Nevada’s legal brothels remain closed during pandemic, so this sex worker is suing: ‘Blatant discrimination’ – By Beth Greenfield (Yahoo!) / Dec 4 2020
With states and cities across the country forming a patchwork of partial shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s one state that’s in a league of its own when it comes to the battle over shuttered businesses: Nevada, where brothels are legal but have been ordered closed since March 17, despite the reopening of other “close contact” business, including spas, salons and massage parlors.
In response to what she sees as an “arbitrary” decision that has left legal sex workers “financially devastated,” Alice Little, an employee at the Moonlite BunnyRanch in Mound House, Nev., who’s considered the top-earning legal sex worker in the U.S., filed a complaint and motion for a preliminary injunction against Nevada’s Gov. Steve Sisolak in the Third Judicial District Court in Lyon County. The lawsuit cites unstated damages and seeks the right for her and other licensed prostitutes to “ply their legal trade” at home or other private locations. The suit alleges that Sisolak has, “without any rational basis, decided to single out brothels.”
Alice Little, a licensed sex worker, is suing Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak over the continued shutdown of the state’s legal brothels. (Photo courtesy of Alice Little)
On Nov. 19, the court ordered the office of the Nevada attorney general to respond to Little’s legal action within 30 days.
“It would be understandable if the governor kept all close-contact businesses closed. But the fact that massage parlors, estheticians, salons, escort services and other non-essential businesses have been allowed to reopen lead me to believe that the governor’s decision to keep brothels closed is just blatant discrimination against Nevada’s legal sex workers,” Little notes in a press release. “I just can’t let the governor arbitrarily decimate the livelihoods of an entire class of hard-working women. That’s why I decided to take legal action.”
