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September 14, 2018 By NBA Staff

In Defense of Legal Prostitution in Lyon County

(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.

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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