Now Enlisting Soldiers

As you know I’ve been writing a lot lately about Legalizing Body Acceptance and that’s because as a card carrying naturist, literally, since I belong to both TNS and AANR, I have felt the majority of my adult life that my life would be so much worse off if I had to wear clothes all the time. Fortunately I don’t, but I know so many people who do, yet feel the same as do I. I empathize with them greatly, and that’s why I am such a strong activist and advocate for Body Freedom.

This coming Tuesday evening I will be attending the first of several city council meetings in an attempt to convince these city councils to change the laws currently on their books concerning “lewd conduct” or “indecent exposure,” whichever each city has chosen to label such actions as appearing in public nude, as well as several other things, that, quite frankly I agree should be illegal. But merely appearing in public should not. This is because simply being nude is not an action, it is a state of BEING. That’s right. Each and every human being on this planet was born nude and so every second of every day ever since each of us has been alive we exist in a state of being as the nude person that we are. If we choose to make a decision to wear articles of clothing, then we choose to cover up our nude bodies, but underneath those clothes we still exist as that nude person we have always been ever since the day we were born. That person came into existence from the moment we exited the womb and will not cease to exist as a vibrant, living NUDE being until the very last breath exits our lungs and the last bit of energy vacates our brain cells. Until then we ARE that same nude being that slid so gloriously from between our mother’s legs (unless you were born C-section, but still…), and if we walk outside of our homes and go out into the cities and towns where we live as our natural state of being we are simply BEING who we were BORN to BE.

Nothing else.

There is no criminal intent.

There is no lewd conduct.

There is no indecent exposure.

Can a tree be indecent because its bark and leaves are bare and open for all to see?

Can a dolphin, as it leaps up from the ocean be enacting lewd conduct as it spins about, attempting to thrill the audience applauding its actions?

Then why is it that a human being who simply walks down the street of his or her neighborhood, or steps out of a vehicle at a gas station to fill the tank, or walks into a grocery store to purchase food, is viewed as lewd or indecent? Why is it that someone will call the police and have that person arrested and that in some states a conviction for that “crime” will result in being labeled as a sexual deviant for the rest of that person’s life, just the same as if he or she was a rapist or child molester?

These are the reasons why these laws must be struck down. Why they have to be deleted from the books, so that law abiding citizens who would never think about breaking any laws are not labeled as criminals, not branded as sex offenders, having their reputations and lives ruined simply because they followed their innermost natural desire to be who they were born to be.

We need soldiers, people. We need fighters who will take this cause to city council meetings just the same as I am doing, and if nothing else, print out this blog and read it out loud at those meetings. Make those council members realize that these people are not criminals. They are not sex offenders. All they are is people who are being true to themselves and nothing else. In this world we praise people for all kinds of things, but when we see someone like these who are being the most true to themselves that any person ever could be we throw them in jail and slap a label on them that stigmatizes them in the most horrible fashion for the rest of their lives.

Are there child molesters or rapists who like to go about naked on the streets? Quite possibly so, it’s hard to tell. There are sexual deviants in every culture and in every place you can imagine. The thing about these deviants is, however, that they always give themselves away. Always. The problem with their – well – problem, is that it is so strong within them that they can never keep it hidden for very long before they say or do something that makes it known to those around them, and so before long others begin to realize there is something wrong about these people. And they get weeded out. Just as their type should.

But as for the rest, those who are merely being true to who they are and BEING nude, they deserve to be applauded the most above all others. They truly know what it is to be true to oneself. “What’s the old saying? “To thine own self be true”. So why do we then punish people for doing so?

We are not asking anyone to take a bullet or sword in the chest. All we ask is that you confront your city or county councils and ask them to change the laws on lewd conduct and indecent exposure. Leave in all the rest, but remove the parts that make criminals out of those simply appearing nude in public. That’s all we ask.

And as a reward ahead of time, enjoy these first four cartoons of a new comic strip about a family of nudists that moves to a newly formed clothing optional community, something I have termed C.O.F.F.E.E. Communities, C.O.F.F.E.E. standing for Clothing Optional Freedom Friendly Equality Environments. Yeah, it might be a bit of a squeeze, but I like coffee and had to figure out something to fit as an acronym, all right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy Nekkid Niki and his family and friends as much as I have in drawing and writing them, and as I draw more I’ll include them here in my new blog posts:

Remember you can write to me for more information on how to enlist and what to do at:
LegalizeBodyFreedom@comcast.net

Next Gen Naturists

I read a blog article earlier that discussed the difference between nudism of the past and what it will be in the future and I have to admit I agree with it. Only thing is the article didn’t take it far enough. By that I mean that the article talked about how younger people will see nudism as a means of being able to perform certain sports nude, ie, the current trend toward nude bike rides, 5K runs nude, and of course the ever-present and age-old custom of skinny dipping nude, which never goes out of style. But my version not only takes nudity a step or two farther down the road, it takes a huge leap along the road.

Envision if you will a society wherein clothed people work, shop, dine out, partake of various sporting events, theater as well as theatre venues, go hiking along popular trails, visit well known tourist attractions, even take vacations to places such as Disneyland and Disney World, all alongside people who are not clothed. Sound extreme or like some sort of whacked out fantasy? Not if you’ve been following this blog it doesn’t. There are a few of us who are working hard toward changing the laws in not only our local cities, but across the nation, in order to prevent people who appear in public nude from being charged with indecent exposure or lewdness. There is certainly nothing lewd or indecent about the nude human body and unless a person does something that explicitly causes another to infer lewdness or indecency be equated with their being nude there should be no reason to arrest these people and in fact, should be no reason to even take a second look at them.

In this scenario a police officer assuming lewd or indecent intent from a nude person walking along the street is the same as assuming criminal intent from a black man driving down certain streets in high class neighborhoods in the middle of the night. That’s racial profiling and it’s illegal. The current law on the books assumes a nude person is lewd and indecent simply by the fact of being nude, and yet that person has committed no act to justify such an assumption. That’s the same as racial profiling and should be just as wrong and illegal.

This is not an easy subject to decide, and in order to do so I suggest we first look at what the Supreme Court ruled years back when making their decision on pornographic material, such as books, magazines, and movies, in order to decide what would and would not be allowed to be produced and sold to the public. The Supreme Court finally decided on a set of three criteria which must be met for a work to be legitimately subject to state regulation:

1.    whether the average person, applying contemporary "community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,

2.    whether the work depicts or describes, in an offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions, as specifically defined by applicable state law (the syllabus of the case mentions only sexual conduct, but excretory functions are explicitly mentioned on page 25 of the majority opinion); and

3.    whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

All right, let’s take a look at these points and then see if they can be applied to public nudity, shall we?

First, we would have to admit that in most cities the “community standards” would be against public nudity, however, that word “prurient” 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 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. I am 61 years of age and overweight. Although I am in the process of losing weight and doing well with it, I yet have a bit to go and am far from the lean, well-muscled youth I was many years ago. And I guarantee that if you were to catch sight of my “male member,” that appendage that marks me as being of the male gender, you would not be aroused, since I have no qualms about stating that I have what is commonly known as a micro-penis. It is so small as to be nearly non-existent. It hasn’t always been this way, but it is now and that’s the way it is. Since the law in my city says a male cannot expose his reproductive organs I’m not even certain if a case could be made against me even were I to be arrested completely nude, since my reproductive organ is not always all that noticeable. So no, there is nothing there to cause arousal in anyone, male or female. As to the “curious” portion, well, if someone were to see me and become curious I would lay odds that it would be the type of curiosity that would be more of “What that heck is that guy doing out here naked?” than it would be “Oh, I wonder what it would be like to have sex with him?” So again, no, this does not apply to seeing me nude.

Taken in this manner I would have to say that these three criteria do not at all apply when seeing me completely nude, therefore my being nude in public would not fit the Supreme Court’s test for deciding if something is obscene. Since obscenity is not covered by the First Amendment, if in this case my nudity is not obscene, then my nude body in full public view must be taken in accordance to the Supreme Court’s decision on obscenity and that since “the work, in this case my body, taken as a whole, does not appeal to prurient interest, and since the work does not depict nor describe in any offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions, specifically defined by state law, and that the work, taken as a whole, does indeed hold at the very least, political, if not literary, artistic, and scientific value, then the judgement must be that my body is not lewd nor obscene and therefore is perfectly capable of being viewed in public along with that of any body that is clothed.

Now, the argument could be that other bodies might not be viewed in the same manner as mine and certainly I would have to agree. There are many bodies that were I to see them out on the street nude would evoke in me great prurient interest, desire, arousal, and so much more, however, they still would not meet the third criteria, which would be to depict any sexual conduct or excretory function and therefore lacking in that detail alone they would not meet the criteria. Besides, how pathetic would it be if we as a people were to discriminate against someone not for that person’s actions, but for our own actions, for how that person makes us feel when we see him or her? Is it fair to someone else to be judged because we cannot control how we feel inside when we catch a glimpse of that person’s nude body? Of course not. Another person cannot be held liable for how someone else responds to them and that is exactly the point of overturning these laws that currently are on the books against public nudity. These laws are in place not because there is anything wrong with actual nudity in public, but because of how it makes others feel when they view certain people nude in public. If it were not for the sexual reaction caused within the bodies of those viewing the nudity there would be no need to place laws on the books against such a thing. Public nudity is a victimless crime. It is based upon the arousal or revulsion experienced within someone upon witnessing the nakedness of another. It is a mental reaction that takes place and the person who is nude is not responsible. It is completely the responsibility of the person doing the viewing in how they respond to the nudity, whether they enjoy it or abhor it, the same as it would be if that same person caught sight of a newborn baby being pushed along in a carriage by its mother. Some, if not most, people would love the sight of the baby, while perhaps a few people might grow angry or even saddened by the same sight. It is always something from that person’s past, something within their memory that triggers the response and causes whatever reaction they have, and so it is with seeing a nude person in public. It is not a matter of right or wrong, it is a matter of how each person reacts to the sight of a nude person and so it is obvious that such laws do not belong in our society and must be repealed.

Having done this, repealed all laws against simple public nudity and replaced them with laws that more correctly deal with indecency that speaks to actual actions, not a state-of-being, we can move forward in our society to textilers living side-by-side with naturists, those who wear no clothing, or perhaps, to be more correct, those who are clothing optional, for it is obvious that even the most hardcore naturist, of which I consider myself to be, who dismisses the very thought of ever wearing any type of clothing, would of necessity put something on of some nature if the temperature and weather such as torrential rain, hail or snow dictated such. The human body can only endure so much abuse from inclement weather before going into a hypothermic state and shutting down. So it would be safer to assume that this world I envision would be one where textilers, those who would never be caught without clothing on would live side-by-side with clothing optionists who would spend the greatest portion of their time butt bare nekkid and therefore the Next Gen Naturists I envision would likewise be those who would be nude all the time, unless of course nature dictated otherwise.

My suggestion, if you feel this is the direction our society should indeed go, is that you write an email to each and every one of your state senators, it could be the same email, just write it and send it out to all of them at the same time, and then send it out again to all of the congressmen in your state, and to your state governor, your city mayor, the various council members of your city, anyone and everyone who have any control over the laws in your city, county, state, and this nation. We need to get laws repealed. We need to get action going. If we who love being nude do nothing, then nothing gets done. The only people who will ever do anything are us. So let’s get moving, shall we?

If you haven’t already done so, open a Twitter account. Then follow Bare Naked Nudist (that’s me) and retweet all of my tweets that carry the #NudePride and #BodyFreedom hashtags. You can also use those same hashtags and make your own tweets, but please, be nice and polite in whatever you write. We want change, but we don’t want to piss people off and make them turn a deaf ear to our cause. Doing that gets us nowhere. I follow the advice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr who cautioned protesting peacefully, not violently. We will win this war against our bodies and we will do it peacefully.

Stop the HATE! Free our BODIES! Legalize Social NUDITY NOW!

I See Nude People - Everywhere!

How hard are you willing to work for something you believe in?

No. Allow me to rephrase that.

If you believe in something with everything that is in you, as if it is the utmost imperative, that upon which the entirety of the universe hinges, will you give your all, fight with everything that is in you, no matter the cost, though it might mean your job, your reputation, your standing in your community, that everyone you meet will look at you and shake their head in scorn, see you as the worst reprobate they have ever met, go out of their way to avoid speaking with you, tell everyone they know not to speak with you and that no one who is decent should ever even have anything to do with you, that you are, in fact, the most vile scumbag on the planet and should be locked away, far away, from all decent human beings so as not to infect the rest of humanity, lest you somehow manage to infect all others with whatever it is that you have?

Regardless of how everyone else might treat you as a consequence of your actions due to your beliefs, if you personally believe in your cause strongly enough to brave all that may be exacted upon you, you owe it not only to yourself, but also to your cause to see it through, regardless of the outcome. There are few throughout history who have been willing to pay this price and of those, most have indeed paid the price with all that they had.

The framers of the Constitution of the United States of America believed so strongly in attaining independence from Great Britain that they pledged their wealth and their lands in order to see it through, and most of them paid with that very price and more.

Those who wanted to see slavery outlawed in America were willing to sacrifice their lives, wealth, and property, and again, many, if not most of them lost everything as the War Between the States waged on for far too many years, brother fighting against brother as the blood of Americans was spilt upon American soil for the right to see all Americans free, not only white Americans.

Throughout history, not only in America, but in many nations across Europe, Africa, Asia, and other places, people have given their lives to see their dreams made into reality, but again, here in America, Martin Luther King Jr. even delivered his famous speech entitled, “I Have a Dream,” wherein he delineated how he envisioned a world where, in using the vernacular of 1963, Negros and whites would be able to sit down together, eat together, and do all things together, as Americans, free from the hatred of skin color.

I too have a dream that is similar to the dream of Dr. King, only instead of looking at the color of people’s skin and discriminating against one another on account of skin color, my dream consists of being able to cease all discrimination based upon whether someone’s skin is covered or not. That’s right, my dream is that one day all across America, from California to Maine, from Florida to Washington, and everywhere in between, all people will be able to live together in spite of whether they are clothed or bereft of all covering. It is a certainty that every single person who has ever been born upon this Earth has been born completely nude, and yet to a one, if you walk outside as an adult, walk down the street to the grocery store or the bowling alley or the movie theater or one of any number of stores or shops or any other kind of business that might exist without a stitch of clothing covering any part of your body someone will call the police and you will be arrested for indecent exposure at the very least.

And yet I defy anyone to tell me exactly what it is that is indecent about a nude human body. We don’t decry dogs or cats or birds or any other type of creature as being indecent simply because it doesn’t have anything covering its natural form, so why is it that the human form is considered that way when its natural skin, that with which it is born, is not artificially covered with cloth or leather or plastic or something else? What is it about the human body that demands it be considered “indecent” when it is viewed in its nude and natural state?

Most people have a difficult time coming up with any answer to this question, and I consider that as being because deep down they know there is no answer, that humans are not meant to cover their bodies, unless it be for warmth and comfort. Some people, of course, will say it is for matters of “decency,” but have a difficult time explaining exactly what that means. Certainly when they try to go to the Bible, what most consider the final answer to this question, as do I, they still have a difficult time finding verses of Scripture to fit their argument, but I can find quite a few to back up the argument for living life nude, especially right from the beginning in the book of Genesis.

But this article isn’t about the Bible and what it says. This article is about what you might believe and what I believe in nudism and fighting for it.

Had Martin Luther King Jr. and others not fought for equality for Negros, or as we commonly say today, Black people or African Americans, these same Americans would not enjoy the equality they do today. It is because of this fact that Nudists need to wake up, stand up, show up, and speak up, in order to gain that same equality, for Nudists are in the same position today as the Negro was in 1963. Were Nudists to walk into any establishment without clothing they would be treated at least as badly if not worse than the Negro was in 1963. They would be beaten, cussed at, abused, arrested, and all for being nothing more than who they were born to be, and hated for being so.

There is an irrational fear at seeing a naked human being and clothed people tend to lash out when they see one, especially if they see one in a place where they don’t expect to see one. Certainly if you go into the YMCA or another fitness club and walk into the locker room you would expect to see some form of nudity while people are changing from street clothes to workout clothes as well as taking showers after working out, but if you were to see someone walk into your favorite restaurant and sit down at the table next to you completely nude you might find your brain going into overload trying to understand why that person wasn’t wearing any clothes and what he thought he was doing coming into a restaurant and sitting down amongst everyone else that way? Some people would undoubtedly attack that nude person while others might only call 911 and report the presence of a lunatic without clothes.

I am here to tell you there is not only nothing wrong with being nude it is actually the most normal thing there could possibly be. The actual problem is with those who insist upon covering their perfectly natural skin with clothing in order to hide it from everyone else. Certainly I can understand the need to cover one’s body when the weather gets very cold and dictates doing something to keep warm when going outside to do whatever needs to be done while out and about, but once back inside the confines of your own home or even when inside your place of work, or even when inside whatever establishment you have traveled to in order to shop for a while before heading home again, if it’s to be long enough to warrant removing your clothes, why not strip down in order to be more comfortable? Would you refrain from so doing simply because others objected or might get angry with you, even if it was perfectly legal for you to so do?

This brings us back to the question that began this article or at least a modified version of it – how hard are you willing to work, how much are you willing to give, at what point will you throw in the towel and give up when attempting to reach the goal you previously set before you? If it seems just too hard and it seems as though others might get too angry, if you don’t think you can stand up under the pressure of being screamed at, cussed at, possibly having someone throw something at you or hit you and all because you showed up at a peaceful protest (at least it’s peaceful on the side that you are on) stripped down to nothing other than perhaps a jockstrap or something similarly revealing, yet still able to keep you from being arrested, simply to prove that there is nothing wrong with the natural human body, where will you draw the line? If you are not willing to “go the distance,” which is a line drawn from foot races where it is necessary to keep running until each person crosses the finish line, even though they might have come in dead last, then perhaps you need to reconsider your reasons for what you are doing. Me? I got into this over 25 years ago and committed myself to seeing it through to the end. I want to walk down the street without a stitch of clothing on and know that I am perfectly legal everywhere I go. I want to eat in any restaurant I choose and not be thrown out because of the sign that says “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service,” because the law says I can’t be turned away for not being clothed. I want to do my grocery shopping or put gas in my car or any number of things I do now, but do it all as nude as the day I was born and know I worked hard to gain this equality, not just for me, but for everyone all over who feels the same way and all those who have yet to be born who might choose to forgo wearing clothes because it feels so much better to feel the sun on their skin and the breeze as it gently wafts its way along. I want to be nude just because I can, because being nude is what I love being best, because that’s just who I am.

I see nude people and I see them everywhere, every place, doing all kinds of things all the time, and it’s the most amazingly beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I hope one day I see it for real and I hope it never ends.

Read Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech.