(By Ruby Rae) – Recently the Reno Gazette-Journal ran an op-ed written by a Texas woman named Rebekah Charleston who made a number of absolutely outrageous claims about Lyon County’s legal brothels that, as a legal sex worker, I can’t let go unanswered.

Ms. Charleston, who’s been on a crusade to “save” sex workers for years now, claims she’s a “survivor who was once trafficked into Nevada’s legal brothels.”

But her story – as with the entire campaign to ban brothels in Lyon County – is loaded with misinformation and outright lies.

First, she claims to have worked at both the Bunny Ranch and Love Ranch where – because the industry is so tightly regulated and controlled via sheriff-issued work cards – the brothels are required to maintain extensive employment records.

And guess what?

Neither the general manager nor the accountant at the ranches has been able to find any record of Rebekah Charleston ever working there…and not one supposed co-worker or customer remembers her.

Of course, it would be extremely helpful to know exactly when Ms. Charleston claims to have worked in Lyon County – a detail she conveniently omitted in her column.

Why is this important?

Because if she claims to have worked there after she got out of prison in 2007, she must have lied about her felony criminal record or used a fake name and ID in order to obtain a work card from the sheriff. 

And if she’d lie about that, what else would she lie about?

In fact, what it appears Ms. Charleston is deceptively doing is taking her experience working as a prostitute in an illegal brothel in Texas in the early 2000’s and using that to smear Lyon County’s legal brothels.

According to a CBS11 I-Team report back in January, Charleston was arrested “for money laundering and tax evasion” as part of a “high-dollar prostitution ring” operated out of “a very unlikely place – an upscale Denton home” in a Dallas suburb where she lived with her pimp.

This is important to point out because Lyon County residents need to understand that if you ban our legal brothels, that won’t make prostitution go away. 

Illegal brothels will simply spring up in your neighborhoods rather than be confined to out-of-the-way industrial parks.

The money laundering and tax evasion for which Ms. Charleston went to prison involved a pizza restaurant she co-owned “to disguise the money” she was making illegally as an illegal prostitute working in an illegal brothel operated illegally out of a luxury home in Texas – not Nevada.

In the I-Team report, Ms. Charleston details the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of the violent street pimp she worked for.

“If you didn’t obey the rules, you’d be beaten,” she said.

 

But that’s why so many of us have CHOSEN to work in a legal brothel.  That kind of abuse simply doesn’t happen here.  We’re safe. 

And because we’re working legally, *if* anything even close to what Ms. Charleston is claiming ever happened, we wouldn’t be afraid of getting arrested if we reported it to law enforcement authorities.

Ms. Charleston also claims that Lyon County’s legal sex workers don’t have the freedom “to turn down buyers,” and that when a customer came in and picked her, “we would bring the sex buyer back to our room where he was allowed to do whatever he wanted with us.”

“This is simply untrue,” writes sex worker Ruby Rose of Sheri’s brothel in response.  “We always have the freedom to turn away clients at any time and for any reason.

“When a sex worker goes back to her room with a client who chooses her in a lineup, it’s to negotiate price and activity, not to let him do whatever he wants.”

“Absolutely FALSE,” adds sex worker Kourtney Chase of the Love Ranch.  “I can turn down anyone I want.  Listen to the ladies who actually work at the brothels and have experienced it first-hand!!”

“She lying straight through her teeth,” legal sex worker Kiki Lover of the Kit Kat Ranch stated plainly.

The fact is, in the legal brothels we have the choice – always – to say which clients we will say yes and no to.  We also have staff that would never let a man hurt us, and we have a clientele that do not come here to hurt us.  Period.

Ms. Charleston also claims women working in Lyon County’s brothels “were not able to come and go as they pleased.”

This is another outright lie.

“We make our own hours, time off and much more,” writes legal sex worker Destiny Starr of the Love Ranch. “We are not held as hostages.”

“The Lyon County brothels are NOT lock-down brothels,” adds Christina Parreira, a legal sex worker and PhD student at UNLV who’s writing her doctoral thesis on her experience working in Nevada’s legal brothels, “and that’s easy for anyone to verify.

“Workers leave all the time.  ALL THE TIME.  The Lyon County brothels have NEVER run on a lock-down system.”

And I can attest to that personally myself.  I leave on a regular basis to attend classes at UNR while pursuing my Master’s degree.

Now, as to the overall claim by Ms. Charleston that sex trafficking occurs in Lyon County, Christina says that’s also absolutely untrue.

“Sex trafficking is a problem, but it’s not a problem occurring in legal Nevada brothels,” she writes.  “In the past four years of deep ethnographic research into the Nevada brothels – including working/living there and over 60 interviews with other sex workers – I found zero evidence of sex trafficking.

“Zero. None. Nada. It’s not happening. I don’t know how to be any clearer.”

“Consenting adults are not victims of trafficking,” adds Kourtney.  “Legal sex workers are simply doing it as a job and we should have the right to choose sex work as our career.”

“The anti-brothel movement claims to want to protect and liberate legal sex workers under the assumption that we are helpless, trafficked by pimps and participating in the adult industry against our will,” writes Alice Little, a legal sex worker at the Bunny Ranch brothel.

“It’s illegal sex work that exploits children,” Alice continues.  “It’s illegal sex work that traffics. It’s illegal sex work that sees women exploited and abused by pimps.

“The legal system people such as Ms. Charleston are attacking actually creates a safe haven from the dangers of the illegal industry. The idea that you’re advocating for the ‘rights’ of women by taking away their right to work is irony that borders on deranged.”

But in conclusion, I think Destiny put it best: “We are regular workers and we are regular people. We pay taxes, mortgages and much more. We are not victims.  Leave us alone.”

Sound advice.  Live and let live.

(Ruby Rae has lived in Nevada for 15 years with her parents, grandparents and siblings. She has worked in a brothel for seven years and is now an M.A. student at UNR.)

(Chuck Muth) – No, ICE didn’t “raid” the world-famous Bunny Ranch brothels.  Here’s the real story…

If you believe the “fake news” media you’d have come to believe that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with deputies from the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, conducted an immigration “raid” on Lyon County’s four legal brothels last week and found illegal immigrants working there and “sex trafficking” going on.

Here’s a spattering of the breathless headlines…

• “Immigration violations, possible sex trafficking found at Nevada brothels” – Reuters

• “Dennis Hof is investigated for human trafficking and immigration violations at his three legal brothels” – Daily Mail

• Possible immigration violations found at Mound House brothels” – Mason Valley News

• “Nevada Brothels Run by Dennis Hof under investigation for immigration violations, possibly sex trafficking – New York Daily News

• “LCSO Finds Brothel Work Cards in Violation of US Immigration Law” – KTNV News 2

The KTNV story started out thusly…

“The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office reports they conducted a series of brothel work card compliance checks of prostitutes with the assistance of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

“They said the prostitutes who obtained work cards were contrary to Lyon County Code and in possible violation of U.S. immigration law for the Mound House brothels, Bunny Ranch, Kit Kat Ranch and Love Ranch.”

The Mason Valley News started out like this…

“Prostitutes at Bunny Ranch, Kit Kat Ranch and the Love Ranch North were inspected for possible violation of United States immigration laws during an Oct. 3 work card compliance check.  During the check, 19 expired work cards were discovered, as well as possible acts of human trafficking.”

Sounds pretty bad, right?  Keep reading…

The misleading headlines had anti-legal brothel crusaders foaming at the mouth.  Assemblywoman Jill Tolles got herself all worked up in a lather and tweeted a link to the KTNV story with the following…

“The four-month long investigation found… U.S. immigration law violations, foreign country human trafficking indicators…”

So many things to be proud of in our State… this is not one of them.  #WeDeserveBetter

Added Dylan Shaver, vice president of the Nevada Mining Association…

“Thank you, Assemblywoman, for speaking up against this tarnish on the Silver State.”

It takes a lot of brass for the spokesperson of an industry that’s been raping our land and natural resources to claim someone else is “tarnishing” our state.  But…whatever.

As you can see, the headlines, reporting, and social media rants all would have you believe the BROTHELS have been doing something wrong and got caught in an ICE “raid.”

Total bat guano.

Let’s start with an easy one; the claim that “19 expired work cards were discovered.”

That’s possible.  But it’s meaningless – since none of the individuals were still working there.  That’s like having an expired credit card being “discovered” in your wallet.

Next, the most outrageous: Assemblywoman Tolles’ selective editing of the KTNV report.

She left out the part about this being a four-month investigation of registration procedures and practices followed by the sheriff’s office in issuing work cards, not the brothels.

Repeat…

BROTHELS DON’T ISSUE WORK CARDS!

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office does.

It is the responsibility of sheriff’s office to do background checks on anyone wishing to work in one of Nevada’s legal brothels, not the brothels.  And the brothels don’t let anyone work there unless they have a work card issued by THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE.

What her highness Assemblywoman Tolles did – to advance her anti-brothel agenda – was dishonest and disgraceful.  Her selectively-edited tweet was written and sent either out of malice or ignorance. Either way, it does not reflect well on an elected official.

If she has any honor she’ll delete the tweet and issue an official, public apology.

Don’t hold your breath waiting.

Now back to the main story…

Fortunately, one reporter – Michelle Rindels of the Nevada Independent – actually got the facts correct rather than going for the easy click-bait headline…

Immigration agents, deputies visit Lyon County brothels for compliance checks; sheriff says county regulation ‘inadequate’

And here’s her tweet linking to the article…

Immigration agents join sheriff’s personnel on ‘educational’ visits to Lyon County brothels; no citations or arrests

And here’s her opening paragraph…

“Lyon County sheriff’s officials said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents joined them on unannounced visits to the county’s legal brothels on Wednesday afternoon, but the stops were educational and did not lead to arrests or citations.”

An “educational” visit, not a “raid.”

But wait, there’s more…

As Rindels notes, the four-month “investigation” was not on the brothels, but an “internal audit” of the SHERIFF’S OFFICE itself…

“Michael Carlson, administrative director for the Lyon County sheriff’s office, said the agency has been internally auditing its procedures and has realized it wasn’t following its brothel registration policies to the letter. The Wednesday visit was ‘used as teaching lesson’ for sheriff’s officials, ICE agents and brothel workers to better understand the ordinance and immigration laws.”

The unannounced compliance check – which is normal and customary and happens on a regular basis – allegedly found three workers – out of more than 500 – working at the brothels who were in the country illegally.

Alas, one was later verified as a U.S. citizen, one had already left the country, and the third no longer even worked at the brothel.

So much for that.

In any event – and this is the key point – all had work cards issued by the SHERIFF’S OFFICE.  The SHERIFF’S OFFICE issued the work cards, not the brothels.

So as far as the brothels knew, all three were in the country legally since the sheriff’s office had completed its background check on them and issued them work cards.

In fact, as Rindels noted, “sheriff’s officials characterized the problems as deficiencies in Lyon County regulation of brothels rather than willful violations from the brothels themselves.”

In addition, Sheriff Al McNeil plainly stated: “I do want to add that we do not believe [brothel owner Dennis] Hof or any of his staff are knowingly engaged in international human trafficking.”

And yet the click-baiters felt free to post “fake news” headlines such as “Dennis Hof is investigated for human trafficking and immigration violations at his three legal brothels.”

Let’s keep going…

“Prostitutes at the brothels are considered independent contractors,” Rindels reported, adding that “the law does prevent businesses from contracting with an independent contractor if they know that person is not authorized to work legally in the country.”

But the brothels don’t know that!

All they know is that the contractors had their backgrounds checked by the SHERIFF’S OFFICE and were issued a work card by the SHERIFF’S OFFICE saying they were legally eligible to work in the county.

Indeed…

“The sheriff’s office regularly conducts ‘compliance checks’ to ensure that prostitutes are properly registered with the county and have valid ‘work cards’ issued by the sheriff allowing them to work in a legal brothel. Having ICE agents along was meant to help sheriff’s officials know what they were looking at when examining green cards and brief them on relevant federal law and was a first for the agency.”

So as you can see, this entire matter was about the SHERIFF’S OFFICE and the processes and procedures IT’S following before issuing work cards, not the brothels.

That’s not my assessment; that’s what Sheriff McNeil himself told Lyon County commissioners last week…

In his report, McNeil noted that the internal investigation of the sheriff’s office uncovered “issuance of work cards prior to completing criminal history background checks” and blamed “clerical staff processing these applications who do not have the required knowledge and skills to conduct the mandated background checks.”

That’s a sheriff’s office failure, not the brothels.

But you wouldn’t know that in reading news stories and social media posts other than Ms. Rindels’.

So, what’s this really all about?  Money.

Sheriff McNeil is using the “international human trafficking” hot-button to solicit more tax dollars for his department.  He said so himself…

“It is projected that a qualified and trained full-time clerk needs to replace the part-time Dayton clerk to process all applications, and our Investigations Bureau will need to be initially increased by one detective to become part of a regional sex trafficking task force on a ½ time basis until more work load data is obtained in order to determine if the position warrants a full-time work-load.”

But as Frank Hunewill, Sheriff McNeil’s opponent in the upcoming general election, put it in a debate back in August: “There’s always a way to fix something without throwing money at it.”

So it seems the common-sense solution to these problems isn’t to unfairly and wrongly “tarnish” and scapegoat Lyon County’s legal brothels…but to elect a new sheriff.

(Mr. Muth is president of CitizenOutreach.org and publisher of NevadaNewsandViews.com.  He blogs at MuthsTruths.com.  His views are his own.)

The Brothels of Lyon County have been operating legally for almost 50 years now.  They’re not hurting anybody.  They’re not bothering anybody.  No one is forced to work there.  No one is forced to go there.

Live and let live.  It’s the Nevada way.  Why would anyone want to fix that which isn’t broken?  Unless, of course, you WANT happy hookers in mini-skirts propositioning you for a date while waiting in line for a Big Mac.

(Mr. Muth is president of CitizenOutreach.org and publisher of NevadaNewsandViews.com.  He blogs at MuthsTruths.com.  His views are his own.)

(Kourtney Chase) – I used to work on the streets and was a victim of sex trafficking as a minor.

Nevada’s legal brothels are the safest work environment I have ever had; without fear of pimps, being robbed, raped, and arrested – all of which happened to me multiple times when I was working on the streets and independently online.

Brothels became my safe haven. I was able to have the proof of income I needed to get a place to live, get a car loan , etc.

I became legitimate and did not have to constantly look over my shoulders. I had the tools to start building the foundation for my future without having to give up sex work or the bigger amount of money I could make doing sex work vs. a minimum wage job.

I only have a GED and dropped out of college to continue sex work. I WANTED to do sex work. It wasn’t the industry that was bad; it was always the bad people in the industry that made it bad.

This is an issue that is near and dear to my heart. We should not shut down legal brothels; we should expand them across the country. And make the laws to regulate the brothels a little less strict so more ladies are able to work safely.

I take the compassionate approach because I would never wish some of the things that have happened to me on other sex workers. We deserve to have a safe work environment and Nevada is a great model.

Bad things happen to those in the illegal world everyday – which can be prevented with legalization/decriminalization. Consenting adults are not victims of trafficking. Our clients are not creepy or perverted. 80% of the time all parties involved are nice, normal people!

Some sex workers are simply doing it as a “job” and some truly enjoy their job as a sex worker. Both valid voices! We should have the right to choose sex work as our job or career. Not everyone is dealt the same cards in life, and for many women this is a great option.

Unfortunately most illegal sex workers have experienced arrest, violence, or trafficking.

But sex workers and their clients are not the bad guys. It’s the traffickers, street pimps, rapists, robbers, etc., who target sex workers because prostitution is a “black market” in most of the U.S.  They think they can get away with it because sex workers fear reporting them to the police since sex work is illegal in the first place!

Some don’t live to report anything.

When you legalize prostitution you take all of the bad things that happen out of the equation. I LOVE THE BROTHELS!!!

Please vote “NO” on Lyon County Question 1 so they don’t take away the safe haven for many girls like me who have experienced violence/arrest/trafficking in the illegal industry.

Women will not stop doing sex work. All this will do is take away many women’s safety and legitimate income!!!  We are very privileged here at the Lyon County brothels and I am grateful to everyone who is fighting for us!

Ms. Chase is a legal sex worker at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada

(Christina Parreira) – Prostitution has been legal in Lyon County, Nevada for over forty years. In that time, the Nevada model for licensed and regulated prostitution has proven to be a time-tested and remarkably successful social experiment, where, under an umbrella of strict legislation, sex workers operating out of rurally-located brothels thrive harmoniously with their Lyon County neighbors. Now, after all these years, a small group of Lyon County residents have decided that they have a beef with the bordellos.

The group calling itself “No Little Girl” is petitioning to close the legal brothels in Lyon County, and remove the livelihood of hundreds of women who have made an informed choice to work in these establishments. On the “Issues” page of this group’s website, they make claims that the legality of brothels does nothing to make women any safer, and that prostitution is inherently violence against women.

However, the page cites data that either has been debunked or has nothing to do with legal prostitution. The handful of individuals that submitted the petition represent faith-based organizations, and seem to be more concerned with pushing their specific moral agenda onto the whole of Lyon County than with the actual safety of the women in the brothels. Let’s take a closer look at the information on the group’s website…

The group suggests that large tech companies won’t move to the county and boost the local economy because of the existence of legal brothels, but they neglect to mention that Lance Gilman, owner of the Mustang Ranch brothel, helped bring Tesla to Nevada. The massive Tesla Gigafactory is located seven miles from the Mustang Ranch, proving that tax incentives and smart dealmaking are what bring big name tech companies into an area.

Brothels are clearly not a factor in the decision making, especially when one considers that a brothel owner played a key role in convincing a tech giant to choose Nevada for its factory location.

Concerning the safety of women in the brothels, the website cites Melissa Farley, a researcher whose work was debunked years ago. Farley claims to have interviewed 45 women in the Nevada brothels but discounts their comments in her 2007 book, writing “I knew that they would minimize how bad it was” (p. 22).

Farley writes that her data does not support her conclusions because women “ignore bad things or they pretended that unpleasantness will go away, or they call the degrading abuse of prostitution by another name that sounds better” (p. 22).

Farley did not listen to the women and instead formed her conclusions based on her own moral agenda. In 2011 Dr. Calum Bennachie, a gender studies scholar, sent a 115 page formal complaint to the American Psychological Association requesting that Farley be disqualified for professional misconduct. In his complaint he detailed evidence to show that “Dr. Farley is repeating unsubstantiated rumour as fact” and “is deliberately misleading people” (2011).

Farley has a long and well-known history of discounting the voices of sex workers in an effort to push her ideological agenda. The website also cites a 2004 study by Potterat, but the sample is from women working independently in Colorado; a very different group of women with work conditions that are nothing like those in the legal Nevada brothels.

Women who work illegally are subject to rape and assault because they do not have protections under the law. Criminalization forces them to work in unsafe settings and unlike in the legal Nevada brothels, they cannot call for help when they are raped or assaulted. This speaks to the harms of criminalization, not of prostitution.

On the FAQ page, it states that women are often raped in the legal brothels. This is grossly inaccurate. In my own doctoral research of 53 women working in 5 Nevada brothels, I did not encounter a single woman who had reported being raped by a client in the brothel, and I was certainly never raped during my years working in the brothels.

Perhaps the most inflammatory claim on the FAQ portion of the website is that most of the women in the brothels are under the control of pimps. This is simply not true.

Of the 53 women I interviewed, 5 reported that they had pimps BEFORE they worked in the brothels but since coming to work legally were able to escape this coercion and freely offer intimate services. One worker told me of the horrific abuse she endured at the hands of a pimp, and she was grateful to have escaped him and be in a place where she could work safely and legally. She credited her newfound safety and freedom to the brothel. She feared that if she went back to her home state, her former pimp would find her, kidnap her, and force her back on the streets.

The FAQ section claims that legalization does not improve conditions for prostitutes or women in the community. We can look to Rhode Island as a case study: In Rhode Island prostitution was decriminalized from 2003-2009. A study done by Cunningham & Shah (2014) shows that rates of rape and gonorrhea plummeted with decriminalization; 824 fewer rape offenses (31 percent decrease) and 1035 fewer cases of female gonorrhea (39 percent decrease) from 2004-2009.

The FAQ section also asks the question “has anyone asked the women what they want?” My fellow workers and I have reached out to this organization over the past 2 weeks, desperately trying to make our voices heard. We tell them that we are happy with our chosen careers and that we do not want to lose our jobs, but they are not listening, and continue to push their moral agenda onto us.

As a licensed prostitute and PhD student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, I can tell you that what I want is to continue to have the freedom to choose to work in a safe environment, where I can practice a trade that I love, lawfully and prosperously. Sex work is definitely not my last resort or my only option — it is my choice. I’d like to continue to have the opportunity to make that choice legally.

If you really care about us, just listen to us.

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.

(Alice Little) – My name is Alice Little. I’m the top booking lady at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch and I’d like to talk to you about a movement that was started in the local community to close the brothels in Lyon County.

The movement claims to want to protect and liberate legal sex workers under the assumption that we are helpless, trafficked by pimps and participating in the adult industry against our will. The movement was originally started by a group called “No Little Girl” (the idea being that “no little girl” dreams of being a sex worker when she grows up).

To try to gain momentum for their political movement, they have canvassed churches, attended county functions and posted horrible ads that imply that legal sex workers are pieces of meat to be bought and sold.

I want to start by telling you this group has never — not once — tried coming to the ranch to talk to the ladies and ask them about the working conditions there. This entire campaign is simply fueled by questionable religious morality, society’s stigma about sex, and misinformation.

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. The irony is that the legal system these people are trying to attack actually creates a safe haven from the dangers of the illegal industry. The idea that a group that wants to advocate for the “rights” of women by taking away their right to work and trying to tell them who they may or may not choose to be physically intimate with is irony that borders on deranged.

The legal sex work industry not only solves more problems than it creates, we are among the largest taxpayers in our county and frequently make donations and create events for the local community, including funding the Dayton Dog Park, charitably supporting the Boys and Girls Club and advocating for positive change in our community. We are involved, intelligent, conscientious citizens, not pieces of meat.

Has it really been so long since the 18th Amendment and Prohibition that those who believe their morality should be forced on others forget that when you make basic human behaviors and proclivities illegal, you only create crime? Making alcohol illegal only created speakeasies, mobsters and dangerous moonshine. Making brothel work illegal only creates illegal massage parlors, violent pimps and unsafe sexual practices.

Consider that porn is legal almost everywhere in the United States and that it is simply consensual sex between adults with money involved in front of a camera. Taking away the camera doesn’t magically change what is going on. What is going on is safe, consensual, documented sex between adults.

Nevadans are forward thinkers. We recognize that industries like gambling and recreational marijuana create less negative social impacts when they are legalized and regulated. Does anyone really think that if we made recreational marijuana illegal tomorrow, people would stop using it? You would simply create crime again and deny the revenue and positive social impact that is so crucial to help mitigate any negatives brought about by legalization. This is no different.

Legal brothels are heavily regulated; every woman is of age, is there of her own free will, and tested weekly after being registered with the sheriff’s department. Are some of the ladies survivors of abuse or trafficking? I haven’t personally heard stories, but given that literally every other state of the union forces women underground into an illegal industry, is it really that surprising?

The question in front of us is whether or not Nevada’s legal, regulated system creates more problems than it solves, and given that myself and my co-workers are happy, healthy, voluntarily employed and not being exploited, what are we really accomplishing here?

The momentum of this group’s petition has forced the commissioners to place an advisory question on the local ballot as to whether or not the legal brothels should remain open. It is fully within the purview of the commissioners to close down the brothels once that issue is voted on, so I would urge anyone who really believes that we are being exploited to talk to the girls and hear in their own words how they are treated by the legal, regulated system and if it needs to be dismantled.

We offer free tours at the ranches and will jump at the opportunity to show you that our facilities are clean, professional and regulated – and never mistreat or exploit the ladies who choose to work there.

Being against the closing of the brothels does not mean we are for sex trafficking. That makes no sense. A legal regulated system prevents exploitation; it doesn’t encourage it.

Don’t cost the county millions in tax revenue and compromise the safety of legal county residents. Please vote “NO” on Lyon County Question 1.

Alice Little is a sex worker at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Mound House