CARSON CITY, Nev.—As just about everyone knows, Nevada is the only state in the Union where prostitution is legal—and not even in all of Nevada. It's barred in Clark County, where Las Vegas snags tourists' cash in ways other than actual sex, not to mention Lincoln, Washoe (where legendary divorce capital Reno is), Eureka, Pershing and Douglas counties, as well as Carson City, the state capital. But in those areas where it is legal, brothel owners (like the late Dennis Hof) must continually fight attempts to criminalize their business—like, f'r'instance, Lyon County Question 1 on the 2018 midterm ballot, which would have rescinded the county's Brothel Ordinance and shut its brothels permanently—and which thankfully didn't pass.
But it's things like that ballot question and and other machinations by ultra-religious politicians who believe that having sex for money is sinful that make it necessary for brothel owners and workers to have a voice in Carson City. And for many years that voice was George Flint, an ordained Pentecostal minister, father of four, owner of a Reno wedding chapel—and the main lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Association, whose mission was (is!) to keep the brothels legal, as they have been since the 1860s.
The Nevada Brothel Association was founded in 1985, and since then, Flint has hobnobbed with state legislators (and occasionally arranged freebies for some of them with the pros), and he became so well known that at one point, legislators signed a joint Senate and Assembly proclamation declaring a "George Flint Day" at the Capitol to signify his "outstanding and valuable contributions as Nevada's longest-standing senior lobbyist."
But Flint retired in 2015, and with his departure, the Nevada Brothel Association, according to its own website, "withered on the vine and died"—but that was hardly the end of brothel lobbying. For that, there was always the flamboyant brothel owner (and Brothel Association president) Dennis Hof, whose tireless self-promotion around the state (including taking booths for at least two years at the annual Adult Entertainment Expo) and, indeed, the country with his HBO "reality show" Cathouse, shot at one of his several brothels, made him a well-known figure. Hof parlayed his fame into a run, on the Libertarian Party ticket, for the District 36 Assembly seat in the state legislature in 2016, and when that failed, he tried for the same seat again in 2018, this time as a Republican—and got an astounding 68 percent of the vote. Even more astounding: By election day, he was dead, having partied a bit too much for his 72nd birthday on October 14. (Nevada election rules prohibited removing his name from the ballot, and his win allowed the Nevada Republican Party to choose someone to serve in his place.)
With Hof gone, it's questionable how many current adult actresses will choose to work in Nevada brothels, as several of their predecessors had done at Hof's Moonlite Bunny Ranch in the past, but it's estimated that there are currently about 200 prostitutes working in the state's 21 legal—and highly regulated—brothels. And while it's known that brothel workers are required to be tested weekly for a variety of STDs, what's less known is that the brothels pay millions of dollars each year in taxes—taxes that, in 2005, they themselves lobbied to be levied. The state legislature declined to impose a statewide tax at that time, but each county where brothels are located has enacted its own tax law, and the brothels obey.
But with brothels still a multimillion-dollar business in Nevada, and with a cadre of state politicians working steadily to have that business criminalized, having a lobbyist at the state capital is perhaps more important than ever, so some of Hof's associates have re-registered the Nevada Brothel Association as a state political action committee (PAC) in advance of the first meeting of the 2019 Nevada Legislature.
The new PAC was formed by Suzette Cole, who was the general manager of Hof’s Lyon County brothels, along with Alice Little and Ruby Rae, two legal courtesans who led the successful battle against Question 1.
"We perform a valuable and safe service that’s been stigmatized and misrepresented for many, many years," said Rae. "What we learned from fighting Lyon County Question 1 was that it’s extremely important and productive to reach out to the community and tell our side of the story. We invited our opponents to debate us in a series of town hall meetings, but they refused, so the forums were more educational, where we just answered questions from the audience. And we ended up winning with 80 percent of the vote."
As far as what legal brothels do for the community, Little had an answer.
It’s illegal sex work that exploits children," Little pointed out. "It’s illegal sex work that traffics. It’s illegal sex work that sees women exploited and abused by pimps. We don’t have that in legal brothels."
With both Flint and Hof gone, Hof's former campaign manager, Chuck Muth, has signed on as the PAC’s registered agent and serves as the group’s spokesman.
“While the effort to ban legal brothels in Lyon County failed this year, a new legislative threat seeking to ban prostitution statewide has emerged,” said Muth. “With Assemblyman Hof no longer here to speak for and defend the industry, it’s necessary for others to step up and carry the torch. That’s why we decided to bring back the Nevada Brothel Association."
The Association is currently reaching out to brothels beyond Lyon County to strengthen its membership in time to begin lobbying the state legislature when it resumes sessions in early 2019. The group's philosophy can be found here.
Pictured, l-r: Ruby Rae, Alice Little, Chuck Muth and Hof's frequent companion Air Force Amy.
