Brett Rossi Issues a Statement about HIV and PrEP

I want to start by saying I am an advocate for HIV+ individuals and have personally fought to end the stigma, however I am NOT an advocate for irresponsibility. I am an advocate for health & safety. I am an advocate for the sex industry.

I tweeted something yesterday that has given many of you reasons to be concerned and you should be. The industry deserves to know, performers DESERVE to know what is going on inside of our industry. We deserve the right to work in a safe work environment.

A little background on my passion about this topic: I almost married an HIV+ individual. I was lied to, I didn’t get to make an informed decision to have sex with someone who had HIV without becoming emotionally attached prior. I took “Prep” for 3 years before it was even called “Prep” and it was just one of the little blue pills of the “cocktail” my (then) fiance would take called: Truvada. It was just an experiment. An experiment that I was advised by even the best doctors NOT to participate in. I worked with the best doctors at UCLA and cedars-sinai and I believe “Prep” saved my life but Prep is NOT a one all, cure-all. Prep is for monogamous individuals who practice safe sex.

Prep was expensive. Prep was costic on my body with side effects I still experience now even being off the medication for years such as excessive diarrhea, weight loss, daily migraines, stomach aches, raches, and over feeling of malaise. Not to mention specifically relied on both me AND my partner taking both medications religiously and living a healthy lifestyle.

My partner was responsible for MY well being in that, he HAD to take his medication responsibly and he HAD to live a healthy lifestyle to keep his viral load down on the chances of infection me (even with being on Prep) were high.

Now, yesterday I was contacted by (NAME REDACTED) via text at the FSC who told me that my information was incorrect and he was upset because I was discouraging people from the pass system. That is NOT my intentions, but my intentions are to keep the industry safe. He then gave me information that was even more frightening:

He told me that FSC is actually creating a testing system specifically for HIV+ performers because it was the “gay side” that is was prevalent on and that “hiv+ performers deserve the right to have standardized testing as well”.

My questions are these:

Haven’t we always been told “the gay and mainstream side have the same testing standards and protocols”?
WHY are there hiv+ individuals perfroming?
WHY is the FSC creating a system that would essentially encourage more individuals with HIV to feel comfortable performing?
HOW do they expect to keep a controlled talent pool?

The problem with creating two pools of performers is this: cross over work has been widely accepted in mainstream porn now days and that’s awesome, but the risk of having the two pools mix is large the factors weigh too heavily to even risk it. Each side is important. The gay side matters too. The trans side matters. The straight side matters. Every side matters and EVERY side should have a safe and HIV FREE work enviornment.

If a pilot loses his license, he can on longer fly. If a porn performer has an STI they can not perform. It’s not discriminatory, it’s common sense. It’s factual. It’s smart.

I’m sorry if oyu guys felt frightened by my information, but having experienced what it was like to not only be lied to about being with someone who was hiv+, I felt the rest of the industry needed to know what is going on. It is not a game. Sexually transmitted diseases are REAL and not something that we should strive to accept in our business. We should protect ourselves. We should be smart. We should make educated and well informed decisions.

That’s all I have to say about the matter.
Sincerely, Brett Rossi