Sex under scrutiny: Sex worker Alice Little: ‘Something new is going to happen’

Moonlite Bunny Ranch worker Alice Little says her profession as a licensed sex worker provides her with a certain freedom that should be respected, not threatened.

She also feels more empowered in her current role with recent opportunities to speak out at town halls on behalf of Lyon County’s brothels and the formation of the Nevada Brothel Association.

When Lyon County’s vote on its advisory question to remove the brothels showed residents largely were opposed to it, Little said she and her cohorts were relieved.

“We ended up winning with a tremendous landslide — over 80 percent in favor, showing a very clear and very vocal support for the Nevada brothels,” Little said. “It was, in fact, the most decisive victory in the entire county, which I thought was very impressive.”

Little welcomes being an outspoken advocate for the sex industry and the legal brothels in Lyon County. She long has defended the purpose of the workers at former owner Dennis Hof’s Bunny Ranch, Love Ranch, Kit Kat Guest Ranch and Sagebrush Ranch and makes it clear their services are about intimacy and believes strongly in what they do.

Little writes advice articles for SheKnows Media and has made multiple media appearances, including serving as a guest on the Tim Ferriss Show and interviewed with CNN, ABC’s “Nightline,” Refinery29, Quartz, Shane and Friends and recorded other podcasts. She’s a founder of the “Hookers for Healthcare” movement. She also hosts her own vidcast, “Coffee with Alice,” in which she responds to questions about sex work. In her free time, she also has a passion for history and enjoys visiting Virginia City and exploring other Nevada landscapes.

But in recent months, she’s focused a lot of her efforts on combating “Hollywood stereotypes” with the opportunities the advisory question presented leading up to the recent election in Lyon. She said the ballot initiative and the town halls opened doors to help the public better understand what her livelihood means to her and those of her fellow sex workers.

“Essentially, that petition, that ballot initiative was holding our futures at stake and holding them hostage,” she said. “There was no ability to plan for anything or for moving forward when this was threatening the legality of the very career that many of us had dedicated multiple years to.”

Little said she’s confident now with the recently revived Nevada Brothel Association, a collaboration of the Silver State’s legal brothels, and Madame Suzette Cole’s new ownership of Hof’s properties, positive change is coming for the workers and the industry.

“Dennis did Dennis, and we’re not trying to be Dennis,” Little said. “Something new is going to happen. The women who work at the brothels are going to make something new … and we don’t need Dennis to represent us anymore. I think society is caught up enough.”

Little said the public should educate itself more on what the industry is rather than continuing on age-old assumptions. She said her participation in the new Nevada Brothel Association is meant to support that.

Little said she would like to see many of the stigmas lifted and wants it known what she does is important to help her clients.

“What I do is beautiful,” she said. “I’ve had clients tell me, ‘I was suicidal and I didn’t think I could be loved from a wheelchair’ or ‘I do deserve love.’ … And it’s not about sex. It’s about intimacy and compassion.”