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Archives for June 2018

June 19, 2018 By NBA Staff

Why closing legal brothels is a bad idea

(Ronald Weitzer) – Prostitution is legal and regulated by the government in several countries, including Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, New Zealand and some Mexican states. In most of these places, street prostitution remains either illegal or officially discouraged, while indoor prostitution is legally permitted under certain conditions and monitored by local authorities – much as it is in Nevada’s rural counties. The logic of legalization is similar to that for marijuana and casino gambling: the principle that tolerating consensual vice is far superior to criminalizing it, forcing participants underground and perpetuating the risks and harms inherent in any black-market enterprise.

The potential advantages of legalization are recognized by some prominent organizations and agencies. In 2013, Canada’s Supreme Court unanimously declared the country’s prostitution laws unconstitutional. According to the court, these laws violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms because they endangered sex workers safety. Amnesty International embraced the same logic when it officially endorsed decriminalization in May 2016, following earlier decisions by Human Rights Watch and the World Health Organization. And, although long forgotten, the National Organization for Women voted in 1973 to support decriminalization in the United States. The resolution declared that NOW “opposes continued prohibitive laws regarding prostitution, believing them to be punitive” and “therefore favors removal of all laws relating to the act of prostitution.”

These are just a few examples showing that legal prostitution is not a crazy, fringe idea. In fact, the American public is much more sympathetic to the idea of it than is commonly believed. Recent national polls show growing tolerance: Support for legalizing prostitution increased from 38 percent in 2012 to 44 percent in 2015 and 49 percent in 2016. And legalization bills have been recently introduced in Hawaii, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C.

Anti-prostitution activists claim that legalizing prostitution will increase sex trafficking. This notion defies all logic. Organized crime thrives where an activity is criminalized and clandestine, not where goods and services are lawfully exchanged. The history of alcohol and drug prohibition offers overwhelming proof of this maxim.

One fatally flawed “study” in Europe purported to find a link between legalization and increased trafficking, but this paper was roundly criticized by other scholars, including me. In the Netherlands, where prostitution has been legal since 2000, a report by the Ministry of Justice in 2007 stated that “it is likely trafficking in human beings has become more difficult, because the enforcement of the regulations has increased.”

Evidence from Germany seems to confirm this argument. Government figures show a consistent decline since 2002 (when legalization took effect) in three trafficking measures: From 2000 to 2014, the number of officially certified victims decreased from 1,197 to 524; the number of suspects prosecuted dropped from 927 to 485; and the number of convictions of traffickers fell from 148 to 77.

While these figures do not necessarily prove that trafficking is decreasing in Germany, we would expect to see a consistent increase in these three metrics if trafficking has increased since legalization. The trend lines clearly show the opposite pattern.

What about Nevada? The best research on the state’s legal brothels comes out of UNLV. This research shows that brothel workers are generally satisfied with their working conditions, do not consider themselves victims, rarely experience altercations with customers, have freedom to choose the kinds of services they provide and are working in healthy conditions.

Since the state mandated monthly testing for HIV and sexually-transmitted infections in 1986, not one legal brothel worker has tested HIV-positive (condom use is required by state law). Moreover, the brothels have little if any adverse effect on the surrounding community.

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. The brothels also have a long pedigree, having been legally permitted since 1971, almost half a century!

None of this is intended to romanticize sex work, but it is clear that it is not going to disappear. Outlawing legal brothels in Lyon and Nye counties will only be counterproductive – disrupting a well-regulated system that protects sex workers’ health and safety, imposes a set of regulations on business owners and is not considered problematic by most Nevadans.

Ronald Weitzer is a Professor of Sociology at George Washington University and the author of Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business. He has spent nearly three decades researching sex work in various countries and is considered one of the leading international experts on the topic.  This column was originally published in the Nevada Independent.

Filed Under: Blog

June 7, 2018 By NBA Staff

Lyon County places brothel ban advisory question on November ballot

(Jackie Valley | Nevada Independent) – The Lyon County Commission has decided to place an advisory question on the November ballot asking voters whether brothels should be made illegal in the jurisdiction.

The move comes after a group of Lyon County residents filed a referendum petition in April seeking to end legal prostitution in the rural county. Commissioners voted unanimously to add an advisory question to the ballot after concerns were raised about the referendum.

“This was brought to the Board to address concerns brought up with a proposed referendum to end brothels in Lyon County,” county manager Jeffrey Page wrote in a statement. “The referendum language is confusing to the voter and could potentially require voter approval to change the brothel ordinance.”

Given the addition of the advisory question, proponents of the referendum will not be filing it, Page said.

The advisory question simply gathers input on the matter but is not legally binding for any governing body or lawmaker. The question that will be placed on the ballot is this:

“Shall the Lyon County Board of Commissioners rescind Title 3, Chapter 5, the Lyon County Brothel Ordinance, in order to end brothels and legalized prostitution in Lyon County, Nevada?”

A fiscal note attached to the advisory question states that eliminating brothels in Lyon County would result in the loss of associated license fees, work card permits and room taxes. Liquor licenses and business licenses for the brothels could also be affected. Brothel license fees brought in $425,116 last fiscal year in Lyon County. The county’s total budget this year is $48 million, meaning the brothel licenses fees make up less than 1 percent of it.

Filed Under: In the News

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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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