Legal Brothels In Nevada Attacked Under The Mann Act

A former sex worker has filed a lawsuit against the state of Nevada, alleging that she was brought into the state’s legal brothel system from out of state in violation of the Mann Act. Her lawyer is arguing that recruiting either workers or clients from out of state into a Nevada brothel is a violation of that 1910 law, also known as the White Slave Traffic Act. It was passed at a time when the country was in the midst of an anti-immigrant panic and there was widespread fear that immigrants were kidnapping “white women” and turning them into prostitutes, says this article from Nevada public radio. The pro-bono attorney in this lawsuit says that multiple women have reached out to him, saying they had been “trafficked from out of state and forced into the legal brothels by outside pimps.” The reporter on this story, who has been covering the Nevada brothel industry, notes that it’s fairly common for women to come from out of state to work in Nevada, whether “brought by trafficking or of their own free will,” and that some work for weeks or months and go back home with money, a practice known in the industry as “touring.”