from www.nydailynews.com – Meet Markus, Nevada’s newest “prostidude” — and the only legal gigolo in the United States.

Markus is the latest male hire at the Shady Lady Ranch, a small brothel in a Nevada desert town. The brothel successfully won state and county approval to bring the 25-year-old college dropout on board as the first legal male prostitute in the country.

An Alabama native, Markus (an on-the-job pseudonym) is a college dropout and former U.S. Marine. He left his home state for L.A. with aspirations of making it as a porn star, but when he couldn’t break into the industry, he found himself unemployed and living in a homeless shelter outside of Santa Monica, Calif.

He was vetted for hire from hundreds of gigolo applications, according to Jim Davis, who owns the Shady Lady Ranch with his wife, Bobbi. Markus was chosen in part because would not be fazed by publicity.

Markus has already become a sensation, causing a stir among the media, and Shady Lady’s competing brothels.

The competitors have expressed concerns that hiring gigolos will draw more attention from state officials, making a case to prostitution illegal again, and that female customers are more difficult to inspect than men before sex.

In an interview with Details magazine, Markus said that his pioneering role in male prostitution was just the same as Rosa Parks iconic decision to refuse to move to the back of the bus during the Civil Rights movement. Management at the Shady Lady has been since forbidden him from speaking in interviews.

Prostitution is illegal throughout the United States, with the exception of various counties in western Nevada (though surprisingly, not in Las Vegas).

Despite a slow first week, the Associated Press reports that Markus’ schedule is already beginning to fill up.