CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A strip club that operates in Las Vegas has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Small Business Administration after not receiving money from the $2 trillion federal coronavirus aid bill.
Little Darlings owner Jason Mohney says he has struggled obtaining emergency funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act after Congress grouped the business into the category of operations of a prurient sexual nature, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
Mohney argues the exclusion is discriminatory toward a class of workers who perform a legal and legitimate service through the Flint, Michigan-based company, which operates 200 exotic dance clubs in Las Vegas and other cities.
“The purpose of these loans is to give money for payroll from businesses to their employees, so to do something like this is just shortchanging the employees themselves,” he said.
Small businesses with 500 or fewer employees would have been able to borrow up to $10 million, officials said, adding that the loans would be forgiven if used to keep employees on the payroll for eight weeks, or if they were used for building expenses such as rent or utility payments.
“As a country, we’re having some really important conversations about work and labor right now and it’s putting workers that perhaps have been marginalized front in center in our conversations,” said Lynn Comella, an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at UNLV. Adult industry workers “also have to pay rent or pay their mortgage or support their families or buy car insurance and food.”
Not all sex businesses have been denied funding. Bella’s Hacienda Ranch brothel owner Madam Bella Cummins received a notification that her funding application was approved for around $70,000, but the program had run out of money by then.
“It was a huge milestone because it’s the first time I was approved for anything associated with a grant or part of a package,” she said.
The lawsuit comes as Nevada has reported at least 163 deaths related to the coronavirus. The state Department of Health and Human Services also reported at least 3,830 positive tests as of Monday.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe life-threatening illness, including pneumonia, and death.
In other developments:
- Dr. Fermin Leguen, acting regional chief health officer in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, said that Clark County has seen a recent plateau of COVID-19 cases but cautioned there has not yet been a consistent declined in deaths or cases, and that social distancing and practices like wearing masks in public are still important.
University Medical Center CEO Mason VanHouweling said at the same news conference that the hospital’s lab is working to rapidly increase the amount of tests it can process. It can currently process 500 tests daily but it expects to be able to process 10,000 a day by June 1. The lab will also have anti-body testing for the virus on May 30, but health officials are still working to determine who will get those tests and when and where they will occur.
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