Alice Little, a woman who claims to be "the highest-earning sex worker in the US," according to the New York Post, is suing the state of Nevada in a bid to force the reopening of brothels in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Insider, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak closed brothels, including Little's employer the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, back in March. But while bars and restaurants were permitted to reopen in late May, brothels have remained closed.
In a statement written on a GoFundMe page that is bidding to raise funds for legal fees in the pursuit of the lawsuit, Little wrote:
"Nevada’s governor has unfairly kept the legal brothels closed while allowing other high-contact businesses, such as massage parlors, spas, and salons, to reopen. Nevada’s legal brothels have kept sex workers safe and provided a legal and respectable outlet for sex workers to ply our trade for nearly fifty years, and now the brothels are in danger of closing forever and the livelihoods of sex workers are in dire jeopardy."
The statement later continues:
"The brothel's closure affects far more than just myself- it affects an entire network of working women and staff who are all suffering financially as a direct result of Governor Sisolak's refusal to reopen these respected adult businesses- hence the need for legal action."
However, mere days before Little filed the lawsuit, Sisolak told the Nevada Independent that brothels are not a current priority.
"Certainly we're going to have to look at getting kids back into schools before we look at getting folks back into brothels," he said. "We'll be addressing it sometime, certainly, but it's not in the immediate future."
At the time of writing, Little's GoFundMe page has raised just over $8,000.
Back in June, Alice Little spoke to Insider about the challenges of making a living online as a sex worker during the pandemic.
"It can't be understated how unfriendly the internet is for sex workers. So to transition to having to process our own payments, having to advertise when many of our websites are blacklisted and hidden on Twitter, it is incredibly challenging," she told the publication.
