The Orbit: July 4
This week on Planet Nude: One veto, one verdict, and one institution on trial. And the final push to Skinny Dip Day!
This week on Planet Nude
One of the pleasures of publishing every day is that stories sometimes begin talking to one another without planning to. This week, they converged on a simple question: who gets to define naturism, its history, and its place in public life?
The biggest news came from Arizona, where Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed HB 2133, the AI deepfake bill that AANR had spent months opposing. Naturists objected to the proposal because its broad recordkeeping requirements risked sweeping lawful nude publishing into legislation aimed at revenge porn. Hobbs vetoed it for a different reason entirely, arguing it threatened political free speech. Different objections, same outcome. Sometimes a bill can be too broad in more than one direction.
Just a few days earlier, Bogotá offered a glimpse of what happens when the law draws a much clearer line. More than 300 people gathered nude in Plaza de Bolívar, the symbolic heart of Colombia’s government, under a Constitutional Court ruling that explicitly separates simple nudity from indecent conduct. The event would have been remarkable almost anywhere. Held outside Congress, the Supreme Court, and City Hall, it also became a reminder that legal certainty shapes public culture as much as public opinion does.
Curtis Atkins’ essay on the Nudist Hall of Fame turned the lens inward. Halls of fame are supposed to settle history, but they also reveal who gets remembered, who gets forgotten, and what institutions choose to overlook. Atkins revisits founders who later rejected organized nudism, influential figures whose lives resist easy celebration, and the uncomfortable truth that preserving history sometimes means preserving its contradictions as well. If the movement wants an honest record of itself, it has to be willing to keep the difficult chapters alongside the inspiring ones.
One quick note before you go: Planet Nude will be at MoonGroove later this month as an official sponsor of the festival's first year at White Thorn Lodge in Pennsylvania. If you'll be there too, stop by and say hello.
Check out these stories and more from this week on Planet Nude.
The final push for Skinny Dip Day
Skinny Dip Day is just one week away, and we’re entering the final push. Over the next several days, Planet Nude will be full of Skinny Dip Day coverage, spotlights on participating teams, and a few reminders that yes, we’re going to keep asking you to join us until July 11.
Recent posts in Culture
This week on Strips
Strips One-Shots
More recent Strips
News of the Nude
Bern apologises to trans woman detained in women’s bathing area
The City of Bern has apologized after police forcibly removed a transgender woman from the women-only nude section of the Marzili baths despite later concluding she met the facility’s access rules. Officials admitted the intervention “proved to be wrong” and promised clearer guidance for staff. It’s a story likely to ripple well beyond Switzerland, raising difficult questions about inclusion, public nudity, and how naturist spaces navigate evolving social norms.
Police appeal after alleged indecent exposure at Devon nudist beach
Police investigating an alleged incident at Haven Cliff naturist beach were careful to distinguish criminal sexual behaviour from ordinary nudity on a designated nude beach. That’s an important distinction, and one naturists have spent decades trying to reinforce. Incidents like these inevitably become tests of whether the public can separate nudity itself from genuinely inappropriate conduct.
Discord Dispatch
The Discord settled into a summer rhythm this week. Members checked in from naked hikes, bike rides, and club events, while new faces continued to join the conversation and plan summer meetups.
Join us at discord.gg/8gt7D6ssMd — or click here to learn more.
Featured: 1 Naturist Life
Naturism doesn’t exempt anyone from disaster prep. The piece opens with the 2017 Hurricane Irma contrast between Club Orient (destroyed, never rebuilt) and Caliente Resort (which prepped hard and sheltered over a hundred evacuees), then lays out practical guidance for clothes-free communities: build a real emergency kit that includes actual clothes for shelters and hospitals, lean on club and Discord networks for check-ins, and plan wildfire and hurricane logistics ahead of time instead of waiting on false confidence. It closes by tying naturists' comfort with vulnerability to the mindset disaster prep actually requires.
The Orbit is Planet Nude’s weekly digest. Published every Saturday. 🪐