A Lawsuit By a Sex Trafficking Survivor Against Legal Brothels Draws Pimp’s Ire
Washington, DC – Lance Gilman, a legal brothel owner and pimp in Nevada, has filed a “Motion to Intervene as Defendants” in the lawsuit which seeks to end legal brothels in the state of Nevada. This lawsuit was initiated by Rebekah Charleston, a survivor of sex trafficking who was trafficked in Nevada’s legal brothels.
“The court has to decide if it’s going to side with survivors of sex trafficking or with pimps who profit from sexually exploiting women in the commercial sex trade,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation who hopes that Gilman’s motion will be denied. “The reality is that legal brothels in Nevada have increased sex trafficking in the state. In fact, Nevada has the highest rates of an illegal sex trade in the country, adjusted for population. It is 63% higher than the next highest state of New York and double that of Florida. This is Econ 101: wherever prostitution is legal, the demand skyrockets, which provides a great incentive to pimps and sex traffickers to push more women into the marketplace to sell.”
“For too long, pimps in Nevada have been viewed as “businessmen” instead of sexual exploiters—it’s time for Nevada to step into the 21st century and realize that women’s bodies are not public property to be sold and bought by men,” Hawkins continued.
Nevada has been placed on the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s Dirty Dozen List, which names 12 mainstream facilitators of sexual exploitation and abuse, due to its legalization of prostitution in select counties. You can learn more here: endsexualexploitation.org/nevada
