The trial over the future of Denny Blaine Park enters its final hours this week. What began on May 27 as a proceeding projected to run through late June has moved at a pace no one anticipated. Closing arguments are expected Thursday afternoon before Judge Samuel Chung. A ruling is possible that same day.
The shift in the courtroom this week is significant. For the first eight days of trial, the floor belonged to the plaintiff and the City. Wednesday that changes. Friends of Denny Blaine begins presenting its affirmative case—the witnesses and evidence that will ask the judge to see the park not as a nuisance to be abated but as a historically recognized public space with a documented role in Seattle’s queer and naturist communities.
Wednesday’s witnesses include Simon Thornton and Colleen Kimseylove, FoDB’s co-founders, who will speak from personal experience about the park’s meaning and its decades of continuous use. Dr. Loren Atherley, Senior Director of Performance Analytics and Research at the Seattle Police Department, will present data on the success of the City’s abatement plan—the first hard numbers from city sources to enter the record.
Thursday, Perkins Coie lead attorney Susan Foster will deliver closing arguments on behalf of FoDB. The core of FoDB’s case, as Perkins Coie attorney Cassandra Carley put it in opening arguments, comes down to this: “This community includes transgender and nonbinary and asexual individuals for whom Denny Blaine Park is one of the safest places that they have. These are neighbors, co-workers, friends, family, citizens of Seattle who deserve respect.”
The plaintiff has asked the court for a permanent injunction prohibiting all nudity at the park, or closing it entirely. FoDB has argued throughout that simple nudity is lawful, historically documented, and constitutionally protected—and that the abatement plan already in place has addressed the conduct the plaintiff actually objects to. One of the plaintiff’s own witnesses, Meghan Harman, conceded under cross-examination that the park should remain open and that nudity is a protected right.
FoDB has invited press and supporters to attend this week, noting that trial coverage has skewed heavily toward the plaintiff’s opening witnesses. “This is an opportunity for balance, fairness, and representing the full picture,” they wrote in a press release Tuesday morning. If you’re in Seattle and want to attend, court is in session Wednesday and Thursday at King County Courthouse, Courtroom E-955, ninth floor, 516 Third Avenue—9am to noon and 1:30 to 4pm. Follow @friendsofdennyblaine for updates.
Planet Nude will have outcome coverage whenever a ruling is issued. 🪐