SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two dozen pro-nudity
activists wearing little but their righteous indignation assembled
on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to protest a
proposed municipal ban on public nakedness.
"We are here today in response to an attack on our fundamental
freedom, our freedom to be ourselves in our own city," disrobed
rally organizer Gypsy Taub declared as her fellow activists
displayed signs saying, "Nudity is Natural" and "Nude is not
Lewd."
Local politicians in the famously tolerant city, where men in
particular are known to frequently parade undressed through the
streets of the predominantly gay Castro District, are considering a
law to criminalize nudity on streets, sidewalks and plazas.
A hearing on measure by the city's Board of Supervisors is
scheduled for next Tuesday.
Following the protest, attorney Christina DiEdoardo filed suit
on behalf of the nudists seeking to block the proposed nudity ban
from enactment.
She contends that a prohibition on public nakedness would
deprive her five clients, one of them a former mayoral candidate
who ran on a nudist platform, of their constitutional rights to
free speech and equal protection under law.
"The city is getting into trying to legislate and criminally
enforce a dress code," she told Reuters. "My clients are trying to
save the Board of Supervisors from acting unconstitutionally."
"Nudophobic bigotry has now taken root here in San Francisco,"
Rusty Mills, 69, stripped down to his tanned birthday suit, told
his fellow demonstrators as they stood in the sunshine of an
unseasonably warm, 70-degree Fahrenheit (21-degree Celsius) fall
day.
GRIN AND BEAR IT
The nude protesters, including one using a cane and another in a
wheelchair, walked with DiEdoardo two blocks to the federal
courthouse, where an officer refused to allow them to enter
disrobed. DiEdoardo, who was fully clothed, went inside to file the
court papers.
On the way back to City Hall, elementary school children playing
on a schoolyard gawked and pointed at the naked demonstrators.
Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced the proposal to curb
undressing after residents complained about a daily gathering of
naked men in Jane Warner Plaza, a square in the Castro District. He
called the lawsuit a baseless "publicity stunt."
"There's always been occasional public nudity in San Francisco.
Over the last two years it's gone from being this quirky,
occasional thing to an obnoxious, over-the-top thing," Wiener said
in an interview.
"A lot of people who live in the neighborhood are just sick of
the fact that seven days a week there are men taking their pants
off and displaying their genitals on our sidewalks and plaza," he
added.
Under the proposed law, which critics dubbed the "Wiener bill,"
nudity would still be allowed at permitted parades, fairs and
festivals, as well as on designated nude beaches.
Violators would be fined up to $100 for a first offense and $200
for a second. Three-time offenders would face up to a year in jail
and a $500 fine.
San Francisco last year began requiring nudists to cover their
buttocks in public and to wear clothes in restaurants. Residents
say the restrictions only incited the so-called Naked Guys to grow
more exhibitionist.
During a hearing before a committee of supervisors last week,
Taub, 43, extolled the benefits of going nude, then pulled her
dress over her head, threw it on the floor and waved to the
audience.
"We refuse to go back to the dark ages of body shame and sexual
repression," she said, standing completely naked, except for socks
and sandals, in front of a lectern. As a sheriff's deputy escorted
her from the chamber, the nude mother of three screamed, "Long live
body freedom."
Dan Glazer, owner of the Hot Cookie, a Castro bakery known for
genital-shaped cookies, expressed mixed emotions about the proposed
ban.
He said tourists flock to the area to see the Naked Guys and
snap pictures, and probably have helped his business. He also said
he would hate to see limited police resources used to enforce a
nudity ban.
On the other hand, he said, the nudists have crossed the line
into an irritating form of exhibitionism, and were "taking
advantage of our neighborhood's openness, of the gay community's
tolerance."
