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February 17, 2019 By NBA Staff

Anti-Nevada Sex Puritans Set Sights on Wrong Target

(Chuck Muth) – About the worst thing you can do when it comes to the horrific crime of sex trafficking – especially of underage girls – is to trivialize it through absurdity.  Yet that’s exactly what the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE), formerly “Morality in Media,” did earlier this month.

As reported in a February 11 article published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, NCSE named the State of Nevada to its annual “Dirty Dozen” list of “major, mainstream facilitators of sexual exploitation” – along with American corporate icons such as Amazon, Google, HBO, Netflix, Twitter, Sports Illustrated and even United Airlines.

Now, think about what this Washington, DC group is saying…

If you search Google for a recipe for Hungarian goulash, you’re facilitating sexual exploitation.  If you order a book on gardening from Amazon, you’re aiding and abetting sex trafficking.  If you watch HBO or Netflix, you’re an accessory to sex crimes.

Indeed, if you tweet about a story you read in Sports Illustrated on Major League Baseball’s spring training camps while flying on United Airlines to a Bible convention in Alabama, you’re all but a street “pimp.”

That’s right…YOU.

And according to NCSE, Nevada was added to its list because “legalized prostitution in Nevada’s rural counties has turned the state into a ‘magnet for sex traffickers and prostitution tourists.’”

Oh, puh-lease.  Talk about absurd.

The closest legal brothels to Las Vegas – arguably Ground Zero for illegal prostitution and sex trafficking – are an hour and a half away.  And because of extremely strict licensing and regulatory oversight of those legal brothels, there are no underage girls working in them and no one is working there against their will.

Sex trafficking in Nevada’s rural counties is all but non-existent.

On the other hand, Las Vegas is awash with gentleman’s clubs, nudie bars, escort services, massage parlors, “girls to your room” in luxurious Strip resorts, adult sex shops, and good old-fashioned slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am in the back seat of cars behind convenience stores and in seedy motels.

Yet NCSE doesn’t talk about THAT.

Instead it focuses on Nevada’s legal rural brothels which prohibit underage girls from working in the trade, keeps the consenting women who work there safe, protects the public through weekly health exams for sexually transmitted diseases, and contribute significant tax revenue and charitable donations to the communities where they’re located.

NCSE’s linking of Nevada’s legal rural brothels to the illegal sex market in Las Vegas is like comparing a car that needs a quart of oil and a carwash to one with four flat tires, a busted windshield, a smashed bumper, a blown engine and a cigarette lighter that doesn’t work.

Where are your priorities, people?

Or think of it this way: To claim that Nevada’s legal rural brothels are a “magnet for sex traffickers” is like saying legal pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS are magnets for illegal drug traffickers.  We’re talking apples and oranges here, folks.

In naming Nevada to its “ignominious” list, NCSE cites a Lyon County Sheriff’s Department audit of its four legal brothels last fall that purportedly found “signs of potential sex trafficking” – while failing to note that audit report was generated by the local sheriff who was secretly funding a ballot question to ban legal brothels in part because his ex-wife had gone to work for one.

Yeah, that’s a credible report.

Nevertheless, Lyon County voters – not wanting the crime and disease rampant in Las Vegas’ illegal sex market – defeated the ballot question by a whopping 80-20% margin.  Leading NCSE to accuse “Lyon County residents who voted against the brothel ban” of being “complicit in the sexual exploitation of ‘countless women.’”

Hogwash.  And how insulting.

The adult women who work in Nevada’s legal brothels are business women and entrepreneurs who have chosen such sex work of their own free will – even though that’s not a career choice many others would make.

They’re not the problem; they’re part of the solution.  The anti-Nevada puritans at NCSE should get off their backs.  Live and let live.

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

Filed Under: Blog

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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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