The Board instructed the County Manager to bring back a recommendation on how the Lyon County Brothel Ordinance needs to be updated, and to investigate how other counties have changed their regulations.
Commissioner Bob Hastings requested the agenda item because brothels are among a handful of businesses that remain completely shut down due to the Nevada COVID-19 restrictions. According to brothel owner Suzette Cole, more than 500 employees remain unemployed due to the brothel shutdown.
(Suzette Cole) – In a recent media interview, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak was asked about reopening the state’s legal brothels. Riley Snyder reported that the governor “said it’s not on his radar.”
While re-opening Nevada’s legal brothels may not be on the governor’s radar, it’s certainly on the radar of over 600 employees and women who have lost their jobs and income; some of whom have been forced back into the illegal market where no safety precautions are followed or enforced.
The brothel shutdown not only hurts those who have lost their incomes, but also counties’ tax revenue which includes hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and licenses yearly.
It’s also dried up donations from the brothels who are the biggest donators to various local charities that have historically been supported. In Lyon County alone just some of these are:
* Animal parks
* Food banks
* Sheriff’s Ark Program
* Boys and Girls Club
* Dayton High School
* Toys for Tots
Continuing in his interview, Gov. Sisolak said…
“I don’t know how you social distance in a brothel. I know that they advocate to me that they test for sexually transmitted disease. That’s different than testing for COVID and having people skin against skin. That’s why I have the problem with some of the contact sports.”
In response…
1.) There are all manner of one-on-one personal service businesses that have been approved for re-opening in which there is little-to-no social distancing, including…
Massage therapists, dentists and hygienists, blood donation centers, plastic surgeons, makeup artists, tattoo/piercing parlors, waxing, facials and threading, hair salons, nail salons, barber shops, cosmetologists, tailors, medical spas and tanning salons.
2.) According to multiple health professionals and organizations there has been no link found between sexual activity and the transmission of COVID. For example…
3.) Again according to various health professionals, COVID is absolutely not transmitted “skin against skin.”
4.) While testing for sexually transmitted diseases is, in fact, different from testing for COVID, Nevada’s legal brothels are uniquely experienced in administering and following medical testing protocols and can readily adapt to any recommended or required COVID-related testing.
5.) While it is not feasible for participants of contact sports to wear masks while engaged in the activity, it is absolutely feasible to do so for sexual activity occurring in a licensed, regulated legal brothel.
A government ban on sex is not only unenforceable, but potentially harmful mentally and socially.
“During this extended public health emergency, people will and should have sex,” notes the Vermont Department of Health. “Consider using harm reduction strategies to reduce the risk to yourself, your partners, and your community.”
Furthermore…
As attorney Deanna Forbush noted in recent testimony to Nevada’s COVID-19 task force, we’re not going to kill the virus by killing the economy. ALL businesses need to be re-opened, with appropriate safety protocols in place.
Nevada’s legal brothels have submitted detailed safety measures that meet or exceed those in place for other in-person service businesses. And no data exists indicating the services provided by the brothels pose any higher risk of spreading COVID-19 than these other businesses.
Additionally, brothels do not engage in group activity. It is a one-to-one service. And while Gov. Sisolak has now approved gatherings of up to 200 people – not including employees – our protocols call for not more than 10 clients within our facility at a time.
The current government shutdown orders have created winners and losers and discriminate by applying different standards to similar industries. All Nevada’s legal brothels are asking for is to be treated equally on a consistent, level playing field with everyone else.
Ms. Cole is CEO of four legal brothels in Lyon County, Nevada and president of the Nevada Brothel Association PAC
(Sam Metz | Associated Press) – Deanna L. Forbush, an attorney representing Pahrump’s Chicken Ranch brothel, said preventing legal brothels from reopening was prejudicial and unconstitutional. She compared them to other “skin to skin” businesses that have reopened, mentioning massage parlors, spas, and dentists’ offices.
“Just like dental professionals, our customers, employees and contractors are required to wear masks and other PPE at all times,” she said.
She said the state wasn’t following through on its pledge to follow the science and claimed, if they were, brothels would open.
“Decision-makers cannot allow their own individual prejudices or moral judgments to discriminate against businesses by applying different standards to similar industries,” she said.
Storey County Commissioner Lance Gilman, who owns Mustang Ranch brothel, said there was no evidence brothel activity spread the virus more quickly than other businesses that have reopened. He said continued closures threatened the livelihoods of brothel workers and contractors and punished an important pillar of the Storey County community.
“We have received no feedback of any kind on why this business continues to remain closed. It is not a business that encourages congregation or large crowds,” he said.
(Gabrielle Fonrouge | New York Post) – A coalition of sexual violence survivors, including prominent groups like Me Too and Time’s Up, want to legalize prostitution, sex buying and pimping — drawing ire from fellow survivors who say the trade is inherently harmful and antithetical to women’s rights. …
The coalition of 21 organizations joined together and formed the group Survivors’ Agenda, which released a report at the end of September announcing the official, “collective” perspectives of sexual violence survivors.
The document is meant to “drive and inform policy change” using the voices of those who’ve suffered sexual violence and was created using surveys and conversations with a variety of stakeholders.
“Decriminalization of the commercial exchange of sexual services that is adult, voluntary, and consensual, to protect sex workers from abuse and exploitation and lessen their vulnerability to violence by being forced to work in secret, unsafe locations,” the agenda reads under the subhead “policies that move us forward.”
“This does not refer to any actions involving children, sex trafficking, or trafficking of humans for any reason, which are undeniably human rights violations.” …
Survivors’ Agenda counts Tarana Burke, who created the Me Too movement, as one of their principals and Dani Ayers, Me Too’s current CEO, as a member of the core team and one of the agenda’s co-creators. Other members include the National Women’s Law Center, YWCA and the Center for American Progress. Aside from legalizing prostitution, the agenda outlines support for a host of other issues, including more funding for sexual violence survivors, an expansion of the family and medical leave act and universal health care.
Decriminalization has become a central issue in the fight for racial justice and women’s rights and states like Vermont and New York have bills on the table that would legalize prostitution so people wouldn’t be arrested for doing what advocates call a job like any other. Supporters say legalizing prostitution would reduce sex trafficking and keep vulnerable people safer.
Nye County has established and maintained a low Covid-19 positivity rate (6.4). And while the Governor has opened all other businesses in the county, he keeps brothels closed for no rational reason.
To maintain his emergency executive authority the Governor must avoid acting in an arbitrary or capricious manner. He would accomplish this by evaluating and treating all businesses with the same criterion.
He has not done that here.
Some businesses are open while others remain closed, and the decisions made in this regard have clearly been, not only arbitrary and capricious, but also prejudicial and unconstitutional.
So far, all my client has been told is the Governor is not “focused on brothels, that he is more interested in getting kids back in school, and he doesn’t like skin-on- skin activity.”
I have to tell you just how hurt the people who work in this lawful industry are, people forced out of work for eight months, and whose kids are hungry. They are very hurt to learn just how little they mean to their Governor, many who voted for him.
Also, there are plenty of “skin-on-skin” businesses which have been allowed to open while my Client remains closed.
1. Dentists and their hygienists who probe their patents’ mouths with their fingers for up to 30-60 minutes at a time are open. Yes, they wear gloves. But our customers have been wearing just as much latex protection as they do, long before COVID. And, when allowed to open our doors, just like the dental professionals, our customers and contractors will be required to wear masks at all times pursuant to the protocols we’ve submitted to our county and were approved overwhelmingly.
2. Spas and massage parlors are open where, while wearing nothing more than a sheet, a person can have their bodies massaged and rubbed with oils and lotions by an ungloved masseuse for up to 90 uninterrupted minutes.
3. Eyelash and hair salons are open. Technicians apply lashes with ungloved fingers in their customers’ eyes for 60 minutes straight. Hair stylists stand over their customers, washing their hair, massaging their scalps, cutting their hair, and then blowing it dry, sometimes for two hours without interruption.
4. Escort Services are open, which, as I understand it, involves one-on-one dating of persons who are typically unfamiliar with one another.
Meanwhile, brothels remain closed because the Governor doesn’t like skin-on-skin activity?
The Governor should understand that every business is essential to the people who work there as well as to those who patronize these establishments.
Killing the economy will not kill the virus. We simply will not change the course of the pandemic with an economic lockdown. However, what’s simply unfair, is the government has disparately applied its opening metrics creating winners and losers. That is not the function of government.
If the state’s metrics were being evenly applied, my client would be open. Elected leaders and government staff must not allow their own individual prejudices or moral judgements to discriminate against lawful businesses by applying different standards to similar industries.
Beyond being unfair, the system employed to date, is blatantly unconstitutional. The Constitutionality of Emergency Directives are subject to the constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection.
The Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution requires that before a government can treat similarly situated groups differently, there must be a rational relationship between the disparity of treatment and a legitimate governmental purpose.
This principal is reinforced by the 14th Amendment’s Procedural Due Process, requiring that before a government can deprive individuals of liberty or property, i.e., their businesses, it must show that it is acting for a public purpose, and that its actions are not “arbitrarily or without some reasonable relation to that stated purpose.”
There is no possible rational relationship between keeping my client closed and the public’s safety.
People who frequent my client’s establishment do not engage in group activity, services are provided one-on-one. As I listed above, the government has allowed businesses with indistinguishable risk factors to open, and has also permitted “super spreader” events to go forward with impunity, due to the participants’ constitutional rights.
These same constitutional rights are also guaranteed to my Client. Instead, my Client’s rights have been denied for over eight months.
The Governor has likely noticed the lawsuits which have been filed around the country. These suits have not turned out well for governors.
For instance, in Pennsylvania, that state’s Supreme Court told Governor Wolf that his order shutting down businesses violated the 14th Amendment. Michigan’s Governor Whitmer learned from her Supreme Court that her actions were unconstitutional. The same thing happened in Wisconsin where that state‘s Supreme Court overturned it’s governor’s mandates.
Unless legal businesses in Nevada are allowed to re-open, the same thing will happen here.
My Client does not wish to join the long list of businesses which have sued the Governor and this state for his unconstitutional actions. We don’t want to be part of the problem facing this great state. Instead, we wish to be part of the solution, by putting thousands of people who work in this lawful industry back to work so their families no longer suffer. We want our counties to again become prosperous with the economic activity our businesses generate.
Please help us do that by issuing one more Directive opening our businesses, and putting our people back to work. Thank you.
Ms. Forbush is an attorney with the firm of Fox Rothschild who represents the Chicken Ranch brothel in Nye County.
Undoubtedly, we are in unprecedented times that have required difficult decisions and challenging choices. We have and do respect the leadership put forth by this task force, the LEAP Committee and Governor Sisolak and his office.
As such, Storey County, its leadership and management team, its businesses and its citizens have implemented the regulations and suggestions that have been put forth by the state to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and we are proud of the results.
To date, Storey County has had only six cases of COVID-19, all of which have been treated and have recovered.
With that in mind, I implore you to allow Storey County the ability to reopen all of its businesses and fully begin the long recovery from the significant economic damage of this pandemic and its ensuing shutdown.
Specifically, I am asking that you allow the county the ability to reopen the Mustang Ranch, a longstanding economic driver and community steward for our county.
Since the beginning of the shutdown, our state’s leadership has repeatedly reiterated the criteria for reopening businesses in our state.
It has been stressed by the Governor and this task force that decisions on reopening businesses would be made first and foremost on data and the likelihood of getting infected or spreading the COVID-19 virus in a business and/or municipality.
It has been stressed that the data and not the industry or business would be the driving force for closing or keeping a business closed. It has also been emphasized that, for a business to reopen, a sufficient and adequate mitigation and enforcement plan would be needed.
In short, the goal of the shutdown and subsequent reopening was to avoid picking winners and losers but, rather, to minimize the risks of community spread and the burden on our healthcare system.
With those as the guiding philosophies for our state’s COVID-19 response, I am formally requesting Storey County’s ability to reopen the Mustang Ranch.
Working in coordination with healthcare professionals, Storey County leadership, the Storey County Sheriff and law enforcement, Mustang Ranch has developed a significant mitigation and enforcement plan designed to address COVID-19.
This plan has been shared with the Governor’s office, the LEAP Committee, the COVID-19 Task Force, the state’s medical leadership and others and, by all accounts, is sufficient and adequate.
We have received no feedback on why this business continues to remain closed. It is not a business that encourages congregation or large crowds and the proposed mitigation plan further mandates that there will be no crowds or groups at any time at the business.
To date, the state has reopened massage parlors, health spas, martial arts studios, dental offices and a variety of other businesses that involve close contact and one-on-one physical interactions.
Furthermore, there is no data that the services provided at Mustang Ranch are at any higher risk of spreading COVID-19 than any of these other businesses and industries.
Mustang Ranch is a longstanding community steward for Storey County, doing everything from significantly supporting underprivileged schoolchildren and after school programs to providing meals on a regular basis for seniors on fixed incomes and in challenging situations.
In fact, Mustang Ranch has continued to provide significant monetary support to a number of community-based programs during this health and economic crisis.
Additionally, the closure of Mustang Ranch has had dire impacts on the employees and women that work there, forcing them and their families into critical financial circumstances.
For many years, the Mustang Ranch was the only significant economic driver in Storey County, paving the way for our county and region to become the economic development beacon it is now.
The Ranch has been a constant for our community through times of prosperity and adversity, alike. We can identify no reason that the Ranch should remain closed, based on all of the above reasons and the state’s commitment to data-based decisions, not arbitrarily picking winners and losers.
I again implore this task force to immediately give Storey County the ability to open the Mustang Ranch in a safe and healthy manner.
Mr. Gilman is the owner of the Mustang Ranch brothel in Storey County, Nevada
