Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has one of the world's oldest professions in his sights: prostitution.
In an address to the Nevada legislature Tuesday, Reid said, "Parents don't want their children to look out of a school bus and see a brothel. Or live in a state with the wrong kind of red lights."
"Let's have an adult conversation about an adult subject," he said.
The call for reform shocked some in the gallery, which included brothel owners, industry lobbyists, and working girls who had traveled to the statehouse from rural brothels.
In his autobiography, Reid writes about his mother washing laundry for the more than a dozen brothels around his hometown of Searchlight. The industry has been a part of the state's economic landscape since the 1970s....that is a licensed part of the landscape.
However, yesterday Reid said, in the future, he hopes that when Americans think about Nevada "[they] think about the world's newest ideas and newest careers, not about its oldest profession."
Brooke Taylor, a prostitute at the Bunny Ranch brothel said seh felt Reid's speech was "offensive" and suggested Reid should be proud of the way the state's brothels regulate the sex industry.
Reid's remarks were part of a larger message about job creation and economic growth, but in a state known for gambling, Elvis-themed wedding chapels and sex-for- money... economic image-revamping would take decades.
The sex industry is also a big money maker for the localities that allow it. And state lawmakers know that when it comes to state politics, money often sells better than sex.