(Ryan Sanders | Dallas Morning News) – An anti-human trafficking activist in North Texas has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Nevada in a bid to end legalized prostitution there. The complaint, filed Monday morning in Reno by Rebekah Charleston, contends that Nevada’s legal brothels are in violation of federal law preventing interstate commerce in prostitution, and that the market created by those brothels contributes to illegal sex trafficking. It names the state of Nevada, its Legislature and Gov. Steve Sisolak as defendants.
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But others will probably not be sympathetic. Sex is big business in Nevada. According to a 2005 report in the Nevada Law Journal, brothels pull in about $25 million per year. The counties, rather than the state, collect licensing fees, property taxes, work-card fees, investigation fees and liquor license fees, totaling about $10 million a year.
Christina Parreira is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a former licensed sex worker. She called Guinasso a predator whose motivation is publicity.
“We are already a maligned and stigmatized group,” Parreira said of sex workers. “We don’t deserve this. We deserve to be left alone, to work, make money, and live our lives like every other American.”
Charleston’s case seems to hinge on two factors…