratoriums. If Talent Testing Service isn’t in PASS, they might as well be Quest Diagnostics, your local Planned Parenthood, or another free clinic.
The Free Speech Coalition has promised to work with agents to address these problems. They think porn agents will talk to their clients, then relay their medical information to other agents. I’m not mad at the FSC because they are strongly recommending people not to return to work. But I wonder if they have ever met a porn agent? Most porn agents’ interest in their clients begins and ends with how much they’re bringing their agency every week. Furthermore, it’s against HIPAA rules for agents to disclose their clients’ medical information.
Perhaps, this approach would have worked in the ’90s. Back then, the porn industry consisted of a hundred people in the San Fernando Valley. They took care of each other like a family, or perhaps more accurately, like a gang. They worked together, fucked each other, and socialized together. They knew when someone was sick, and they policed each other’s behavior. (If you escorted, you were blacklisted because the community believed prostitution could bring illnesses into the workforce.) But today, porn is global. Girls are shooting everywhere from Paris, Texas, to Perris, California. Porn insiders can’t monitor tens of thousands of people the way they once monitored a hundred blondes in the valley. We need a system to protect workers—and yes, sex workers are workers.
Porn is creating an unsafe work environment for its workers. I respect the performers choosing to work because I believe in workers’ autonomy, so I have hesitated to speak about this issue. People can take risks. People are allowed to gamble. I am not advocating for shutting down porn, but I want to educate workers on the dangers of relying on a test outside of PASS.
Right now, I am scared to return to work. I am privileged to live in a household with stable finances, but like millions of Americans stuck on Zoom in their bedroom, I miss the workplace. I miss my coworkers. I miss my friends. Until a co-star tests clear at a PASS provider, I will refrain from sets. So far, nobody is meeting my goal, and it’s a damn shame because solutions exist. Cutting Edge Testing still participates in PASS. Friends have told me they’ve preferred to use Talent Testing Service still because it offers cheaper COVID-19 tests. But if an STI outbreak brings down the porn industry, none of us will make money. We shouldn’t say “Fuck PASS” over a $20 COVID-19 test.
Porn is a regulated industry that’s seen as sketchy, and we’re unintentionally reinforcing negative stereotypes about our business. Right now, with so much conservative hate, the porn industry is playing with fire. It only takes one HIV-positive test outside of PASS for HIV to spread through the industry. Republicans call us a “public health risk.” If we drop the ball on our testing, break known HIPAA rules, and just keep on shooting, how does that look? It would give conservatives fuel for their fire—and rightfully so, to be honest. We will become the public health crisis they say we are.
