Survivor Voices

Dear Nevada Legislators:

We are survivors of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in Nevada. We write to tell you what Nevada’s legal brothels are really like, from those who have lived it, and to ask you to end them.

Many of us entered the sex trade through force, fraud, or coercion by traffickers. Others entered under circumstances shaped by poverty, childhood sexual abuse, the foster care system, housing instability, and economic desperation. Nevada’s legal brothels have allowed traffickers, exploiters, and sex buyers to take advantage of those vulnerabilities for their own benefit and profit.

Our lived experience has taught us one thing clearly: legalization does not prevent sex trafficking or exploitation. Survivors have experienced trafficking, coercion, and violence inside Nevada’s licensed brothels. A system is not safe simply because the state has authorized or regulated it. The brothels are a system of violence against women, where exploitation and trafficking thrive. What happened to us cannot be dismissed because it happened inside a legal, licensed building.

These harms are part of the broader violence and discrimination women face. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls has concluded that prostitution “results in egregious human rights violations” and multiple forms of violence against women and girls, and that it violates their right to dignity.

For too long, conversations about Nevada’s brothel system have centered the voices of those who own, operate, regulate, and profit from it. Survivors deserve a seat at that table. We know what happens behind the doors of the legal brothels, and our experience must be taken seriously as you decide whether this system should continue.

Regulation is not enough. We ask you to support legislation that will:

• End legal brothels in Nevada.
• Protect people who are bought, sold, and trafficked, so that no one is punished for the exploitation done to them.
• Hold sex buyers, pimps, and brothel owners accountable for the harm they cause.
• Provide meaningful pathways to safety, housing, employment, healing, and long-term stability.

Nevada should build laws that protect people from sexual exploitation, not preserve an industry that profits from selling vulnerable women’s bodies.

Respectfully,
Survivors and overcomers of the commercial sex trade!