Nevada Brothel Association

NBA Staff

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Lyon’s brothels to continue without Hof

(Jessica Garcia | Nevada Appeal) – Lyon County is working to ensure its four legal brothels remain properly licensed after the death of former owner Dennis Hof, according to county manager Jeff Page.

“The brothels will remain open and the ordinance will remain in effect,” Page said. “The brothels are allowed and the double X zoning is specifically provided in county code. There won’t be any more brothels but in those locations.”

The facilities in Mound House — the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, Love Ranch, Sagebrush Ranch and Kit Kat Guest Ranch — were transferred to Madame Suzette Cole the day before Thanksgiving, according to Hof’s campaign manager and political consultant Chuck Muth. The county has been partnering with Cole to make sure the brothels abide by the county’s code.

Muth said business and personal circumstances have been a challenge for Cole and her team to determine their next steps after Hof.

“It’s still tough; no one saw this coming,” Muth said. “We know Dennis did have a will, but we haven’t seen that yet. We know that he had complete faith in Suzette, but all of a sudden, she had to do everything … and it’s been really, really tough. … I know she’s overwhelmed.”

Specific plans haven’t yet been announced by Cole or her marketing manager, James Jaklich. Attempts to speak with Cole were declined.

Page said the county will address concerns Cole and her team have regarding compliance. A recent audit from former Lyon County Sheriff Al McNeil outlined deficiencies vetting applications for sex workers and denoted the possibility of sex trafficking, with an average cost of $150,000 to make improvements within the sheriff’s department. The LCSO has one part-time clerk processing applications who doesn’t have the requisite skills to manage licensing applications, Page said, and the department doesn’t have the equipment available to verify Passports and out-of-state identification are authentic.

“The agency’s records system is not compatible with Storey County and Elko, which also register prostitutes,” Page said.

But Page added there was nothing to jeopardize the brothels’ licenses in Lyon County.

“Dennis was definitely the mouthpiece, and Suzette seems to have a good business sense about her and wants to get things straightened out,” he said. “Her corporate attorneys have reached out to us, but we’ll have that discussion with them about how they want to do that.”

Whatever issues are at hand, though, Lyon’s voters adamantly said they want to keep the brothels to provide revenue for the county with Advisory Question One. The final results in November showed 16,643 voters against the measure with 4,031 for it, or approximately 80 percent versus 20 percent voting against the initiative to rescind Title 3, chapter 5 of Lyon’s brothel ordinance to end the brothels and legalized prostitution.

The vote encouraged the sex workers themselves, who strongly depended on the voters’ rejection of the question to keep the brothels open and their livelihoods intact.

Sex worker Alice Little of the Bunny Ranch, who has spent the past couple of months assisting in efforts to eradicate misconceptions about the sensual services industry and the brothels with Lyon’s advisory question, said Hof provided a vital voice. Now, she’s looking forward to the possibility a new era being born under Cole’s oversight.

“Now, Madame Suzette owns and manages all those various properties, which means that the sex industry in Nevada is now female-owned, female-led and female-empowering,” Little said. “The majority of our employees are female. The majority of our employees are female. … If anything, I view it as a tremendous positive moving forward and I think we’re going to see a resurgence of the brothels in Nevada unlike anything we’ve seen in the past.”

Little said the employees experienced much relief at Question One’s failure.

“That petition, that ballot initiative was holding our futures at stake and holding them hostage,” she said. “…It’s a scary thing to think that in a second somebody has the power to vote away your livelihood, and in any other industry, that would absolutely never stand within this country. But because sex is so stigmatized, we’ve put brothels in their own separate category.”

Little and some of her coworkers are now part of the recently revived Nevada Brothel Association, which announced its comeback on Dec. 28. Its new website, https://nevadabrothelassociation.com, provides an overview and a roundup of perspectives from across the state on issues pertaining to the brothels as well as anti-prostitution views to better inform the public on what’s about to come.

Page said Lyon, too, will keep an eye on what will come from the Legislature.

“I think the interesting thing is, for all the hoopla, 80 percent of the voting population voiced the fact that they wanted the brothels left alone,” Page said. “Lyon County and the sheriff’s office and our public officials are ensuring our places are kept clean and the rules are being followed. I have no doubt in my mind this issue is not dead. It’s going to continue for some time. … People will be watching this next session.”

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Brothel advocates, opponents turn eyes to 2019 Legislature

(Jessica Garcia | Nevada Appeal) – Assemblies of God licensed minister Brenda Sandquist had hoped for a different outcome from Lyon County’s vote last fall, which failed to rescind its brothel ordinance.

But Sandquist says she and her colleagues “are not discouraged” after residents rejected the measure.

“We’re going to continue moving forward and we’re going to be a part of the Legislature … and continue to watch,” she said.

Sandquist is a spokeswoman for the End Trafficking and Prostitution Political Action Committee. She helps to run a faith-based nonprofit ministry in Carson City for women called Xquisite and hopes to reach the licensed sex workers in Nevada’s brothels and expose them to other career choices.

“This is a worldwide issue, and I know there’s a lot of legal brothels … but it allows for human trafficking and it’s kind of under the radar … and it does affect us,” Sandquist told the Appeal recently.

The Nevada Legislature will take center stage in February, and state representatives will have opportunities to hear from the state’s anti-prostitution groups, brothel owners and licensed sex workers about the future of the sensual services industry.

In Northern Nevada, Madame Bella Cummins will be watching on behalf of her newly created Onesta Foundation and her own Hacienda Ranch in Wells. Cummins is an experienced entrepreneur from the Midwest who opened her first business in Carson City and purchased the Hacienda Ranch. She’s hopeful the Legislature this year finds better methods of regulating the brothels.

“In my opinion, it’s looking in front of the legislation, looking at the rules … and it’s not just more government, but we just need a clearer understanding of this patchwork of rules and regulation that could be more clearly defined,” Cummins said. “This is the blueprint that will allow it to be in Wells or in Elko or in Lyon County.”

Madame Suzette Cole, legal heir to former owner Dennis Hof’s properties, has been tending to matters since November and hasn’t yet provided a public statement about her plans since assuming ownership.

Coming in this year’s session, Sen. Joe Hardy (R-Clark County) is drafting a bill that would prohibit prostitution in the state.

Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen (D-Henderson) recently confirmed she’s conducting her own research and working on language for a bill draft request regarding the brothels. Cohen, previously a family law attorney and now representing District 29, which covers part of Clark County and Henderson, said she was still determining her specific request in mid-December. She said she was concerned about how women workers were being treated financially in the brothels and was exploring the issue with legal assistants.

“The big one I’m hearing about is women are on two-week contracts … and most people wouldn’t be there if they could afford to buy out their contracts,” she said. “They pay for their own blood tests. I’m also concerned that they’re not allowed to leave the facility for the two weeks they’re there. … I don’t know if this is happening at the brothels.

“I’m going at this with the understanding that they’re safe and this isn’t about trafficking. It’s not about trying to make brothels illegal. It’s not a moral judgment.”

Other developments related to the brothels have risen in the past month. On Dec. 21, a new political action committee, the Nevada Brothel Association, was formed by Cole who took over Hof’s business operations of Lyon County’s brothels — including the Bunny Ranch, Kit Kat Ranch, Love Ranch and Sagebrush Ranch — after Hof’s death on Oct. 16 and other associates, including Hof’s former election campaign manager Chuck Muth and licensed sex worker Alice Little of the Bunny Ranch. The NBA originally was born in 1985 as a means of fighting legislative efforts to quash Nevada’s legal brothels. The group then hired George Flint in 1986 as its lobbyist, and he retired in 2015, when the association disbanded. It now represents 21 legal brothels across seven counties.

Now, the NBA, according to its website, https://nevadabrothelassociation.com, intends to seek out owners to join in its effort before the Legislature begins Feb. 4.

“The Nevada brothels have this incredibly rich history and we benefit our local communities so tremendously,” Little said. “The association plans to continue to educate the local communities as to what the brothels are, what they do and what the benefits are to the local communities.”

NBA spokesman Chuck Muth of Las Vegas said the PAC will be helpful in contacting industry members as a whole.

“We haven’t spoken with the other brothel operations yet, and we haven’t spoken in depth with Suzette (Cole), but we’re all in favor of controlling the licensing and taxing it,” Muth said. “I personally have a big problem, as the First Amendment guy, with the fact that marijuana’s legal and you have big billboards promoting gentleman’s clubs and strip clubs and yet there’s a ban on advertising the legal brothels.”

Cummins said providing a proper process for legal sex work ultimately would benefit the state, the workers and the public as a whole but acknowledged the long road ahead in the 2019 session.

Little said she personally was encouraged by the Lyon vote and the responses she’s received from the public about the brothels, including the questions she and her colleagues had at the town halls about her profession as a whole about the fingerprints and background checks the workers are required to submit to per county code. She said the goal was to help fight off negative perceptions and help the public understand the reality of the industry in Lyon County and in Nevada.

“I view it as a tremendous positive moving forward and I think we’re going to see a resurgence of the brothels in Nevada unlike anything we’ve seen in the past,” Little said.

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What Nevada’s Anti-Brothel Activists Can Learn from Star Trek

(Chuck Muth) – Remember the 1982 movie “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”?

Khan Noonien Singh was the evil bad guy who sent a pair of assassins to knock off his longtime nemesis, Captain Kirk.  Alas, the hitmen failed – which Khan realized when Kirk, instead of one of his assassins, responded to Khan’s radio call.

“Kirk,” Khan says with surprise, “you’re still alive, my old friend.”

“Still, old, friend,” Kirk replies.  “You’ve managed to kill just about everyone else, but, like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target.”

Anti-sex trafficking advocates who continue to attack Nevada’s legal brothel industry should keep that scene in mind.  Because they, too, keep missing the target.

To remind them of what the real target SHOULD be, consider this December 30, 2018 story in the Albion Times…

“Two Long Island men, including a ‘self-described Crips gang member,’ were arrested for the kidnapping and sex trafficking of two girls – one of whom was only 12 years old, police said Thursday.

“Fredjy Exavier and Terron Newsome, both 22 and from Central Islip, were arrested Wednesday morning on a slew of charges that stemmed from the sex trafficking of the 12-year-old and a second victim, who was raped at the age of 13 and prostituted, Suffolk County police said.”

According to the police report, the thugs took the girls from the group home where they were living and drove them to a motel “where Newsome attempted to have the 12-year-old girl engage in sexual activities with him and encouraged her to become a prostitute.”

THAT’S sex trafficking of underage girls – and these two should be drawn and quartered for it.

The girls were rescued from the motel and the dirtbags arrested after one of the girls managed to call her former foster parent, who then called police to report they were being held “against their will.”

“I know she’s young,” Exavier told police. “She looked like 15 or 16, but not 12 years old.”

As if 15 or 16 makes it any better!

Sadly, this isn’t an isolated case in New York.  It’s going on every day all over the country, including in Nevada.

But you know where it’s NOT happening?

In Nevada’s legal brothels.

In order to work in a legal Nevada brothel, the women are REQUIRED to obtain a sheriff’s work card, which they can only receive after an extensive FBI background check to verify their age and identify any criminal history.

As such, there is no trafficking of underage girls going on in Nevada’s legal brothels.  None.

So if the objective is to eradicate the sex-trafficking of underage girls, as it should be, activists targeting Nevada’s legal brothels keep missing the target.

In Nevada’s legal brothels, you have consenting adult customers doing business with consenting adult service providers.  The businesses and all of their workers are licensed, regulated and taxed.

They are NOT the problem.

Those claiming otherwise who are trying to shut down Nevada’s legal brothels are bad marksmen.  They need to re-direct their fire.

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach Foundation and a consulting adviser to the Nevada Brothel Association

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Nevada Brothel Association resurrected to defend industry

(Robin Hebrock | Pahrump Valley Times) – The 2019 Nevada legislative session is just weeks away, and brothel representatives are taking action to prepare for what may be a battle to save the industry as a whole.

Word has been circulating over the past year that an effort was afoot to outlaw all brothel operations in the Silver State and that appears to be more than simple conjecture. According to the Nevada Legislature’s website, state Sen. Joseph Hardy, R-Boulder City, submitted a Bill Draft Request, labeled BDR 20-110, in June last year with the aim of banning legal prostitution throughout the entire state. Those who work in legal prostitution are not planning to take the move lying down, however, and have started the process of resurrecting the Nevada Brothel Association to head off the attempt.

“Associates of late Nevada State Assemblyman Dennis Hof (R-District 36) have re-registered the Nevada Brothel Association as a state political action committee (PAC) in advance of the 2019 Nevada Legislature,” a news release from the Hof team detailed. “The new PAC was formed by Suzette Cole, general manager of Assemblyman Hof’s business operations in Lyon County, along with Alice Little and Ruby Rae, two legal courtesans who led the successful ‘Save Our Brothels’ campaign to defeat an anti-brothel question on (Lyon County’s) November’s ballot.”

Rae and Little defended their industry in the news release, with Rae noting, “We perform a valuable and safe service that’s been stigmatized and misrepresented for many, many years,” and Little declaring, “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. We don’t have that in legal brothels.”

Rae added that the two gained valuable experience and knowledge when fighting against the Lyon County ballot question seeking to eliminate brothels in that county. The most important aspects, they said, were community outreach and education, giving the public their own side of the story in addition to the negative picture drawn by those opposing legal brothel operations.

As detailed in the release, the Nevada Brothel Association was initially established in 1985 for the same purpose that it holds now, to battle attempts to kill the industry. George Flint was a key player, acting as lobbyist at the Nevada Legislature until 2015,when he retired and the association was disbanded. The association is being reborn with the looming legislative session presenting new threats to brothels all across the state.

“While the effort to ban legal brothels in Lyon County failed this year, a new legislative threat seeking to ban prostitution statewide has emerged,” said Chuck Muth, Assemblyman Hof’s former campaign manager. Muth is the association’s registered agent and is serving as the group’s spokesman. “With Assemblyman Hof no longer here to speak for and defend the industry, it’s necessary for others to step up and carry the torch. That’s why we decided to bring back the Nevada Brothel Association,” Muth stated.

The new association was founded by those involved at Hof’s four Lyon County brothels, the Bunny Ranch, Kit Kat Ranch, Love Ranch North and Sagebrush Ranch. According to the release, the association has plans to reach out to and invite other brothel operators to join the political action committee prior to the start of the 2019 Nevada legislative session as well.

Visit www.NevadaBrothelAssociation.com for more information.

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Radical Anti-Prostitution Feminists are Actually Anti-Feminists

(Christina Parreira) – In a recent column published by the Vancouver Sun, Paul Paterson and Andrew Davidson take feminists who “leave no room for compromise” on the issue of legalizing sex work to the proverbial woodshed.

In particular, the columnists criticize “just how cynical, divisive and meanspirited radical feminism has become,” singling out Meghan Murphy, editor of the Feminist Current blog which boasts of providing a “unique perspective on male violence against women.”

The authors note that Ms. Murphy views prostitution – both legal and illegal – as “patriarchal oppression” in which women, even those willingly engaged in the practice, are exploited to “suit men’s fantasies.”

But Paterson and Davidson maintain she and her followers are barking up the wrong tree…

“If what radical feminists claim is true about prostitution – that it is inherently abusive, oppressive and exploitive – the abolitionist cause surely would garner widespread support.  But times have changed, and it’s the anti-prostitution activists who now find themselves swimming against the current.”

The authors note the Ms. Murphy herself “acknowledges two major shifts in attitudes toward sex work” that indicate she and her anti-prostitution activists are on the wrong side of history…

“First, third-wave feminists have played a ‘foundational role in advocating for the legalization of prostitution.’  Second, the left in North America has ‘almost wholly taken a pro-prostitution stance.’ 

As such, they are increasingly finding themselves the odd (wo)man…

“One of radical feminism’s ultimate goals – criminalizing the demand side of sexual services – remains frustrated by the fact that progressives have joined forces in support of decriminalization.  Rational individuals would view this as an opportunity to question their own self-evident positions.  Alas, Murphy is not among them.”

In addition, progressives on the left were joined this year in a major and public way by live-and-let-live libertarians on the right in support of decriminalization.

At their 2018 national convention in New Orleans, the Libertarian Party adopted a platform that, as Reason Magazine put it, takes a stand “unequivocally for sex-worker rights and in opposition to cops caging people for consensual sex.”

“We assert the right of consenting adults to provide sexual services to clients for compensation,” reads the ground-breaking platform statement, “and the right of clients to purchase sexual services from consenting sex workers.”

Unfortunately, as Paterson and Davidson point out, Ms. Murphy and her adherents consider “those who advocate to legalize prostitution” as traitors to the empowerment-of-women cause…

“When it comes to sex work, radical feminists leave no room for political compromise.  Instead, they adopt a brand of principled moralism that is dictatorial, punitive and judgmental.  Prostitution is viewed through the singular lens: male violence against women.  Women are victims; men are victimizers.  Case closed.”

But the case is decidedly not closed.

As a former legal sex worker in Nevada’s legal brothels, I can assure you I was never a “victim” and my clients were never “victimizers.”  We were consenting adults.  A willing buyer and a willing seller.  It was MY choice.  And it was their choice.

It’s bad enough that many social conservatives continue to stigmatize consenting sex work between adults on moralistic and religious grounds and falsely claim “victimization” and “oppression” of women.

Self-proclaimed feminists such as Ms. Murphy should know better.

Real women – strong, independent women – are perfectly capable of making such decisions ourselves.  To deny that is to perpetuate the myth that women are helpless and incapable of making our own life choices.

That’s about as anti-feminist as you can get.

Christina Parreira, M.A., is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In addition to being an instructor and researcher, she is a proud legal courtesan and an Ambassador for the Nevada Brothel Association.

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The biggest events of 2018 in Lyon County

(Amy Alonzo | Mason Valley News) – Lyon County voters resoundingly told county commissioners they want to keep the county’s five brothels up and running. Responding to an advisory question on the November ballot, about 17,000 voters told commissioners to keep the brothels open while just 4,000 said they wanted them to close. County commissioners have not yet taken any action on the matter.

The issue came to a head after the anti-prostitution and sex trafficking group No Little Girl filed a petition to place a referendum on the county’s ballot giving voters the option of outlawing brothels or freezing the county’s brothel ordinance. Commissioners opted to place their own question on the ballot to prevent the county’s brothel ordinance from possibly being frozen.

There are four brothels in Lyon County, all in the Mound House area. Their owner, Dennis Hof, died in October, but Hof’s associates formed the Nevada Brothel Association earlier this month. Suzette Cole, who is managing Hof’s Lyon County brothels, was named director. The group plans to fight a proposed bill in the upcoming legislative session that aims to end legal prostitution in Nevada. Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, has drafted a bill that addresses legalized prostitution and the issue of human trafficking.

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