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Archives for April 2018

April 11, 2018 By NBA Staff

Legal prostitution isn’t the problem

(David Colborne) – On April 10, Jason Guinasso’s op-ed advocating the prohibition of prostitution in Nevada was published by The Nevada Independent. In that op-ed, he made several claims, each more spurious than the last:

When I was in high school I recall peers reporting that their dads would take them to the Mustang Ranch as a sort of rite of passage from youth to adult.

When I was in high school, I recall peers “reporting” on “Rainbow Parties” and vodka-infused tampons. Today’s high school students will recall their peers “reporting” on Tide Pods and condom-sniffing. The truth is, high school students enjoy telling tall tales to impress their peers, most of which are apocryphal at best. If you talk to actual fathers — like me — you will find that the vast majority of Nevada’s fathers do not, in fact, take their children to brothels as some sort of rite of passage, and the legality of prostitution plays no part in our decision either way.

The truth is that no little girl dreams of being a prostitute.

That’s probably true. Of course, few also dream of being cashiers, sanitation workers,  bookkeepers or middle management. Sex work is work and is every bit as necessary as any other work. Just as blue collar workers sell their labor to mine and manufacture, and just as athletes sell their labor to entertain and amaze, sex workers sell their labor for the fulfillment of others. In some cases, sex work is even a vital part of therapy; Touching Base, for example, is a non-profit in Australia that seeks to “assist people with disability and sex workers to connect with each other, focusing on access, discrimination, human rights and legal issues and the attitudinal barriers that these two marginalised communities can face.”

No, daddy, really . . . I could start my career now because the average age of a new prostitute in the US prostitution industry is 14!

Sure — in the illegal prostitution industry. In the legal prostitution industry in Nevada, the minimum legal age for sex work ranges from 18 to 21, depending on the county, and this is strictly enforced through the use of mandated work cards and regular health screenings. (This was one of several instances of Mr. Guinasso conflating legal and illegal prostitution, as he did when he talked about physical assault and drug use rates.)

Maybe that is why, in 2016, it was reported that Nevada is one of the 10 worst states for human trafficking, with hundreds of calls to the national hotline each year. Maybe protecting this so-called “Nevada institution” is why Nevada has the seventh highest incidence of rape reported to law enforcement and ranks second across the nation in the rate of women murdered by men, with a rate of 2.29 per 100,000.

It’s true — Nevada has high crime rates, statistically speaking. Nevada’s rate of violent crime in 2016 was 678.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than every state except Alaska, New Mexico and the District of Columbia. This isn’t because of legalized prostitution in rural counties, however — it’s because crime statistics are calculated as occurrences per state population, and Nevada has a high visitor population that isn’t included in these statistics. Consequently, when a tourist commits a crime in Nevada, that counts against Nevada’s statistical crime rate even though the crime wasn’t committed by a Nevada resident.

This doesn’t mean we should shun tourism, but it does mean we should look at Nevada’s crime statistics with a critical eye. Yes, Nevada’s human trafficking numbers are far too high — any instance is one instance too many — but it’s almost certainly more of a function of the more than 50 million visitors that visit Nevada each year than the less than two dozen legal brothels currently doing business in Nevada.

In Lyon County, as reported by the FBI, a woman is 1,660 percent more likely to be raped in Lyon County (a county with legal brothels) than in Carson City (a county with no legal brothels), even though the populations of both are almost identical.

According to the most recent numbers published by the FBI, there were 15 reported rapes in Lyon County, versus Carson City’s three. There were also no reported rapes in Elko County, despite the presence of brothels in downtown Elko, and there were 11 reported rapes in Douglas County despite the prohibition of brothels there. Guinasso’s attempts to point to these numbers as proof of a correlation between legalized prostitution and county rape statistics isn’t an argument for prohibiting brothels — it’s an argument for requiring better teaching of statistics in Nevada’s schools.

The truth surrounding sex work is crystal clear:  When prostitution is illegal, sex workers don’t benefit — but corrupt police officers do. Police abuse of sex workers is well-documented across the world, from South Africa to New York to, more recently, Oakland. In many states, like Hawaii, police officers fiercely defend their privilege to have sex with illegal sex workers during investigations.

Sexual abuse of people in police custody isn’t unique to sex workers, unfortunately — in 35 states, including Nevada, it’s legal for police officers to have sex with people in their custody. It is an especially common occurrence with illegal sex workers. Even those who aren’t abused by the police face the possibility of suffering a career-limiting felony conviction, one which can show up on post-conviction background checks for the rest of their lives. This is why organizations like Sex Workers Outreach Project are fighting to legalize sex work. Criminalizing sex work endangers and traps women in a cycle of abuse, ostracization and poverty, frequently at the hands of the very people supposedly charged with “protecting” them.

Nevada is the one state that gets it right, and even we don’t get it right enough. The best way to protect all Nevadans is to leave the sex workers in Lyon County alone, and legalize sex work statewide.

David Colborne is the Vice-Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Nevada and chairman of the Washoe County Libertarian Party. He can be reached at david.colborne@lpnevada.org or on Twitter at @ElectDavidC.  This column was originally published in the Nevada Independent.

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Suzette Cole, CEO, Moonlite Bunny Ranch

“Prostitution is the oldest profession and will not go away.  Nevada has been doing it right since 1971 when we took it out of the criminal’s hands and put it into a highly-regulated industry.  As an added benefit, there has never been a case of HIV/AIDS in the history of legal brothels here…and you can’t say that about any other profession in the United States.”

John Stossel, Syndicated Columnist

“We don’t have to cheer for prostitution, or think it’s nice, to keep government out of it and let participants make up their own minds.  It’s wrong to ban sex workers’ options just to make ourselves feel better.”

Steve Chapman, Syndicated Columnist

“Prohibition doesn’t eliminate the harms generally associated with prostitution, such as violence, human trafficking and disease. On the contrary, it fosters them by driving the business underground.”

Christina Parreira, UNLV Researcher/Sex Worker

“Sex work is my CHOICE.  I’d like to continue to have the opportunity to make that choice legally.  We don’t need protection. We’re consenting, adult women.”

Washington, DC Councilman David Grosso

“We need to stop arresting people for things that are not really criminal acts. We should arrest someone for assault…but when it’s two adults engaging in a consensual sex act, I don’t see why that should be an arrestable offense”

New York Assemblyman Richard Gottfried

“Trying to stop sex work between consenting adults should not be the business of the criminal justice system.”

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker

“Yes, sex work should be decriminalized.  As a general matter, I don’t believe that we should be criminalizing activity between consenting adults, and especially when doing so causes even more harm for those involved.”

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders

“I think the idea of legalizing prostitution is something that should be considered…(and) certainly needs to be discussed.”

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris

“When you’re talking about consenting adults, I think that, yes, we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior, as long as no one is being harmed. … We should not be criminalizing women who are engaged in consensual opportunities for employment.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren

“I believe humans should have autonomy over their own bodies and they get to make their own decisions. … I am open to decriminalizing sex work. Sex workers, like all workers, deserve autonomy and are particularly vulnerable to physical and financial abuse.”

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

“If a consenting adult wants to engage in sex work, that is their right, and it should not be a crime. All people should have autonomy over their bodies and their labor.”

Gov. John Hickenlooper

“Legalizing prostitution and regulating it, so there are norms and protections and we understand more clearly how people are being treated and make sure we prevent abuse, I think it should be really looked at.”

Mike Gravel, former Alaska Senator

“Sex workers are workers, and they deserve the dignity and respect that every worker deserves. For too long, we’ve denied them that. Sex workers, not politicians, should lead the way in crafting sex work policy.”

Prof. Ronald Weitzer, George Washington University:

“Unlike illegal street prostitution in many other places, Nevada’s legal brothels do not disturb public order, create nuisances, or negatively impact local communities in other ways. Instead, they provide needed tax revenue for cash-strapped rural towns.”

Prof. Barbara Brents, UNLV author, “State of Sex”:

“Teams of scholars…have concluded that Nevada’s legal brothels provide a far safer environment for sex workers than the criminalized system in the rest of the United States.”

Prof. Sarah Blithe, UNR author, “Sex and Stigma”:

“Discussions of legal prostitution are rife with misinformation.  Academic work and popular press publications alike often conflate legal prostitution in the United States with illegal prostitution.”

Lee Herz Dixon:

“Do I think eradicating legal prostitution from all Nevada counties will erase the practice of the oldest profession in the state, or break the nexus of drugs, crime, and exploitation of the vulnerable? I do not.”

Journalist Michael Cernovich:

“It’s empirically proven that criminalizing sex work allows children to be sex trafficked more readily as they are afraid to turn to authorities and wonder if they will be arrested.”

Enrique Carmona:

“We need to put aside moralistic prejudices, whether based on religion or an idealistic form of feminism, and figure out what is in the best interests of the sex workers and public interest as well.”

Ruby Rae, professional courtesan

“In the brothels, we have the choice, always, to say which clients we will say yes and no to. We have staff that would never let a man hurt us, and we have a clientele that do not come here to hurt us.”

Kiki Lover, professional courtesan:

“We are human beings who chose to do sex work on our own free will. We get treated with respect and like family at the brothels. It’s a job just like any other job. We sell a service that all humans need.”

Paris Envy, professional courtesan:

“I’m not ‘exploited.’ I’m not ‘trafficked.’ I’m not ‘brainwashed.’ I don’t need to be ‘saved.’ I’ve freely chosen this line of work, which is a legal, private transaction between consenting adults.”

Alice Little, professional courtesan:

“It’s ILLEGAL sex work that exploits children. It’s ILLEGAL sex work that traffics. It’s ILLEGAL sex work that sees women exploited and abused by pimps.”

Jim Shedd, Nevadan

“Prostitution should be licensed, regulated, taxed like any other service industry.  There are many single or widowed men and women who should be able to take advantage of such services provided by consenting adults for consenting adults. Let’s act to at least reduce illegal sex trafficking and other sex crimes by creating safe and legal outlets for paying adults who wish to use them.”

Paul Bourassa, brothel customer:

“Some people are just never given a chance in the dating scene, so brothels offer those of us with no experience a chance to learn what it’s like to be on a date.”

Lewis Dawkins, brothel customer:

“It’s not always about sex. Little compliments and encouragements offered by the ladies help build my self-confidence. It’s a business, yes. But the ladies care personally about their clients. That means a lot.”

Brett Caton, brothel customer:

“I think brothels provide an important function in society. Legal ones give a safe outlet to their customers and for some men it is the only way they get so much as a hug.”

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The Nevada Brothel Association PAC is a coalition of legal brothel owners, brothel workers, brothel clients and brothel supporters dedicated to defending a woman’s right to choose professional sex work as a career, protecting the public’s health and safety, and preserving Nevada’s rich live-and-let-live heritage.

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Carson City, NV  89721

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