A bad night for anti-sex work authoritarians: there will be no brothel ban in Lyon County, Nevada.
The brothel ban ballot measure has gone down in flames — and it was a landslide: 16,642 votes against to 4,031 for.
The estimated population of Lyon County is only 54,122, and it has only 30,965 registered voters.
Brothel worker Alice Little tweeted Tuesday night:
A ban on licensed brothels would not only put hundreds of people out of work, but also cost the county half a million in revenue each year. Lyon County voters proved too savvy to fall for the sex trafficking scare tactics of anti-sex work fanatics.
The brothel ban ballot question started as a petition initiative late last year.
Meanwhile, famed brothel owner Dennis Hof was elected to the Nevada state assembly three weeks after he died at his Love Ranch brothel.
The Republican and self-described Trump of Pahrump, who had turned 72 shortly before his Oct. 16 death, cruised to a win against Democrat opponent Lesia Romanov in the Pahrump-area state Assembly, earning — appropriately — around 69% of the vote.
“It’s kind of like Moses,” his campaign manager, Chuck Muth, told Think Progress ahead of the election. “He’s not going to make it to the promised land with us…but we hope he’s watching from the great beyond.”
Because Hof died after July 4, his name remained on the ballot and the county clerk’s office posted notices at all polling places that the candidate was dead.
From here, the board of county commissioners will replace his empty seat with a member of the deceased candidate’s party.
Ballot measure
LYON COUNTY ADVISORY QUESTION NO.1
Shall the Lyon County Board of Commissioners rescind Title 3, Chapter 5, the Lyon County Brothel Ordinance, in order to end brothels and legalized prostitution in Lyon County, Nevada?
Over the summer the board of county commissioners agreed to put the brothel-ending measure on the ballot.
It is an advisory question, so even if voters vote for or against the ban the board technically could still make the final decision.
“People think this is really the right time to turn the page on industries from Nevada’s past and really enter the new Nevada and all the opportunity and new identity that our state’s beginning to embrace,” said Jason Guinasso, an attorney who drafted the referendums with the vile “No Little Girl” campaign, which is funded and administered by the End Trafficking and Prostitution Political Action Committee.
While not a single peer-reviewed study backs up his beliefs, Guinasso said claims women who are involved in Nevada’s sex industry are victims of exploitation. “Women are there either because of financial duress or a drug addiction, or some pimp is pushing them in there,” Guinasso said.
Financial duress? LOL Name me an employed working-class person who doesn’t go to his or her job because they need the money.
No Little Girl asserts that all paid sex constitutes violence against women. The women working at Nevada’s brothels disagree:
In the unlikely event the brothel ban does pass, Lyon County Manager Jeff Page says he’ll meet with the district attorney Wednesday morning to decide the next steps.
“Do we create an ordinance that rescinds the existing title and eliminate it tomorrow, or do we do it over a period of time, dealing with humanity and giving people notice that, hey you’re not going to have a job in six months?”
Page says if the ban doesn’t pass those against the brothels could possibly go back to the petition process.
Possibly the biggest impact the ban could have on the county is that they generate about half a million dollars in revenue each year which go toward purchasing vehicles for the sheriff’s office.
Triple victory
The battle for Lyon County sheriff turned into an additional victory for Nevada’s licensed brothel system. Incumbent sheriff Al McNeil, who’s been hostile to the brothels, was defeated by challenger Frank Honeywell.
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