FSC Issues Update on HIV+ Case

LOS ANGELES—The Free Speech Coalition posted the following update today to the FSC blog and FSC/PASS website regarding the performer who has tested HIV positive: On Friday, a performer who had worked in the adult industry tested positive for HIV during the mandated fourteen-day industry screening. Since then, there has been a lot of speculation about the performer — including a name — in both social media and on blogs, a fair amount of it unfounded and some of it ugly. The performer deserves privacy and dignity at this difficult time, and we ask that our colleagues and the media respect the performer’s wishes for privacy unless he or she wishes to speak. Understandably, the larger performer pool is concerned about whether they’ve been affected or exposed. Due to HIPPA regulations, the PASS doctor working with the performer can not discuss any specifics of the performer’s case with the public, or even with us, so be wary of rumors. We can, however, tell you this: * All first-generation contacts (people with whom the performer had contact, on-set or off, that could have transmitted the virus, within the window of the last negative test) have been contacted and tested. * We should have all results of those tests by early next week. We’ll alert you as we know. * The positive performer is working with the testing doctors to determine a timeline and genealogy of the virus, and to determine if the performer pool was exposed. That said, we want to remind those who would point fingers — either at the performer or his or her work — is that HIV is a virus, not a moral issue. It affects all people, and all populations, and occupations; all of them deserve compassion. Whoever this performer is, he or she is one of our own, and should be treated with the same respect and dignity that we’d want for ourselves in this situation. We will release more information as we are able.