Porn Panic 2012, The Series Rolls On: Shy Love Proves She Has Some Nukes, Too: Dissolves ATMLA, Rejoins LATATA, Who Then Gives APHSS The Boot

It just got real.  Again.

Yesterday, Shoe #1 dropped when Shy Love announced that she was dissolving her porn talent agency group, Adult Talent Management-Los Angeles (ATM), and rejoining the larger collective of talent agencies, The Licensed Adult Talent Agents Trade Association (LATATA), which comprises the majority of adult trade agencies.

I had initially wondered what that was all about, since Love was the leader of the sternest critics of the moves of the Free Speech Coalition and Manwin, the conglomerate of porn production companies, to consolidate performer testing through their Adult Performer Health and Safety Services (APHSS), and in particular Cutting Edge Testing (CET), the company which was formed by former associates of Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Foundation after the latter was driven out of business by attacks by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) in pursuit of their goal of imposing mandatory condom usage by porn performers.

Love and her agency had previously favored a rival testing org, Talent Testing Services (TTS), which had became the go-to agency for testing in the breach between the closing of AIM and the founding of CET.

Problem was, CET had not only the backing of FSC/APHSS, but then got some serious reinforcement when Manwin announced their plans to strengthen and redefine testing protocols across the board...and promptly threw their weight behind CET not only by instituting the APHSS protocols, but endorsing CET as the exclusive source of testing for their shoots.

This is because the APHSS protocols do not currently allow TTS as an APHSS-certified agency, due to some disputes over testing procedures between FSC and TTS...and some other past .

Mostly, over the "outbreak" of last year, in which a performer was originally first tested positive for HIV, then later cleared when the original test turned out to be a false positive due to supplemental testing done by FSC/APHSS. It turned out that the initial testing was done by another agency, but TTS was involved in the follow up that resulted in some confusion over the exact status of the performer...and it wasn't until APHSS intervened with their own tests that the matter was cleared up.

In the minds of FSC/APHSS, this proved that only consolidation of testing to one company with stringent standards across the board would prevent future clusterfucks..and that probably explains why they supported the development of Cutting Edge as the gold standard of testing.

Problem is on that, though?? Many performers and agents were quite happy with Talent Testing, and they feared that FSC/APHSS was attempting to reestablish an monopoly on testing and limit competition and testing..and the actions of Manwin only deepened their fears.

And apparently, Shy's won the rest of the agents over to her view, too...because cue The Other Shoe Dropping...or maybe it should be, The Other Boot Kicking (via AdultFYI):

LATATA Withdraws Support from APHSS Over TTS Issue

Los Angeles, CA– The Licensed Adult Talent Agents Trade Association (LATATA) announces its formal withdrawal of support from APHSS, the subsidiary organization set up by the FSC - (Free Speech Coalition).

APHSS was initiated after the closure of AIM, as a mechanism through which to administrate testing for performers in the adult industry. LATATA believes APHSS position in refusing to allow Talent Testing Service (TTS) to become a member of APHSS to be a grievously wrong one.

LATATA's position is that TTS has provided the industry with reliable and good service for many years and LATATA's hope is that may continue. Many in the industry will recall that during the time that AIM Health Care was providing testing services to the industry, Talent Testing Service was providing this service concurrently alongside them. Performers enjoyed their ability to choose which facility they wished to have provide them the industries required medical testing.

At the time of AIM’s forced closure, after pressure and interference from AIDS Health Care Foundation (AHF), TTS was, for a period of time, the only available testing facility to the adult industry, and the industry was immensely grateful to have TTS available as an alternate for AIM at that time. Without them, one can only wonder where performers would have turned for their testing requirements.

LATATA firmly believes that it is imperative that the industry never again, allow itself to be in such a position where its testing needs are serviced and provided by only one testing facility, and therefore, inclusion of both testing facilities that currently service the industry - Talent Testing Service (TTS) and Cutting Edge Testing (CET) - are necessary in any program that purports to provide assistance and or a framework for performers’ testing needs and related matters.

Despite formidable effort from members of LATATA to bridge the gaps and mediate differences between APHSS and TTS, such efforts have not been successful. Absent APHSS admitting TTS to the organization, it is LATATA’s position that it can no longer support APHSS itself, and announces its withdrawal of support and participation in APHSS. LATATA continues to support TTS’ continued service to the industry and the performers within it.

LATATA also wishes to make clear that withdrawing its support for and participation in, the APHSS program, in no way alters or changes its continued support and gratitude for The Free Speech Coalition itself and the work that it does to benefit all within the adult entertainment industry.

As of June 2012, LATATA members are comprised of the following agencies: LA Direct Models, Spiegler Girls, Foxxx Modeling, Type 9 Models and ATMLA.

There have been two reasons given by APHSS as to why TTS wasn't originally allowed into the APHSS orbit: 1) The lack of an accredited doctor at their testing facilities to verify the validity and accuracy of their tests; and 2) the fear that TTS would report any initial "reactive" or "positive" HIV test to the LA County Department of Public Health, which is required by law, before actually verifying the test with followup testing....which would, in FSC/APHSS's mind, cause not only a protracted shutdown of production, but would also give more fuel to AHF and their condom mandate campaign. AHF already has passed a mandate law in the city of Los Angeles (not being enforced currently pending the LA City Council approving guidelines on enforcement, as well as inevitable lawsuits); and an initiative for instituting the mandate across Los Angeles County is now on the ballot for September.  That fear was reinforced due to the 2009 "panic" involving a positive HIV test of a performer that turned out not to have been infected while shooting; because AIM had been summoned by LACDPH to release to them private records of performers as part of the latter's investigation. A local judge ultimately squashed that effort, citing the federal HIPPA act protecting medical records privacy.

TTS's response has been that the requirement for a doctor can be fulfilled through the performer's private doctor or other authority verifying the test, and that they are bound by California state law to reveal positive/"reactive" tests anyway. They have also questioned the security of the database that is used by APHSS, fearing that someone could breach it and reveal performer's private information, just as was done to Desi Foxx during the bad old days of the original Porn Wikileaks. Mostly, though, they see the alliance of Manwin and FSC/APHSS/CET as not-so-thinly-veiled pressure to crowd out TTS and reimpose a one-company monopoly on testing..and they also fear Manwin's history of buying every porn outlet in sight and also promoting free filesharing -- what others see as a perilous permissiveness towards "piracy" that is draining legitimate performers dry.

You could say that this announcement by the now reunited LATATA is their way of saying to Manwin/FSC/APHSS: "Not. So. Fucking. FAST. Buddies. You may have the bank, but we have some tricks ourselves...let's resolve this, and in a hurry."

There is going to be a grand meeting of agents, performers, and other bigwigs coming up this weekend rehashing the entire brohaha over performer testing. After today, it just got just a bit more interesting. As in...a lot.

UPDATE:..XBiz.com now has a story up at their site on the bustout of LATATA from APHSS, and also adds this initial statement of reaction from FSC:

"The Free Speech Coalition welcomes the opportunity to have Talent Testing Services (TTS) as part of our APHSS program. FSC and TTS have come together on some issues but differ on the necessity of initial physician involvement in ordering the test and the provision of results. In the unfortunate case that a performer may test positive for Chlamydia or Gonorrhea, FSC believes that it is important for a performer to be able to get immediate treatment when he or she receives his or her test results. And if a performer tests positive for HIV, FSC believes it is crucial to get that information from a physician.

"FSC supports having a broad range of providers. To date, APHSS participants include 1 clinic (St James) in San Francisco, 2 clinics (Vegas STD Testing) in Las Vegas, 1 clinic (Cutting Edge Testing) in Sherman Oaks, Calif., and Advanced Medical Testing Center (AMTC) with physicians in every state and 4,000 locations nationwide.

"We encourage a continued dialogue with TTS and believe that ultimately, the health and well-being of our performers is everyone’s priority."

Initial attempts at getting TTS into the system were rebuffed by TTS over those very issues. Let's see if this latest sortie of bombs clears heads enough to settle this.

i[Now crossposted over at The Real Porn Wikileaks]

Porn Panic 2012: Mark Kernes Of AVN Sheds New Light On How The LA "Condom Nazis" Now More Resemble "Keystone Kops" In Pushing Condom Mandate Law

Some new info has now been discovered on the now delayed process of the city of Los Angeles to enforce their new condom mandate law, which was supposed to be in full effect by now, but is now in limbo due to...well, I'll just let Mark Kernes from Adult Video News Online tell the story.

City Administrative Officer Asks For More Time on Condom Regs

After all, they've only had about four months to figure out that the new ordinance is completely unworkable

LOS ANGELES—In a letter issued Wednesday, LA City Administrative Officer (CAO) Miguel Santana has asked the City Council to give his "Working Group on the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Ordinance" an extra 90 days—on top of the 120 days they've already had—to figure out how to implement and enforce the mandatory condom ordinance which AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) first tried (at great expense) to put on the June 5 city ballot, and then urged members of the City Council to enact preemptively as city law.

The CAO had been scheduled to deliver its final report to the Council on May 16, though at the Working Group meeting of May 11, it was announced that the report was not ready, and that another meeting was to be scheduled the following week. However, that meeting never took place.

As Santana's letter to Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa and the City Council notes, the Working Group has held three meetings, the first of which was not attended by anyone from the adult industry due to the failure of the City Administrative Officer's office to properly advertise it. The second meeting lasted just over half an hour, one third of which was devoted to comments from the attendees, and third meeting (which likewise was not given proper notification) took just 20 minutes, half of which were devoted to speakers from the audience.

Of course, it's likely that some of the CAO office's time outside the meetings was devoted to figuring out how to make the ordinance work, but however much that was, it apparently wasn't enough. Apparently, one of the main problems to be solved, aside from the "complexities of this issue," is figuring out who will perform the inspections—or as the letter puts it, "the need to further address the implementation matters"—that the ordinance requires of adult movie sets, and it was clear at the second Working Group meeting that neither the Los Angeles Police Department, Fire Department, Personnel Department, the LA County Department of Public Health, CalOSHA nor the permit-issuing agency FilmLA wanted the job, which led AHF's representative at the meeting, Mark Roy McGrath, to suggest that the CAO might want to issue an RFP (Request for Proposal) to the public in order to find some group both willing and capable of performing the task... which critics of the law have long suggested might be AIDS Healthcare itself.

In any case, with no resolution to that problem on the horizon, Santana recommended "That the Council, subject to the approval of the Mayor, authorize a 90 day extension for the Working Group to Report to Council on the City's ability to implement and enforce the Safer Sex in The Adult Film Industry Ordinance."

To read Santana's entire letter, click here.

 The most interesting point that Kernes makes is that not even the LAPD's Vice Department is so keen to enforcing this law...even though it was them whom launched the "raid" on Dan Leal's Immoral Productions the night before the third meeting, promptly citing him for a lack of a proper permit.

Actually, the most interesting point is not that, but the offer of AHF to have the CAO do a RFP to outsource enforcement of the law to another group -- namely, AHF or some sockpuppet group, I suppose. Remember that AHF had already agreed to foot the bill for all legal challenges to the law (and rest assured, there will be a plenty of legal challenges). Would they be so willing to invest more of their own money to allow for enforcement?

Or, would they rely solely on the money gained by requiring anyone with a camcorder and a commercial website to buy a permit before they could even shoot a camshow? (Not just major porn companies, Clones....ANYONE running an adult website out of their house who tapes themselves engaging in real sex would be liable to either buy a permit or face harsh fines or even jail.)

And, keep also in mind that California is pretty damn broke right about now, with budget cuts coming down the line that will more than force cutting at the local level as well.

Bottom line is this: would AHF be willing to put its money where Mike Weinstein's big foot is lodged and risk their other enterprises in order to fund their own personal Condom Police Unit? Or...will Weinstein simply double up his thrift stores with more bareback gay porn to sell to make up the difference, or squeeze more AIDS Walks funds...or even more shakedown lawsuits to get more cash??

Curioser and curiouser, sayeth Alice. And I ain't talking Sunny Lane's Alice, either.  Stay tuned....the fun may just be starting.


UPDATE:  Well, The Free Speech Coalition just tweeted this in response to a tweet I did about AHF's fund raising efforts:

FreeSpeechCoalition ‏@FSCArmy

@Anthony_JK @AIDSHealth AHF's annual budget is $187M - they're good at getting funding; other HIV orgs call them the "Walmart" of HIV orgs

FreeSpeechCoalition ‏@FSCArmy

@Anthony_JK @AIDSHealth for enforcement staffing ;-) Does Weinstein want to be the porn czar?

 Yeah....Michael Weinstein as "Porn Czar". With Monica Foster and Shelley Lubben as his aides. And Gail Dines as Chief Policy Advisor. That's not very scary.