Lauren Weiniger Discusses Safely App for Performer Testing

LOS ANGELES—For Michigan native Madi Laine, the routine is always the same. Whenever she’s booked for a scene, the first-year porn star arrives in Los Angeles 48 hours before her shoot and immediately drives to one of the clinics approved by the Free Speech Coalition to get tested for STDs. “After that,” Laine says, “I basically sit around for two days. There’s not much I can do except quarantine and wait for the results.” The process can be annoying and cumbersome for any adult star—especially ones who don’t reside in LA. But it could soon change. The FSC announced this month that it has rubber-stamped “Safely,” a new mobile app that can schedule STD tests for performers at thousands of reputable labs and clinics throughout the country. Most importantly, the results are then integrated into the PASS (Performer Availability Screening Services) system and can be accessed by directors before they proceed with a shoot. Currently only two western cities—Los Angeles and Las Vegas—are aligned with PASS, a program the FSC strongly encourages studios to monitor the health of their adult stars. “This is going to make things so much easier,” Laine said. “So much more convenient.” Indeed, no more flying into Vegas or California two days early and incurring additional hotel and meal expenses. And no more sitting in that notorious rush hour traffic or paying insane Uber fees for rides to one of the few clinics in the city that uses PASS. With “Safely,” a performer in, say, South Carolina can book a same-day appointment to get screened in her hometown. Before she ever gets on a plane a few days later, her director in LA will have already viewed her results. Along with the standard PASS panel of HIV, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and hepatitis B and C, the “Safely” panel will also include a test for COVID-19. “If you’re a performer living in LA right next to one of the two clinics (affiliated with PASS), you’ll probably still go there, and that’s fine,” Lauren Weiniger, Safely’s CEO and co-founder, said. “But we’ll have such a larger footprint. We are a national healthcare company with labs within spitting distance of almost anywhere in the country.” Weiniger, who grew up in Atlanta, has long been passionate about sexual health. In high school she was part of a volunteer group who gave sex education seminars to inner city kids and inmates at juvenile detention centers. After graduating from the University of Oxford, she moved to New York after college for a job in finance and, a bit later, biotech. About four years ago, though, Weiniger’s career path changed. Thirty-years-old and newly single,  Weiniger hated the uneasiness of not knowing the sexual health status of the men she dated. Even worse, she said, was the judgmental, shameful tone of the physicians at the local health clinic she visited after a one-night stand. “I just wanted a test,” she said, “and they made me feel like I was going to die tomorrow, like I was the biggest slut in the world. Those are the things that keep people from getting tested. “I just thought, ‘There’s got to be an easier way to do this.’ And I also wanted there to be a less-awkward way to ask someone if they’d been tested and to know what the results were.” Just like that, the idea for the Safely app was hatched, and Weiniger began to put her plan into motion. It wasn’t always easy. For nearly three years, she and her employees worked tirelessly to incorporate their technology with national brands such as Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp. Then came the hiring of licensed physicians in all 50 states, making the service attainable for literally anyone in the country. Here’s how things work: After downloading the app for free and having their identity verified, users enter their zip code and fill out an easy questionnaire. A list then appears of clinics and labs close to the user’s home. Once a location is selected, the user is given a list of available appointment times to have blood drawn. Negative test results simply flow into the app and are available to be saved and shared. If a test comes back positive or out of range, a physician contacts the patient and makes plans for treatment. “It’s super simple and inexpensive,” Weiniger said, “and it eliminates that initial doctor visit, where they ask you all those awkward questions. Our physician services are all virtual. You don’t have to talk to them. There’s no need for that. “We’re not in the business of judging. We’re in the business of keeping people safe. These are actionable things we can do that, collectively, can drastically change the world.” Weiniger said the idea to partner with the FSC and, thus, the adult industry came after a chat with Alison Boden, the CEO of Kink.com and a FSC board member. Boden was impressed with Weiniger after hearing her talk about her product during a panel discussion at Serendipity, a global leadership conference for women in tech. “I saw the potential (Safely) had to expand access to PASS within the adult industry,” Boden said. “In the past few years, our industry has grown dramatically as technology has enabled production to expand beyond key industry hubs like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and South Florida. “In the past year alone, as a result of COVID-related work stoppages, we saw a huge rise in independent production across the country. PASS is an incredible system, but to meet the needs of our evolving industry, it needs to be accessible to people no matter where they live. Safely offers a way to do that without sacrificing the principles or protections it provides for adult performers.” Weiniger said she appreciated Boden’s positivity and encouragement, and she agreed that Safely was a perfect fit for the adult industry. “I thought it was the perfect partnership with a group that’s long been doing what the rest of  the world should be doing in terms of testing,” Weiniger said. “They’ve done such a great job of keeping the (adult) industry safe. There’s a lot to learn from that.” Weiniger noted there’s an item in the questionnaire that says, ‘Is an STD test required for work?’ Adult stars are instructed to answer “yes” so that a more comprehensive panel can be ordered from their clinic. They will also be asked if they want their results to be made available in the PASS system. The Safely app launched in July, and the portion pertaining to performers and PASS will be incorporated on Jan. 1, Weiniger said. “Porn has already driven so much innovation,” Weiniger said. “In the adult industry, getting tested is already de-stigmatized, and because of that they’ve been very successful at keeping rates really low. “This is a super opportunity to bring this service to a large number of individuals who are already supportive of the idea of getting tested frequently, and thereby empowering women to embrace their sexuality and sexual health.”