nude beaches and public nudity events
 

OK, shifting now to a topic that may be of more immediate interest to members, exactly what is the legal framework that allows one to go naked on a beach or at a public nudity event like Bare to Breakers, OCF, Fremont, etc.

This link is a great place to start. Click on "nudity and the law".

http://www.nakedplaces.net/usa_0.html#law

I will quote the first paragraph of this, as in part it expands on what I wrote above, affirming much of it. This is written with specific reference to nude beaches:

"The legality of nude beaches in the U.S. is convoluted, and part of the difficulty lies in deciphering what laws apply to what places. There is no federal law that addresses nudity. Summaries of the various state laws can be viewed at NudistLaw.com. Most state laws regarding nudity address nakedness in the context of lewd behavior and do not directly address the issue of nude sunbathing on public lands. These laws are usually written in language that clearly outlaws displays of nudity that are intended to shock or offend, but wording like willfully, with intent and with reckless disregard makes the question of non-affrontive nudity subject to interpretation. So if Person A is sunbathing naked at a sufficiently isolated location and Person B wanders by and is irked by the sight of nudity, Person B can claim offense but Person A can claim that his or her nudity was not intended to offend, which starts a debate about whether nudity is illegal when it causes offense or only when it is intended to cause offense. Furthermore, smaller administrative entities like county or municipal governments often have laws that more definitively ban all nudity in public, regardless of whether or not lewd intent is involved, effectively closing any loopholes that exist in state laws."

There is a wealth of information there (My emphasis added). Key points include areas where interpretation is difficult, like when words like "willfully, with intent and with reckless disregard" are used. I alluded to this in my earlier post, and wondered how this should be interpreted. Also, there is the situation where a passerby is offended, but the intent of the naked one was not to offend. And finally, there is the mention of more restrictive local laws which may conflict with state laws.

but so where we stand with nude beaches and events with nudity - I guess maybe I could start with beaches since the link talks mainly about that. To reiterate the above, the legality of nude beaches is convoluted because it is dependent on state, county and local laws which vary quite a bit and are subject to interpretation. Just as an aside here, you should be aware by now that clearly, the vast majority of state laws regarding indecent exposure were passed a long time ago, before there were nude beaches, and mainly to address things like guys flashing their dick for old ladies and little girls, etc. you know, that type of stuff. So they don't really address simple nudity as people really didn't do that sort of thing much in the past - the nudist attitude and lifestyle prevalent today didn't really exist until maybe mid 20th century. And so since separate laws addressing more specifically the nudist credo and lifestyle, "nude but not lewd" etc, do not exist, naturism as a practice is not addressed and so one must do the best they can interpreting older indecent exposure laws and applying them to nudists.

OK, so then along came the nude beach, and with it, challenges to existing state and local laws intended to address mainly more lewd types of behavior. And so began the concept of "simple nudity" and whether or not the law allows for that. In most states and perhaps in limited circumstances, it does, but again, interpretation can be difficult. And now I'll get more specific and talk about the different types of nude beaches from a legal point of view.

First up, there are the legal nude beaches. Now if you read more at nakedplaces.net, you will find that relatively few nude beaches in the US are "legally designated" nude beaches. Sometimes called simply "legal nude beaches" or maybe "official nude or CO beaches", a "legally designated" nude beach refers to one in which a local government or entity has specifically written in a provision or clause permitting nudity at that location. You cannot be cited or harassed. Some examples of "legally designated" nude beaches include Hippie Hollow, and I think Haulover.

From there, you go to a beach like Blacks Beach, for example, in California, where nudity is assumed by many to be legal but in reality, it only was officially designated as such for a three year period way back in the seventies. That official designation was rescinded in 1977, whereupon the nudes moved to adjacent state park land. The State Park regs continue to allow for nudity as long as no one complains.

The situation at Blacks is echoed on a lot of other beaches that are located on federal or state recreation lands, but the exact nature of the legal issue varies. There is no universal anti-nudity law that applies to all federal lands, but in some cases, local county laws, which may be stricter, may be enacted and, if enforced by federal officials, cause a beach to be shut down. When federal officials (i.e. park rangers) enforce local laws, this is referred to as "concurrent law enforcement". Also, many nude beaches are located on national seashores, which is federal land. Generally, because there is no federal anti-nudity law, this is OK. But in some cases, specific provisions may ban nudity, like with the Cape Cod National Seashore. Interestingly, on the only two known nude beaches there, the cops look the other way anyway :)

Then when you are talking about state parks, it varies again as each state is different. I'll leave that out for now as I don't have a good handle on that yet.

Finally, what if you are simply nude in a very remote area, all by yourself. Often this is going to be on federal land of some type. Now here, if anyone sees you and complains, that is where the problem lies. Obviously, if you are not seen, how can anything bad happen to you :) But if you are seen, even if no nudity law exists, you could be charged with something like disturbing the peace.

Anyway, so thats a quick look at beaches, but I've probably only just scratched the surface. As i keep saying, my knowledge is evolving..

Klondike

The New York State "Exposure of Person" law was found to be unconstitutionally discriminatory as regards toplessness some 15 years ago, so it is now legal for a woman to be topless anywhere a man can be topless. anywhere in the State. And that includes in public.

DR

Ok, good - so the source for my info has not been kept up to date..that clears things up..

thanks,

Klondike

nude beach case study
 

A lot has been written about nude beaches from a legal point of view, and many continue to have problems. But as a way of sort of tying together much of what I have talked about already, I offer you this link which I found interesting.

http://www.capitalsun.com/assmd.html

This is a beach in Maryland which I don't know much about, but because, as i think I mentioned earlier, Maryland's indecent exposure law is stricter than most i.e. it does not allow for simple nudity, the legal status of this beach is tenuous even though it is located on federal land. This is the interesting part, and I imagine somewhat unique given the legal climate. You would not see this problem in most other states except when locals complain. But in Maryland, State Law requires federal officials to act (acting concurrently now with state officials and laws) to insure that laws are not broken. But the specific language if you read this link is perpetually confusing - neither encouraging nor discouraging nudity! In other words, get naked at your own risk. A NPS (National Park Service) employee not involved in enforcement may come by and ignore you, while an NPS enforcement employee coming by 5 minutes later could cite you!

It must be really unnerving getting naked on this beach....


Klondike

also, I'll go ahead and link to more about this. The case was "The People of the State of new york v Santorelli" and this happened in 1992. Go here:

http://www.ehow.com/list_6820409_new...less-laws.html

Klondike

Ashland, OR again, naked mayor Catherine Shaw and devious dealings
 

Somehow I got back into reading about the goings on in Ashland, OR back in 2009-2010, and found it very entertaining. In addition, I was reminded of former Ashland mayor Catherine Shaw, and how she was filmed naked in the movie "The Same River Twice" while she was in her 20's. She is beautiful, blond, and fully nude in the movie. The movie also shows her later in life leading Ashland City Council meetings. She was not mayor anymore at the time of the nudity ban in 2009.

Politically, Ashland is a divided town (like so many western towns that have been invaded by urbanites - Telluride, Aspen, others) and this I gather is reflected in the city council. Here is a fun read:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs...NEWS/709270326

Among those mentioned in the article is a city councilman named Eric Navickas, who figured prominently in the Ashland nudity ban as an opponent. Eric apparently likes to get naked himself and knows a lot about nude goings on in Ashland in general. In fact, he even hosted a naked gallery show to drum up opposition to the Ashland ban:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411477/posts

also entertaining as it appeared on the free republic website. Eric has also been arrested for his political activism, and lists other naked goings on in this article where he is interviewed quite extensively about the Ashland nudity ban:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/g...everyone-else/

Included in this interview is a very provocative and revealing charge: read on:

"Anyway, several days after a majority of Council refused to support this proposal, a nudist claiming to be from Minnesota arrived and began walking around various schools. This lasted about two days and then he was gone. The action was so specific to the Council decision that it was hard not to think it was specifically contrived to provoke the city into banning nudity. There has been a lot of speculation as to whether the individual was paid, but that would be very difficult to prove; we are left discussing this in the context of having a real problem with nudists around schools. Perhaps our own miniature version of the Reichstag fire that we’ll never know the facts on."

Oh, this is fascinating :)

So all of this gives you a lot of insight into what went on in the town and in the political arena as a result. Earth Friend Gen is not mentioned, but that 66 yo guy from Minnesota who walked naked near a school gets lots of text. Was he indeed paid by sinister, conservative forces to do this? :) Clearly, he was even more responsible than Gen for the political furor that resulted in the change in the ordinance.

incidently, Eric Navickas referred to former mayor Cathy Shaw as a "Nazi", strange given the fact she was a California transplant and comes across as a flower child in the movie "The same river twice". I have that film at home. There are a couple of great scenes of her fully naked on this rafting trip, climbing rocks, sunning next to the river etc. Beautiful.....but otherwise a somewhat annoying film to me in some respects because they spend so much time focusing on the character's later lives (which are not that exciting most of them). But the nudity is cool - and the film has a sort of "Big Chill" feel to it only naked.

Klondike

Ashland, Brattleboro and naked infiltrators
 

Regarding the 66 yo "nudist" that mysteriously showed up in Ashland back in 2009, walked around naked for awhile, and thus figured prominently in the town's nudity ban as a result - I seem to recall hearing a similar story about an older nudist or nudists from out of town (parts unknown) showing up in Brattleboro Vt during their nudity wars and doing more or less the same thing- Walking around town naked. This occurred shortly after the news about the local naked teens went viral on the internet. So what is going on? Brattleboro also wrestled with a ban, and the reason went beyond the teens, focusing on those mysterious outsiders who it was feared would give the town a bad reputation. So who were these out of towners? Was the Ashland naked guy secretly paid by fundamentalist religious groups, as hinted by Eric Navickas? What about the Brattleboro "nudists"? Same thing?

This would be fascinating to research. Using public nudity as a weapon against, well......public nudity! It is well known among conspiracy buffs that ultra right wing groups have used similar tactics in the past to heighten negative public attitudes towards fringe groups on the left. THey also do it to create a little fear, but I wouldn't speculate much more on this regarding public nudity without looking into it more. And one could certainly make the case that naked people on the left do enough damage to themselves in the eyes of the "silent majority" that they really don't need any help from the right. After all, Earth Friend Gen was in all likelihood a genuine liberal. And the type of shenanigans that sometimes go on at nude beaches causing political trouble for them is often perpetrated by gays. So I don't know..BTW, I was never that enthusiastic about Gen and even ranted over at Coccozellas about her exactly for this reason - that she could become a political liability to those that support public nudity. She was at Coccos promoting her "causes", which I quickly tried to point out were not peace, love and environment awareness, but, simply put - her body!

Klondike

infiltrators or fanatical exhibitionists?
 

....attach to previous post...

...but the pattern of these proposed "naked infiltrators" in Ashland and Brattleboro does show some striking similarities. For example, both occurred only after known and well publicized occurrences of public nudity took place in those towns. So one could imagine also that in both cases, local officials were deeply involved in discussions about what to do about these outbreaks, perhaps nearing crucial votes on proposed legislation, when the "infiltrators" mysteriously arrived. I mean, are there male nudists and exhibitionists that are SO fanatical about what they do that they will travel thousands of miles just to walk naked in a town upon suddenly hearing that it is legal to do so? But wouldn't they already know that those towns (and states) are legal, without the need for a well publicized incident of nudity to tell them? If they are that fanatical, they should not only know already, but perhaps have already moved there!

Thats IMHO - so the infiltrator from the right argument has some appeal...

Klondike

...attach to previous post...

...and when nudity is legal in your town, its by nature gonna be all downhill no matter what after that. Test the law, or show your support for others, get naked yourself, whatever - it will remain legal so long as nobody actually goes out and really does it. Both the left and the right know this. It saddens the left, heartens the right. But nonetheless, Eric Navickia stated that Ashland was ready to vote against the ban despite Earth Friend Gen's antics when the 66 yo from Minnesota showed up, got naked himself, and suddenly tipped the vote the other way. Hah - so maybe its an age/sex thing - Gen was cute, but the old guy just wagged his wrinkled thing. So for an infiltrator from the right to be effective, clearly it would make sense also for that person to be old and male. Check it out and look at the facts. It is all speculation, I suppose, but the story won't go away....and i haven't seen any stories about young naked females showing up in towns under similar circumstances. I mean, Gen was the originator, but I'm talking about those following up...

Klondike

I always thought some enterprising young filmmakers (like perhaps one of the ones that post material here??? ;) ) should go to Vermont and film beautiful women walking around naked in public. Nude in SF is a site that has some great American public nudity stuff (some of it quite bold and they never seem to be hassled). The problem with all those Euro public nudity sites is it almost seems passe now, like no one bats an eye (also I like to know what people are saying, and they're all speaking foreign languages to me). But to have a North American site (is public nudity tolerated in parts of Canada?) would be very appealing to me.

But I would worry if pushing the envelope would lead to legal action.

Interesting topic.