Archives for February 2019

(Christina Parreira) – I woke up Saturday to a concerned text from my friend Mitchell Sunderland, an editor at large at Penthouse. I logged onto Twitter to see what fresh hell awaited me, and there it was: a tweet from Kate Aurthur, the chief Los Angeles correspondent for BuzzFeed News, featuring a photo of me and Tucker Carlson that I had posted.

Her tweet read, “Remember @TuckerCarlson’s lecture during the height of family separation in June about how the left doesn’t care about family values? Well, I’m not one to kink shame, but here he is with a sex worker. Go Tucker?”

In the photo, I am playfully kissing him on the cheek as he turns away laughing. What Kate failed to mention is that we were attending the Nov. 3, 2018 funeral of Dennis Hof, the legendary Nevada brothel owner and showman, and close mutual friend of both Tucker and myself.

The day the photograph was taken was an incredibly difficult one for me. Dennis was not only a former boss (at this time I was no longer employed by the brothels) but also a mentor and a close friend. He was family. I had his initial, D, tattooed on my middle finger, a few days after his death as a reminder to try and believe in myself the way he had believed in me.

I met Dennis after approaching him about the research I hoped to conduct for my doctoral dissertation as a student in the department of sociology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was the only brothel owner who would give me a chance, and threw his doors open to me after I made the bold choice to work for him as a means of access to the data I was after. My research would not have been possible were it not for Dennis.

Dennis had introduced me to Tucker’s television program. We were getting ready to do some media and he said, “You have to check this guy out––he’s great!” The first clip he showed me was Tucker’s “Campus Craziness,” a show segment about how the PC thought police are destroying academia. As someone in academia, I knew it all too well, and became an immediate fan of Carlson’s show. Dennis assured me that one day I would meet Tucker, and although I had hoped for a very different sort of meeting, I approached Tucker confident that Dennis would be furious if I missed my chance to say hello.

There was nothing salacious or inappropriate about this moment with Carlson. It was a celebrity taking a few minutes out of his day to make a fan feel good. I approached Tucker and told him what a huge fan I was, and he was kind enough to say yes to a photo. It was nothing more and nothing less. When I offered to buy him a drink, he declined. He had a club soda instead.

I sat with Tucker and Mitchell and we shared stories about our late friend. We were three people from diverse backgrounds coming together to remember a man who touched all our lives. I asked Mitchell if he would take a photo of Tucker and I. After taking the first silly one that Aurthur irresponsibly grasped onto, we took a second “normal” photo, both smiling and facing the camera.

Mitchell texted both photos to me and I was delighted. Afterwards, Tucker headed to the airport and flew back to Washington, D.C. I remember musing that he probably wouldn’t even get a chance to sleep before his show, and that he was a good friend to Dennis to travel all that way to pay his respects.

Yes, it is true that I am a sex worker and that I once worked in a legal brothel. However, I was not there as a sex worker that day. I was simply a friend in mourning. Everyone present had come to celebrate Dennis’ extraordinary life.

I am proud to be a sex worker, but I am not defined simply by what I do to pay the bills. It’s interesting how, again and again, the supposedly feminist left takes women and reduces them to nothing but their job title, is it not? It’s no wonder that so many embrace the term “fake news,” and that so few trust the media.

Aurthur threw together a reckless tweet, without checking the context, in an effort to garner clickbait. It can happen to any of us. Imagine waking up to see a misinformed and callous “journalist” with a chip on her shoulder maligning an innocent moment at a funeral, and having no recourse.

Some people angrily tweeted me accusing me of disrespecting Carlson’s family. I am also married and have nothing but respect for him and his family. Quite frankly, I am stunned that I should have to write this piece to explain myself.

I hope this episode serves as a lesson to Aurthur and her ilk, but I doubt it. She immediately blocked me when I attempted to explain the circumstances. We deserve better from journalists, and I am getting tired of one “fake news” hit piece after another. Do better.

Christina Parreira, M.A. is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She’s been studying legal Nevada brothels since 2014 and manages sex worker outreach at Trac-B Exchange, Las Vegas’ first syringe exchange.  This column was originally published by The Federalist on February 24, 2019.

(Chuck Muth) – Brother, can you spare a…kidney?

If you believe the misinformation, bordering on libel, and never-ending stigmatization put out by self-righteous moralists against Nevada’s legal brothels, you’d think brothel workers are pretty much the spawn of Satan; low-life degenerates deserving of nothing but public scorn and contempt.

Well, meet Phil Wooley.

Phil is an exceptionally talented graphic artist who works for Dennis Hof’s World Famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel in Mound House, Nevada – just outside Carson City and a short distance south of Reno.

I worked extensively with Phil during late Assemblyman Hof’s campaign for the Nevada Legislature last year – and a more amiable, down-to-earth guy you just won’t find.

Yet he was a fierce defender of the legal brothel industry last fall when an unscrupulous Reno lawyer conspired with a disgraced former sheriff to pass a ballot question that would have shut down his place of employment and put him out of work.

Fortunately, the voters of Lyon County crushed the initiative in November, 80-20 percent.  But back to our story…

Like everyone else working in Nevada’s legal brothels, Phil’s a real person with a real life totally unconnected to his job.

To start with, he’s married, has 5 kids and is very active in the community.  In fact, Phil is the founder of an organization called The Dayton Pigs – a group of citizen-volunteers who go out on weekends cleaning up trash dumped illegally in the desert.

“Couches, mattresses, televisions, tires and household garbage are the most frequently cleaned up items,” the Reno Gazette-Journal reported last summer.  “But the group has also found a pile of Smith’s grocery carts with all the metal removed, as well three dead goats – one cut up and placed in a plastic bag.”

But that’s nothing.  Get this: Phil’s now preparing to undergo potentially life-threatening surgery to remove one of his kidneys.

No, there’s nothing wrong with it whatsoever.  In fact, just the opposite.  It may prove to be PERFECT.  Here’s the 411…

You see, there’s this guy in Dayton named David Mickelsen.  And late last year, according to a story this week in the Nevada Appeal, David sent Phil a request through Facebook to join The Dayton Pigs – a request Phil says saved Phil’s life.

How?

“61 days ago,” Phil wrote this week, “I smoked my very last cigarette. I couldn’t have done it without his (David’s) help. Every time I feel the urge to light one up, all I have to do is think about him…because if I smoke that cigarette, it will kill him.”

Say what?

OK, as Paul Harvey used to say, now the rest of the story…

You see, David is already dying.

“Mickelson,” the Appeal reported, “who survived a childhood brain tumor, was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of an autoimmune disorder shortly before moving to Nevada from the Bay area in 2014.  He’s been on dialysis since, but it only rids the body of about 10 to 15 percent of the toxins a kidney would do.”

And David’s been searching for YEARS – without success – to find a living donor who would keep him alive.  And time for him is running out.

“David has almost reached the end of the road with his kidney disease,” Phil wrote. “Due to medical confidentiality laws I cannot say too much about the specifics of his condition, but it’s safe to say he suffers every single day, and none of it is his fault.”

Phil had been following David’s plight on Facebook, “seeing him plead with the citizens of my town to help save him, and nobody answering.”

So Phil did what Phil does…he stepped up and took action.

He offered to give David one of his own kidneys.

I’ll let Phil take it from here…

“I contacted David on (Facebook) Messenger, and found out I was the right blood type. After filling out a couple applications, and speaking to a nurse from UC Davis on the phone, I was told I had to quit smoking for 30 days to be eligible.

“I quit smoking that day.

“A couple weeks ago, I finally met the future owner of my kidney. We did an interview for a local AM radio station. After listening to David’s stories of suffering, and witnessing the physical toll dialysis takes on a person, I was 2,000% ready to do this.  

“All fear of my surgery faded away when I realized how tough this man has to be to just stay alive. Who am I to complain about a few weeks of discomfort?”

This, folks, is the very definition of “hero.”

Back to Phil…

“There are still more tests for me, but according to the labs, I’m a match. How weird is that? The only person in my town to step forward, and I’m a match?!

“Anyway, March 11 and 12 will be two days of X-rays, scans, needles, and psych evaluations. They have to make sure I can survive the surgery, and they give donors every possible chance to back out.

“I’m not worried about the tests. I know I’ll pass, because I have to. No other eligible donors have stepped up, and David’s almost out of time.”

All for a man who was a complete stranger just a few short weeks ago.

“Right now,” Phil told the Appeal in an interview, “I have four times the filtration system I’ll need for my entire lifetime.  With one kidney, you have two times the filtration system you need. It’s a very small inconvenience on my part compared to what David’s looking at.”

Small inconvenience?  Hardly.

Despite all the advances of modern-day medicine, we’re not talking about removing a mole here.  We’re talking about major surgery to remove a vital organ from a man with a wife and five young children to give to a fellow human being who will likely die without it.

How many of us would do the same?

Phil told the Appeal that “his wife, Lisa, was somewhat reluctant at first but understands his motivation. He hopes his five children see him as an example.”

Oh, they will.  And so will the rest of us!

It’s an honor to know Phil and a blessing to have him living in our state.

Yet as I write this, there’s a Nevada state senator in Carson City drafting a bill to outlaw all of Nevada’s legal brothels – not just the ones in Lyon County – and put Phil and hundreds of other workers out on the street.

Enough.

Why can’t these moralists follow Phil’s example and simply live and let live?

People like Phil neither need nor deserve to have this legislative Damocles sword hanging over their heads yet again.  It’s…just…not…right.  Leave these folks alone!

Final note…

David will still have considerable out-of-pocket medical and travel expenses after the surgery.  And donation boxes have been set up at the Bunny Ranch, Love Ranch, Sagebrush Ranch and Kit Kat Ranch brothels in Mound House to help cover those expenses.

If you’re in the neighborhood, please consider the sacrifice and risk Phil and his family are taking and stop by to kick in a couple bucks.  Or if you don’t live in the area, you can donate online (I just did) to a GoFundMe account Phil has set up.

Click here

God bless you, Phil.  And best of luck, David!

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a limited-government grassroots advocacy organization, and government affairs counsel to the Nevada Brothel Association