a bathrobe; and a disinfectant to wipe down the toilet seat and bidet after each client.
Over the next two days, Eva busied herself getting licensed, a process involving several steps. First, the brothel runner drove Eva to the brothel physician’s office, where she was tested for STDs, including HIV, to obtain a valid health certificate. Since 1986, the state legislature had required that all brothel prostitutes be tested for HIV as a condition of employment; once employed, they were tested monthly. In 1987, the legislature further decided that owners could be held liable for damages caused to any patron exposed to HIV as a result of the continued employment of an HIV-positive prostitute. Long before the industry was legalized, however, brothel prostitutes were getting tested regularly for STDs. Back in 1937, Nevadainaugurated an aggressive venereal disease prevention program that required prostitutes to have weekly medical exams for gonorrhea and monthly blood tests for syphilis. In 1992, counties added chlamydia to the weekly test.
Women seeking employment were not allowed to work until all tests came back negative. The labs that performed the tests were to call or fax all positive results to the STD/HIV/TB program of the state’s Bureau of Disease Control and Intervention Services as well as to brothel medical providers. If a woman tested positive for an STD other than HIV, the medical provider notified the brothel as well as the county sheriff, who pulled the prostitute’s work card until she underwent a course of treatment. In some counties, working girls were obligated to use certain medical providers, selected by either the brothels or county commissioners, whereas other counties allowed prostitutes to see the physician of their choice. Health care costs could be sizable: $50 for each weekly exam and $85 for the monthly exam that included HIV and syphilis testing.
Customers weren’t obligated to be tested for anything. (Practically speaking, testing clients would be close to impossible.) But brothel prostitutes had long been inspecting men’s genitals before sex to screen out customers with STDs. Once hired, Eva would be paired with a more senior working girl who would teach her how to examine a customer’s penis for visible signs of disease. In no time, she would become an adept clinician, proficient in looking for signs of gonorrhea (“yellow-white discharge”), chlamydia (“watery white drip”), warts (small, painless bumps), herpes (small blisters), and crabs(pinhead-sized insect parasites). When a prostitute found a suspicious lesion, she called in another working girl, a floor maid, or a manager for a “d/c,” or double check. If her suspicions were confirmed, the woman was supposed to give the customer a pamphlet from the Bureau of Disease Control and Intervention Services that explained he might have an STD and advised him to seek medical care. For a fee of $60, women could treat men for crabs on the spot. Men who passed inspection had their genitals cleansed thoroughly by the prostitute, on either the bidet or a “peter pan,” a small plastic dishwater pan, using soap or Betadine as a disinfectant.
At the conclusion of Eva’s medical exam, with verification of her doctor’s visit in hand, she and the runner headed to the sheriff substation two miles from Mustang Ranch in the Lockwood Mobile Home Park, where she registered for a work card.
Manning the substation for the Storey County Sheriff’s Department was Sergeant Bill Petty, a fifty-nine-year-old former Navy man with a military-style flattop. Any felony conviction, he explained, would bar a woman from becoming licensed, as would a conviction related to fraud, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, or larceny; unlawful possession or distribution of narcotics; unlawful use of a pistol or other dangerous weapon; unlawful entry of a building; buying or receiving stolen property; or any sexual offense or crime involving “moral
Over the next two days, Eva busied herself getting licensed, a process involving several steps. First, the brothel runner drove Eva to the brothel physician’s office, where she was tested for STDs, including HIV, to obtain a valid health certificate. Since 1986, the state legislature had required that all brothel prostitutes be tested for HIV as a condition of employment; once employed, they were tested monthly. In 1987, the legislature further decided that owners could be held liable for damages caused to any patron exposed to HIV as a result of the continued employment of an HIV-positive prostitute. Long before the industry was legalized, however, brothel prostitutes were getting tested regularly for STDs. Back in 1937, Nevadainaugurated an aggressive venereal disease prevention program that required prostitutes to have weekly medical exams for gonorrhea and monthly blood tests for syphilis. In 1992, counties added chlamydia to the weekly test.
Women seeking employment were not allowed to work until all tests came back negative. The labs that performed the tests were to call or fax all positive results to the STD/HIV/TB program of the state’s Bureau of Disease Control and Intervention Services as well as to brothel medical providers. If a woman tested positive for an STD other than HIV, the medical provider notified the brothel as well as the county sheriff, who pulled the prostitute’s work card until she underwent a course of treatment. In some counties, working girls were obligated to use certain medical providers, selected by either the brothels or county commissioners, whereas other counties allowed prostitutes to see the physician of their choice. Health care costs could be sizable: $50 for each weekly exam and $85 for the monthly exam that included HIV and syphilis testing.
Customers weren’t obligated to be tested for anything. (Practically speaking, testing clients would be close to impossible.) But brothel prostitutes had long been inspecting men’s genitals before sex to screen out customers with STDs. Once hired, Eva would be paired with a more senior working girl who would teach her how to examine a customer’s penis for visible signs of disease. In no time, she would become an adept clinician, proficient in looking for signs of gonorrhea (“yellow-white discharge”), chlamydia (“watery white drip”), warts (small, painless bumps), herpes (small blisters), and crabs(pinhead-sized insect parasites). When a prostitute found a suspicious lesion, she called in another working girl, a floor maid, or a manager for a “d/c,” or double check. If her suspicions were confirmed, the woman was supposed to give the customer a pamphlet from the Bureau of Disease Control and Intervention Services that explained he might have an STD and advised him to seek medical care. For a fee of $60, women could treat men for crabs on the spot. Men who passed inspection had their genitals cleansed thoroughly by the prostitute, on either the bidet or a “peter pan,” a small plastic dishwater pan, using soap or Betadine as a disinfectant.
At the conclusion of Eva’s medical exam, with verification of her doctor’s visit in hand, she and the runner headed to the sheriff substation two miles from Mustang Ranch in the Lockwood Mobile Home Park, where she registered for a work card.
Manning the substation for the Storey County Sheriff’s Department was Sergeant Bill Petty, a fifty-nine-year-old former Navy man with a military-style flattop. Any felony conviction, he explained, would bar a woman from becoming licensed, as would a conviction related to fraud, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, or larceny; unlawful possession or distribution of narcotics; unlawful use of a pistol or other dangerous weapon; unlawful entry of a building; buying or receiving stolen property; or any sexual offense or crime involving “moral
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