- If they were worried about the legal sex workers,
wouldn't they have done this in all of the counties?
Why only those two counties?
I don't think that they were expecting
to find a legal sex worker that would be willing
to go in front of a camera and refute
each and every nonsense point they have made.
- Can you back this up?
- Yes, 110%.
- If we lose this ability to work legally,
we will lose everything.
(crying)
- They sure as heck weren't ready for me.
- [Narrator] Prostitution is defined
as a practice or occupation of engaging
in sexual activity with someone for payment.
This type of sex work has been around for a long time.
In many parts of the world, this is illegal
and often done underground.
In the US however, there is one state
where it's allowed.
In Nevada, brothels can operate in counties
with less than 700,000 residents.
But today, in the 2018 midterm elections,
one of these counties is risking losing this privilege
as they are voting on whether brothels
should be banned or remain legal.
Today we are traveling to Lyon County, Nevada
to spend election night with two sex workers
who risk losing their jobs if brothels are to be banned.
As soon as we arrive, we notice
that people are talking about this.
- Maybe two months ago, I picked up a lady.
And she comes four times a month to work at the ranch.
- Yeah.
- For what she's making,
I wish there was a demand for me.
(laughing)
I'd be interested to see how things play out though.
- Are we here?
Don't get the outside of the house.
(knocking)
- Hey. - Hi Lex, how are you?
- How are you.
Come in, Alice is actually recording a YouTube video.
- I think that's all we have for this week.
Thank you so much for once again joining me
for another Coffee With Alice.
So good to finally meet you.
- I know, same.
- So I'm here right now
because I wanna be here for the election.
I live out of state and fly in here to work.
It was the only option for me.
I have kids, I don't wanna get arrested.
I don't want my work to be criminalized.
I want channels through which I can work
that provide me protections.
And after doing a lot of research
it really came to be that
the brothels here were the only option.
I'm a independent contractor.
I went to the Sheriff's Department,
had a full background check.
I was fingerprinted.
I have a Sheriff's card.
I go to the doctor every week to get tested.
Every month blood and every week we have a cervical swab.
And we can't work unless we pass the test.
All protection is used during every act.
Condom for everything.
Dental dam for oral sex.
You know, we have panic buttons in our room.
We have security on staff.
We have cameras.
When prostitution is illegal, girls die.
They get raped, they get robbed.
They suffer violence from pimps, other girls.
There's not money and resources
for every working girl to be able to get tested
and know she's safe.
Or access to condoms and protection.
There's many girls that would be forced out
to work illegally.
If we lose this ability to work legally,
we will lose everything.
(ominous music)
- I'm Alice Little and I am a legal sex worker
at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch.
So today, we get to find out the results
of many, many hard months of campaigning
and letting people know who we are
and what the legal brothels are actually about.
The biggest misconception about sex workers
is that we sell sex.
What we do is offer intimacy, a service,
much in the same way that a mental health professional
provides a service to the community.
A mental health professional addresses mental health needs.
A legal sex worker addresses sex and intimacy needs.
During that time, I essentially step into
an ersatz relationship with my guest.
We hold hands, we touch, we kiss,
and we do a lot more than just having sex.
I look at what we have done for Lyon County.
The jobs we've provided, the tax dollars, the revenue,
and how that's bled back into the economy.
I think that it would be really incredible
to see what that benefit could be for other counties.
Much in the same way that we're taking tax dollars
and revenue funds from medical marijuana
and using that towards our schools,
why don't we take the money from legalized sex work
and move that forward in the community
to continue to benefit and grow our communities?
- I guess the biggest question that at least we have
is when did this petition come about
and who is pushing it?
- So the real issue started when Dennis entered politics.
Dennis was running as a Libertarian for State Assembly
and he did not win that year.
Because the county is so red,
essentially he was told the only way he would be able to win
is to run as a Republican.
At this point, he had to win twice.
First in the primary against James Oscarson
and then in the general election, which happens today.
At that time, Jason Guinasso forms a pack, ETAP,
which stands for End Trafficking and Prostitution.
And they pushed the petition,
both in the Lyon County, but also in another county, too.
They started a petition in Nye County.
Dennis owns brothels in only two of the counties
that it is legal.
Interestingly enough, this group only pushed petitions
in the two counties that Dennis owned brothels in.
- Right.
- So if they were worried about the legal sex workers,
wouldn't they have done this in all of the counties?
Why only those two counties?
Are they trying to save sex workers?
Or are they just trying to put Dennis out of business?
- What is the relation between the lawyer
and Dennis's (mumbles).
- Jason Guinasso works for Hutchison's law firm.
And as we know, Mark Hutchison
is a close political ally for James Oscarson
who Dennis was running against for office.
Because of that ally-ship,
it's entirely probable that Jason Guinasso
was asked to file this petition on behalf of Oscarson
in an attempt to distract Dennis from his campaign.
Jason is the one who triggered the petition
in the first place.
He helped them organize.
He got the paperwork in place.
And then pushed the issue forward.
Thankfully, the Nye County petition failed to receive
enough signatures so they dropped it.
Entirely dropped it.
But what happened in Lyon County
is really unfortunate.
Fearing that they would manage to get enough signatures,
the commissioners offered to put an advisory question
on the ballot.
Nothing happens based off of the vote.
It's just pretty much to measure public opinion.
- Historically they always go
with what the popular vote says.
- Correct, they've always gone with the popular vote.
Dennis, did in fact defeat Oscarson in the primary.
Dennis passed away just a couple of weeks ago.
- So with Dennis now being gone, what does that mean?
- They are still pushing.
At this point, Dennis's name's still on the ballot.
He very well could win that seat post-humanously.
(suspenseful music)
- So we've been here for about two hours now
at the watch party.
The polls closed, what, two hours ago?
- Two hours ago.
I'm still confident that we're gonna be okay.
But not knowing, is just kind of eating away.
- It's hard, it's really hard.
- We wanna know.
We just wanna know already.
- Being here now as it's happening,
is actually really surreal and kinda scary,
and seeing how close all the other
elections coming through have been.
It's really nerve-racking, and I wanna believe
so hard that it's gonna work out.
- Partial results.
(suspenseful music)
- You can't really get caught up in judging
what people do or why they do it
'cause life is tough sometimes.
And we all don't have the same cards dealt to us
so I don't judge anything or anybody.
(upbeat music)