Written by Gustavo Turner
Mar 17, 2020
LOS ANGELES — Several adult performers, including Adult Performers Actors Guild (APAG) president Alana Evans, have announced the imminent launch of Performer Training, a self-coordinated talent training and certification platform.
The platform, which is being finalized this week, is being launched in response to AB2389, the proposed “Sex Worker License” California bill, which would mandate state intervention in the training, certification and oversight of all adult performers, including porn performers, cam models and clip artists and strippers.
The platform will be found at the web address performer.training and is targeted to people who want to join the adult industry, and also those who are already part of the adult industry but have questions.
Performer Training is being developed by a coalition of performers with experience in many fields of adult entertainment including Alana Evans, Chad White, Amberly Rothfield, Kelly Pierce and Nikki Night.
“Each of us will offer insight and education to help shape our courses,” Evans told XBIZ. “We are also in discussions with the feature dancers’ union, Soldiers of Pole, to include education and training for dancers.”
For the performers behind this new platform — which has been in the works since 2018 but has been fast-tracked in the past month after California Assemblymember Cristina Garcia introduced AB2389 — creating this self-regulated educational tool is a crucial political gesture.
“When news of California’s AB2389 hit, we were devastated to learn that politicians, who have no real understanding of how our industry works, would try to force background checks, fingerprinting and other unneeded regulation on our performers,” the coalition of performers state this week in a letter introducing Performer Training to the community.
Responding to Assemblymember Garcia’s assertion that the goal of AB2389 — which was initially drafted by retired performer and International Entertainment Adult Union (IEAU) Secretary Phyllisha Anne — is to educate and inform those in the industry of their rights and health-and-safety issues, Performer Training attempts to offer an answer to those concerns that does not mandate state intervention or unnecessary data collecting on sex workers.
“If in fact that is true, and this bill is just about education,” the Performer Training group said, “then we’re happy to announce that a team of industry professionals has been working on this very issue since 2018.”
Stigma-Free Information
The project, according to its designers, “would educate and inform adult performers on a variety of important subjects such as STDs, breast cancer awareness, sexual harassment, performers’ rights, talent agents, 2257 and human trafficking.”
“This is not something that was thrown together at the last minute,” the team added, in an unspoken criticism of AB2839, “or that will cost the taxpayers of the state of California more than a million dollars to put together. It’s something that, with the help of a dedicated group of adult industry professionals, we were able to put together and fine-tune over time.”
“We don’t need to milk the taxpayers to do something we as an industry can provide,” the group adds.
The online courses and certification programs that will be offered through Performer Training include stigma-free information for sex workers which have been gathered by their peers from top-level sources like the Centers for Disease Control (STD prevention and treatment), the California Department of Labor (talent agents, sexual harassment education), the US Department of Health and Human Services (human trafficking) and similar scientific and government institutions.
The group has also consulted with attorneys with experience in the adult industry, medical professionals, experienced performers and production companies, talent agents and performer advocacy groups.
Any person who wishes to work or is currently working in the adult industry can visit the Performer Training website and register for a free account.
The initial curriculum covers:
- A basic understanding of the adult industry structure
- Performer Rights
- Talent Safety
- Sexual Harassment
- Talent Agents
- Working with Production Companies
- A basic primer on social media
- The laws regarding creating your own content
- Extensive STD/STI information (Herpes, HPV, HIV/AIDS, Gonorrhea, Syphilis)
- Adult Industry Testing Protocols
- Breast Cancer awareness
- Human Trafficking
- The laws regarding 2257s and Model Releases Forms
- Saving Money and Paying Taxes
The Performer Training team is also working to expand their current offerings and provide additional information through experts.
Self-Regulation vs. State Intervention
Once a performer completes an online course, they will receive a certificate of certification that they can provide to their talent agent, or production companies to show that they have completed the course.
“Our class is online and works via the web or on all mobile devices,” the group explained. “Our certification program is free. To ensure the courses are available to everyone , because not everyone can afford the classes on their own, we give them out for free. All funding for the certification classes has been provided by adult industry production companies. In addition, we store a copy of the certificate of certification so that any studio, director, producer, or talent agent who wishes to verify that a person has taken our course may do so.”
For longtime performer and Performer Training co-designer Chad White, the self-regulation aspect is key.
White told XBIZ that regardless of what the supporters of AB2389 may now say, and even with amendments proposed by groups trying to work with Assemblyperson Garcia, the licensing process mandated by the bill will put the performers’ private information at risk.
“I am familiar with the Nevada system of ‘stripper cards,'” White said, referring to the “sheriff’s card” that dancers need to obtain before they can dance in the state’s clubs, “and it is useless when it comes to protecting talent from stalkers.”
“I know for a fact that anyone can obtain the full public record of the dancer in two or three hours as long as they know their legal name,” White added. “This includes addresses, phone numbers, or whatever else the state asked them for to get their card.”
For more information on Performer Training, keep checking their website, which is set to go live as soon as final work on it has been completed.
