Alice Little, a sex worker from the Moonlite Bunny Ranch legal brothel in Carson City, Nevada, has been named “Companion of the Year” for the third consecutive time. The title is awarded to the highest-earning courtesan from the company’s network of Nevada bordellos, making Little the most financially successful licensed prostitute in the United States. The achievement was revealed on the Bunny Ranch website in January, 2020.

With a seven-figure sales record for three years in a row, Little attributes her considerable success to her dogged work ethic and an overall positive shift in America’s perception of sex work, while acknowledging that sex workers still have a struggle ahead in the fight against the stigma surrounding the profession.

“In the past few years, the public discourse surrounding sex work has increased considerably,” Little said. “Last year, for the first time, we saw democratic presidential hopefuls speak openly about sex work, making the legal status of prostitution a legitimate campaign issue.”

Prostitution is currently criminalized in the United States, except in Nevada, where prostitution is legal in the form of regulated brothels located in several rural counties throughout the state.

“Politicians like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and Cory Booker recently spoke publicly about their stance on sex work, and this past year there were highly publicized movements to decriminalize prostitution in New York State and Washington D.C.,” Little said. “Just this month, lawmakers introduced a bill for the 2020 session that aims to decriminalize sex work in the state of Vermont.”

“As discussions around prostitution are increasingly pushed to the forefront by legislators and advocates, Americans from coast to coast are compelled to challenge their previous perceptions about the virtue of sex-for-money transactions between consenting adults. My sales figures indicate that people in this country are progressively embracing the services offered by sex workers.”

Little believes that it’s only a matter of time before prostitution between consenting adults is no longer a criminal act in the United States, as draconian sex work stereotypes are slowly debunked by vocal sex workers like Little and other pro-sex work advocates.

“There has always been, and will always be, a need for people to see a sex and intimacy provider,” Little said. “My clients are not overly-libidinous predatory men — that’s a mostly fictional stereotype perpetuated by Hollywood. Overwhelmingly, the people that see me and other sex workers are men, women, and couples that want their unique needs to be fulfilled on their own terms by a discreet and nonjudgmental sex professional.”

Little understands that there’s still a long way to go before sex work is universally accepted in America, but she’s hopeful that a few recent setbacks for sex workers will be reversed. One such setback is SESTA-FOSTA, a 2018 law originally intended to curb sex trafficking by making website owners liable for prostitution crimes committed online, forcing many websites to remove sex worker discussion communities, directories, and forums. This severely limited online options for consenting adult sex workers to manage their business and screen clientele, leading to a more dangerous situation for sex workers in the U.S.

“Some politicians that originally voted for SESTA-FOSTA are now reconsidering their support for the legislation,” Little said. “Congressional Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, filed a bill in December to study the safety of sex workers. I believe that in time it will be revealed that SESTA-FOSTA is not the answer to alleviating sex trafficking in the United States.”

Little believes that cultivating a non-criminalized environment for sex workers is the best way to ensure their safety and prosperity.

“I’m lucky to be one of the few hundred sex workers operating lawfully in America through Nevada’s legal brothel system,” Little said.

“I’m living proof that the elimination of criminal penalties for sex-for-money transactions allows sex workers to thrive as independent and empowered businesspersons capable of safely achieving, even surpassing, all of our financial and personal goals.”

“I’m proud of the work that I do and I’m honored to be publicly recognized as a successful prostitute,” Little said.