(Chuck Muth) – A disturbing videotaped police interview of Alek Minassian – the man who drove a rental van into a crowd of people in Toronto, killing ten – was released to the public by the trial judge last week.
According to a report in The Guardian, Minassian “told police officers that he was a virgin who had never had a girlfriend” and “belonged to an online subculture of sexually frustrated men” who are “unable to get laid.”
“Minassian told police that his interactions with women left him embarrassed and angry,” The Guardian reported. “He described a Halloween party in 2013, where he tried to speak with young women, but was often ignored or laughed at.”
His trial is scheduled for February.
Minassian said he’d been “radicalized” around the same time that Elliot Rodger, described as an “involuntary celibate,” murdered six people and killed himself at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014.
In a video produced before his rampage, Elliot said “he wanted to punish women for rejecting him, and punish sexually active men because he envied them.”
This is all so unnecessary.
First, the desire for sex is a strong and powerful human need that is not restricted to attractive, charming individuals. The abolitionists’ screed that society can “end demand” is folly at best; deadly at worst.
There are all manner of men desiring sex who “can’t get laid” in a bar or nightclub for a variety of reasons: elderly gentlemen, men with disabilities, unattractive men and socially awkward men. What’s their option?
Well, in Nevada we have legal brothels.
I’ll never forget the afternoon that late Assemblyman Dennis Hof and I returned from a campaign event to his Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel.
Sitting in the parlor on a sofa next to an extremely attractive woman was a young man who appeared to be in his 30’s and clearly afflicted with at least a mild level of autism. When he saw Dennis, his face lit up like a sunburst and broke out in a smile a mile wide.
As was Dennis’ way, he sat down and talked with the young man for a while. Asked how he was doing. Asked if he was being treated well. And just had a nice conversation like a pair of good friends over a beer at happy hour.
After the encounter, Dennis explained to me that the young man’s mother brought him to the ranch every month or so – where the guy was treated like royalty by everyone there. They doted on him hand-and-foot and made the guy feel like the most important person on the planet.
That should be illegal?
Did his mom pay for the privilege? Absolutely.
Was it worth every penny to provide her son the joy of such intimate companionship he otherwise wouldn’t have in his life – if even for just a few hours? I think the answer is obvious.
Now, this might not be the solution you would choose in a similar circumstance. But who are we – society – to judge the decision of this individual’s mother?
And what if this option had been available to Rodger and Minassian in Santa Barbara and Toronto? What if we ENCOURAGED such experiences instead of stigmatizing them? Would the innocent people slain by their hands be alive today?
We’ll never know.
There’s a LOT more to Nevada’s legal brothel story than meets the eye. Let’s hope the Nevada Legislature’s Brothel Study Committee looks beyond the abolitionists’ puritan propaganda and considers the WHOLE picture.
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a limited-government grassroots advocacy organization, and government affairs counsel to the Nevada Brothel Association. His views are his own.
