Columnist Susan Snyder: An honest depiction of Ranch hands

Friday, May 4, 2001 | 4:11 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column also appears Tuesdays and Fridays in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Anew book describes a group of Nevada women as ethically minded, religiously observant and having a strong commitment to the children, spouses and parents they support financially.

They also happened to be prostitutes at Nevada's Mustang Ranch.

"They were just astonishingly complicated people who were simplified into that stereotype of a prostitute," said Alexa Albert, author of "Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women," scheduled for release May 15.

The Seattle pediatrician spent time inside nearly all of Nevada's brothels. But her research started with a 1992 study of condom use at Mustang Ranch. She thought it odd that women with multiple sex partners logged no reports of HIV.

Albert lived at the ranch on and off for four years, an agreement that was three years in the making. She paid each woman $40 -- the going rate Emory University pays its study subjects. They provided interviews and supplied 10 used condoms each.

"They tied them up and put them in Ziploc bags. I kept them. I had this Hefty garbage bag I carried everywhere. Even on the plane," Albert said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

All 372 condoms collected were examined. Some women used two at once, and most frequently checked or changed condoms mid-date, Albert said. All women used them even when men offered to pay them not to.

"They were really practicing safe sex," Albert said. "They are quite impressive that way."

Albert was interested that clients -- many of whom were married -- knew these women had multiple partners but were willing to risk HIV infection anyway.

The men assumed the protection was for them, Albert said. It never occurred to them the women were protecting themselves. Such revelations led the physician to study who these women really were, as opposed to what society thought.

"The book is not political," Albert said. "It is truly supposed to be a look inside a very secret and closed-in world. There is a real community."

And a whole world revolves around it. Mustang Ranch had a full-time staff of cashiers, a laundry maid, a cook and a handyman. UPS made regular condom deliveries direct from the factory. Vendors brought everything from clothing and manicures to toys and candy the women took home to their children.

"It was a real, functioning workplace," Albert said.

Albert addresses mainstream society's curiosity about brothels while revealing the women who work in them. The women say enjoying sex isn't part of the deal, as illustrated by this excerpt:

"Why would I want to enjoy sex with just anybody off the street?" Linda said. "That's like a one-night stand. I've never been that type of person."

Albert doesn't seek to support or oppose brothels. She was there in 1999 when federal agents locked Mustang Ranch's doors after its owners were convicted on a variety of fraud and racketeering charges. She knows all about Nye County's Citizens Against Prostitution.

She decided people outside brothels needed an objective view inside so they can draw conclusions based on fact rather than myth.

"Our judgment of it as a society is pretty simplistic," Albert said. "It's not just about the sex."