Last night I attended the City Council meeting in Tumwater, Washington, which is the city (small town, rather) where I live. My purpose was to speak to them and let them know that as a nudist and representative of Legalize Body Freedom I was not pleased with the wording in the Lewd Act law in the municipal codes governing their city, which means also governing me. I won't go into everything I said, because I'm going to publish the entirety of my speech here for everyone to read. What I am going to do is state that as I read my speech the City Council members were not pleased with what I was saying. I won't speculate as to why they didn't seem to be pleased with my words. I'll allow you to draw your own conclusions once you've read my speech. I will say that the mayor interrupted me before I could finish, obviously not wanting to hear the rest of what I had to say. After all, the truth hurts, and he didn't seem to be the type who wanted to hear about people who want the liberty to "run around naked" within the limits of his city and want him to give them approval to do so. Anyway, what follows is my speech:
I am a resident of Tumwater and have been for many
years, and I represent an organization called Legalize Body Freedom.
I have come to you tonight to discuss an
issue with portions of the Tumwater city code, specifically:
Chapter 9.06
OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC MORALS
Every person who
intentionally performs any lewd act in a public place or at a place and under
circumstances where such act could be observed by any member of the public when
such act does or is likely to cause reasonable affront and alarm is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
For the purpose of this chapter:
A. “Lewd act” means public:
1. Exposure of any portion of the human anus or genitals,
2. Exposure of the female breast lower than the upper edge
of the areola; or
3. Touching, the male or female genitals or female
breast, whether clothed or naked;
9.06.030 Limitations.
B. Whether or not the conduct is obscene
shall be judged by consideration of the following factors:
Whether the average person, applying the contemporary community
standards, would find:
1. That
the activity appeals to a prurient interest in sex; and
2. The
conduct depicts or describes in a patently offensive way conduct as defined in
TMC 9.06.010(A); and
3. The
conduct taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or
scientific value.
We
have no quarrel with the rest of the codes in these sections, only those
portions I quoted, for they make illegal simple nudity and the simple touching
of the human body in an innocent manner, something we all do every day. Every
man in here, were he to reach down and adjust himself, even clothed, while in
public, could be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor, but the point is that
we are seeking to legalize public nudity and these laws stand in the way. We
would have to admit that in most cities the “community standards” might be
against public nudity, although much has changed over the years in most
American communities, so that could be questioned. That word “prurient,” however,
poses a problem for the lawmakers, because it means:
1
Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or
propensity; lustful.
2 Arousing or appealing to sexual desire.
3 Curious,
especially inappropriately so.
If
you were to see me nude out on the street I can guarantee you would not have
any desire toward me and certainly not one that was “itching,” or filled you
with a “lascivious anxiety or propensity.” And you most certainly would not
find within you any lust toward me. Trust me on this. Likewise you would not be
aroused by any part of me and not find me appealing. No matter whether you are
a woman attracted to men or a man attracted to men, you would not have any
sexual desire toward me.
But
this isn’t about me or how society might perceive me, it’s about many more
people than just me, it’s about millions more people than just me.
I
am part of a worldwide movement seeking to right a wrong that has perpetrated
itself for far too long. We are those who recognize that the offensive bigotry in anti-body hate
speech and law needs to be challenged wherever it is found. Declaring that any
human being is inherently "obscene," “lewd,” or "indecent,"
or similar hate words by a legislative body is very offensive anti-human hate
speech. No human of any kind has ever been harmed by seeing another member of
his or her own species nude. There are
millions of nudists and naturists in America alone and a great percentage of us
are no longer content to keep our nudity locked away in our homes, our clubs
and resorts, or our beaches. We are forced by the aforementioned hate speech
laws to cover ourselves whenever we leave our homes to go shopping, go to
restaurants, go to the movies, get gas in our cars, do any of the typical daily
tasks that every other American does throughout their lives, which forces us to
violate the very core of our beings, that which fills us and gives us our
greatest meaning, because we have no other choice. The unfounded bigotry of one
part of this nation is forcing itself upon another the same as it did before
the Civil Rights Act gave equality to all Americans of African descent and it
needs to stop.
You
might ask why it is we have only now decided to come out into the open and make
our statement, declare that we demand to be free and equal alongside everyone
else when nudism has existed within America for some time and certainly people
have been born nude for as long as they have existed. There is a season for
everything. The 60s were the season for Equality for black people. The 90s were
the season for Equality for homosexuals. Now is the time for Equality for
Nudists. We have polled our members and decided that we have had enough. It is
time to stop the hate! It is time to change these laws! It is time to FREE our
bodies and allow US the same rights as all other Americans, to move about in
public freely being ourselves without fear of censure, condemnation, and
certainly without fear of being arrested.
A
question was asked of our membership, “Where is the one place you would love to
go naked?” Of course many replied they wanted the freedom to go anywhere and
everywhere, but we received a diversity of responses. I would like to read you
a few of them, just to show you how intimate they are and how real the desires
of these people are to be free of the constraints of clothing and the laws that
keep them locked up in ways others can never understand:
My yard
The beach
I would like to just be able to walk the streets of our
neighborhood naked any time I wanted.
At a huge water park with lots of amazing slides.
Outside my own home (We got this one a lot)
I would love to be nude everywhere I want to be without
being judged or arrested.
And my personal favorite: I want to stand before Congress
and address the nation.
Where would I like to be naked if I could? I
would like to take my garbage out. Check my mail. Mow my lawn. Walk my
neighborhood. Lie in my yard in the sunshine. Work in my garden, all without
fear that someone will call the cops and have me arrested, and why? Just
because I am someone who was born understanding that the skin we were born in
is the best and only presentation of ourselves we will ever need and that
covering it stifles me and makes me not merely uncomfortable, but chokes me to
the point that I want to claw my eyes out. This is not some mental illness;
it’s simply a perfect understanding of who we were meant to be, who we were
born as, an inherent refusal to give in to society’s perversion that demands we
succumb to peer pressure and cover what is natural, simply because, “everyone
else does it”. It is accepting oneself as one is without the need to dress up
and pretend to be someone else.
Human beings are non-toxic, non-harmful, GMO
free, and 100% natural. We are all beautiful creatures, the most beautiful
species on earth. We simply want to live as we are within our communities,
where all the members, all the neighbors, come together and work together in
peace, welcoming each other as they are, not as who they might want them to be.
The fundamental justification for any law or regulation
that takes away or limits freedom has to be based on some compelling harm to
other people. Many appeals courts have said that laws cannot stand without a
compelling public interest to justify taking away the freedom from other
people. Since no harm is caused to anyone, ever, from seeing another human
being nude, there is no valid basis for such laws. I urge you to change these
laws freely in order to see justice done. If you do not, then I and those with
me will be forced to take our case to the courts. We have already contacted the
ACLU, who said that what I am doing tonight is the first step in the correct
process. It need go no further than this if you do the right thing and simply
change the laws in Tumwater as I have suggested.
Thank you.
Legalize Body Freedom Movement
Oh, and here is how the State of Oregon words
their public indecency law:
A person commits the crime of public
indecency if while in, or in view of, a public place the person performs:
(a) An
act of sexual intercourse;
(b) An
act of deviate sexual intercourse; or
(c) An
act of exposing the genitals of the person with the intent of arousing the
sexual desire of the person or another person.
That ends my speech. I cannot say everyone on the City Council felt the same as did the mayor, since no one else made their contempt as open as did he, but neither did anyone stop him from cutting me short and certainly no one asked me any questions when I finished. I'm certain this council will not be taking a vote to see if any of them want to do as I suggested and change this outdated, hate-filled, bigoted law designed to deprive a specialized group of their Constitutional and Civil rights, so it will be my job to visit their meeting at least once more and ask them point-blank if they have done so and let them know I intend on taking further steps if they do not want to do the decent thing and change this law on their own.
I suppose an online petition might be the next step. I know others have tried online petitions for legalizing public nudity, but that was a general petition, not one for a specifically localized city. I guess it's worth a try, and so I will get one started and see what happens. I only ask that each and every one of you who reads this blog not only sign the petition, but pass it along and ask others to do the same. If we can get the hate law of one city changed, we can do the same thing and get the hate laws of other cities changed, and perhaps one day each of us will find ourselves living in cities where we are free to walk the streets nude without being arrested or targeted by the hate mongering city officials.
Since writing the above I began the following petition. PLEASE sign it and pass it on to others who will sign and pass it on. TOGETHER we can repeal the hate laws and gain the BODY FREEDOM we deserve! https://www.change.org/p/legalize-body-freedom
As an extra bonus, below are the most recent two additions to my Nekkid Niki cartoons. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed drawing and writing them: