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January 16, 2019 By NBA Staff

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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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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