Dolly Parton’s Miss Mona may have had the best little whorehouse in Texas but it’s Nevada where such brothels are legal.

Up to now, Nevada’s legal brothels have only employed women but The Shady Lady Ranch’s Bobbi Davis and her husband Jim are out to change that, despite opposition from some quarters within Nevada’s surprisingly conservative brothel community.

The Nye County Board has, after months of sometimes rancorous debate, given permission for the Davis’ to hire “a few good service-oriented men” to work at their brothel near Death Valley.

Nevada’s brothels are an interesting remnant of the state’s wild Gold Rush era when enterprising women from “back East” established bawdy houses in the territory’s rough and tumble, and predominately male, mining camps.

The brothels, while legal in much of the state, are banned in such gambling meccas as Las Vegas and Reno. State legislators are historically reluctant to tax the establishments, apparently fearing to do so would “legitimize” the enterprises. Legal brothels are seen by many Nevadans as the state’s ”dirty little secret.”

Even those involved in the trade tend to be resistant to any change or opening up of the industry. When attempts by some owners were made to add porn stars to their existing staff, they were met with resistance from some other brothel owners.

When Davis, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, sought to overturn the state’s ban on advertising of brothels, it created a firestorm of debate within the trade, with many owners fearing such publicity would focus unwanted attention on them and result in their brothels being shut down. While none of the approximately 25 legally-operated brothels were affected, many owners continue to prefer to operate “off the grid” and are wary of any undue attention.

Davis’ move to bring in male workers prompted George Flint, a long time lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Association, to publicly state such a move would be disastrous, likening the move to the devastating attack on Pearl Harbour which forced the United States to declare war against Japan and enter WWII.

He has hinted that brothels offering gay sex - a choice each prostitute, as an independent contractor, would be free to make - might sour some legislators on the entire brothel system.

Flint, despite referencing a historical catastrophe to shore up his arguments against the move to hire male workers, appears to be unaware of historical fact. During debate at the Nye County Board meeting regarding the proposal, Flint was quoted as emphatically stating,

“This is the first time in the history of the world…that men have been licensed to sell sex. It’s never been done!”

History is filled with accounts of registered, licensed, and “legal” male prostitutes. Even in our modern era male escorts, while technically not “legal” if engaging in sex for pay, they are nonetheless licensed with municipal authorities who turn a blind eye to what escorts of either gender are actually engaging in. The Nevada proposal simply brings it out of the shadows and creates an atmosphere of openness the industry can only benefit from.

Furthermore, this is not the first time Nye County has faced this issue. In 2005, infamous “Hollywood Madame” Heidi Fleiss announced she was moving to Pahrump, in southern Nye County, and opening a “stud farm.” She opened a Laundromat instead.

However, Davis’ proposal has created considerable interest. Davis has apparently received over 1,000 applications from men interested in working at the Shady Lady Ranch. To date, there appears to be only one male worker, Markus, and eight females.

Markus, a former Marine with self-admittedly little sexual experience, prefers to be called a gigolo or a ”surrogate lover”, and has stated in a couple of interviews he will only ”entertain” women and that, while he has the utmost respect for the gay community, his “sphincter is not for sale.”

Davis has held off hiring more men until all legal and bureaucratic hurdles are cleared. Her last hurdle is dealing with the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board, which is made up of five county commissioners and Sheriff Tony DeMeo who, unlike Burt Reynolds’ Sheriff Ed Earl in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, has been openly skeptical of Davis’ plan.

DeMeo, along with Flint and Dennis Hof (owner of another legal brothel, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch), expressed concerns about monitoring the spread of infectious diseases, despite current female prostitutes being required to have weekly cervical checkups for STDs and having state health regulators already clear the way for male sex workers by agreeing to institute urethral exams. There has been no word on whether rectal exams will also be instituted for either gender.

It is quite apparent what the real concern is and Davis, despite wanting to hire male workers, addressed the issue.

“It seems the biggest hoopla is a great fear in some people’s minds that some kind of homosexual activity might go on,” she said. “Why panic I don’t understand…it’s not my intent to encourage or promote or to turn my business into a ‘gay property.’ “

This, along with Markus’ assertion he will be a ”woman-only” sort of guy, appears to me to support the underlying homophobia here rather than challenge it. If a legal brothel became a “gay property”, so what? If a male sex trade worker refuses to even consider allowing men access to him, either as a top or a bottom (and Markus seems to assume ”entertaining” men necessitates his being a bottom) what does that say about sexual attitudes still prevalent on this continent?

What is also often missing from similar discussions is the recognition of gender differences when it comes to how individuals approach sex. I suppose it is a misplaced concern about appearing sexist.

If Davis is successful in her bid - and I hope she is - she simply will not find any significant increase in female clientele. Women, generally speaking, do not approach casual sex the same way the majority of men do.

For whatever reason, men rarely have an issue with separating “sex” from “making love.” Certainly within gay male communities there is ample evidence we are fully capable of engaging in “anonymous sex” and do so quite frequently be it via a bar pickup, logging onto Internet sites, cruising parks and t-rooms, or going to the baths. I do not see this as negative whatsoever. In fact, I think it is something to celebrate.

Will heterosexual women utilize this new-found access to men willing to engage in casual sex for pay? Possibly, but it is a huge leap and entails disengaging from a myriad of social proscriptions, many of which most of us are not even aware we are ensnared in.

Heterosexual men have always availed themselves of opportunities to ”get their rocks off” with little social or political repercussions apart from the odd tsk-tsking when doing so has been cause for scandal - such as the case with one high-profile politician, for instance. It is generally seen as “boys will be boys.”

Is this a double standard? Absolutely. When men pursue sex it’s seen as a biological imperative, something that men do, perhaps not what decent, family men do but of course it’s known decent family men do do it (now there’s a double standard for you!). When women pursue sex in a similar casual manner it’s seen as their loose morals, proof that the woman in question is nothing more than a slut and a tramp.

Then, of course, there is the whole question of exploitation. Are women in the sex trade exploited? Certainly, at the street prostitute level and possibly within the porn industry as well. It’s a bit blurrier when a woman is a high-priced call-girl or working out of a legal brothel where she is able - or better able, at least - to call the shots and have some say in who she will be with and how it will transpire.

Few raise the issue of exploitation around men in porn or other sex trades unless the males in question are under-age or just “young.”

Of course we as a society have a responsibility to ensure under-age girls and boys are not exploited. But the spectre of exploitation in that regard is a whole other issue and we are clearly not talking about under-aged males or females being recruited to work in these brothels. Systems have been in place for years under the Nevada system to safeguard against that, and bringing in male workers will not affect that.

Certainly working as a male prostitute at the Shady Lady is not a ”get rich quick” scheme. Current prices range from $200 for 40-minutes, up to $2,000 for the whole night, with a percentage going to the house. Whether the men could pull in that kind of money from women-only clientele remains to be seen.