American Sexpress Card: Don't jump in bed without it, founder says

According to the NY Daily News:

Call it a license to thrill.

Sexually active New Yorkers looking to wise up before turning the
lights down can verify their partners' sexual health status with a
simple glance in their wallet.

Manhattan-based company STFree Certifications provides its
health-conscious customers a sexual history "license" with a phone
number on the back that enables them to prove their testing backgrounds
to potential partners.

More than 15,000 people nationwide have signed up for the STFree
service, launched in 2004 by Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, native Eli
Dancy.

Dancy, a former club promoter, said he saw "a lot of irresponsibility"
in his neighborhood and created the STFree card to help raise awareness.

"In places like where I grew up and where I worked, there are
incredibly high HIV and STD rates," said Dancy, 28. "This card opens up
the conversation for people to talk about it."

Nearly one-third of New Yorkers with multiple sex partners regularly
have sex without condoms, government statistics show. More than 100,000
New Yorkers have HIV or AIDS.

"People in our community don't take the time to check each other, and
it puts a lot of lives at risk," said Harlem resident Tawanna Jones, 23.

At registration, which can be completed online or inside an STFree van
that travels citywide, program subscribers must provide a detailed
sexual profile and be tested.

To access the testing history of an STFree cardholder, partners must
have access to the phone number located on the back of the card as well
as to a PIN number provided only to the STFree member.

"This card will keep people from lying and get it all out in the open,"
said Bronx beautician Lorna Smith, 51, who lives in the borough with
the highest AIDS death toll citywide.

"It will let you know who's safe, and who's not. It's definitely a good
idea," said fireproofer Eric Lopez, 28, of Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

STFree members pay a one-time $19.99 fee for the service - which Dancy said will allow more people to join.

"Our goal is to make it easy for people to get this done," said Dancy,
who works with other HIV/AIDS and sexual health programs to encourage
people to get tested.

"We have to fix this epidemic," he said. "With this, we can start."