Thanks for the clear and detailed writeup! Do you know of any examples of ideal—or at least practical and acceptable—state laws and/or regulations with respect to public nudity on state lands specifically? Or what TNS/NAC generally strives for at the state level in terms of publicly owned lands? I've read through plenty of terrific lists summarizing state and local laws on public nudity, and have read some great case studies (including here on Planet Nude!) about effective campaigns by local advocates and by advocacy organizations. But I'm wondering more about what the target legal framework is.
For example, it seems highly unlikely to expect laws that greenlight nudity in public everywhere (and, in my personal opinion, this would probably be counterproductive for the naturist cause because it would engender lots of public backlash—but that's certainly debateable).
So what would be optimal in a realistic sense? Not necessarily in Wisconsin but generally—I recognize so much it this is highly context dependent, and many of these cases are years-long fights with local advocates who know the local stakeholders best.
I'm guessing the realistic optimal might be a state law that specifies lewd sexual behavior as the target of any indecency restrictions on state lands, but is generally silent on simple nudity, allowing for enforcement to look the other way when reasonable. Then, ideally, such a definition is paired with designating certain areas as officially clothing optional, to protect usage in those locations. On the other hand, this can be fraught when jurisdictions refuse to designate any areas as clothing optional or allows those areas to be chipped away at.
Ultimately, I think the most important thing we can do as naturists is to fight back against draconian restrictions and to showcase the reality and positive aspects of socially-conscious, nonsexual nudity. That said, public policy and politics are about tradeoffs. On the one hand, you never want to start a good-faith negotiation by negotiating against yourself and your cause. But it's also helpful to, at least behind the scenes, have some realistic models to aspire to.
This is such a great and important question. I don't know of what states might present the best possible legal examples here, that would certainly be worthy of some research. I could probably brainstorm some broad protections and general ideas. I think the most important would be that if where it's not legal or sanctified (for instance in certain public areas like parks, forests, beaches) that it's still broadly decriminalized. I think this would definitely warrant a written exploration of its own!
Right. Will definitely give this more thought. Agree about decriminalization as a potential baseline, though that also raises questions about what it means in practice.
I'm personally more of a private nudist club-goer than a beachgoer, but these legal and political threats make me want to do my part to advocate (and of course, any individual threats also risk spillover effects on naturism in other contexts, especially when they're tied to broader moral panics). Thanks for articulating the situation and path forward, here and in your collaboration with NAC.
Is there a lawyer with an affiliation to a federal or state naturist association? If not, could one be found and retained? This could help with utopia positioning and also blindspots that laypeople might have.
The case law they cited of Tagami v. City of Chicago seemed to have relied on "promoting traditional moral norms and public order" to deny top equality between the sexes. You're absolutely right that this is tied to constricting rights and freedoms for multiple groups. I can understand why you are concerned.
The organizations generally do retain lawyers and lobbyists, at least in Florida. AANR's Executive Director Erich Schuttauf is an attorney. I'm sure a certain contingent of AANR's members are lawyers or have legal experience, and might be able to advise on a voluntary basis. Most of the orgs are volunteer based, working with limited resources to do a lot of things. Of course, productivity and effectiveness is often be stymied by the inherent bureaucracy and ego clashing that comes with any organization of efforts.
When I read the new regs, the first thing I thought was "How will that work for breastfeeding" and then I noticed that there were exceptions for that as well as other conditions.
This might be overly simplistic thinking, but designated clothing-optional spaces and events could be added to thar phrase. That would leave space for nudity without criminalization. It might even be a benefit that there has now been time between when the beach was open in the past and now because inferring that the same alleged behaviour would occur would have a level of unsubstantiation.
Thanks for the clear and detailed writeup! Do you know of any examples of ideal—or at least practical and acceptable—state laws and/or regulations with respect to public nudity on state lands specifically? Or what TNS/NAC generally strives for at the state level in terms of publicly owned lands? I've read through plenty of terrific lists summarizing state and local laws on public nudity, and have read some great case studies (including here on Planet Nude!) about effective campaigns by local advocates and by advocacy organizations. But I'm wondering more about what the target legal framework is.
For example, it seems highly unlikely to expect laws that greenlight nudity in public everywhere (and, in my personal opinion, this would probably be counterproductive for the naturist cause because it would engender lots of public backlash—but that's certainly debateable).
So what would be optimal in a realistic sense? Not necessarily in Wisconsin but generally—I recognize so much it this is highly context dependent, and many of these cases are years-long fights with local advocates who know the local stakeholders best.
I'm guessing the realistic optimal might be a state law that specifies lewd sexual behavior as the target of any indecency restrictions on state lands, but is generally silent on simple nudity, allowing for enforcement to look the other way when reasonable. Then, ideally, such a definition is paired with designating certain areas as officially clothing optional, to protect usage in those locations. On the other hand, this can be fraught when jurisdictions refuse to designate any areas as clothing optional or allows those areas to be chipped away at.
Ultimately, I think the most important thing we can do as naturists is to fight back against draconian restrictions and to showcase the reality and positive aspects of socially-conscious, nonsexual nudity. That said, public policy and politics are about tradeoffs. On the one hand, you never want to start a good-faith negotiation by negotiating against yourself and your cause. But it's also helpful to, at least behind the scenes, have some realistic models to aspire to.
This is such a great and important question. I don't know of what states might present the best possible legal examples here, that would certainly be worthy of some research. I could probably brainstorm some broad protections and general ideas. I think the most important would be that if where it's not legal or sanctified (for instance in certain public areas like parks, forests, beaches) that it's still broadly decriminalized. I think this would definitely warrant a written exploration of its own!
Right. Will definitely give this more thought. Agree about decriminalization as a potential baseline, though that also raises questions about what it means in practice.
I'm personally more of a private nudist club-goer than a beachgoer, but these legal and political threats make me want to do my part to advocate (and of course, any individual threats also risk spillover effects on naturism in other contexts, especially when they're tied to broader moral panics). Thanks for articulating the situation and path forward, here and in your collaboration with NAC.
Is there a lawyer with an affiliation to a federal or state naturist association? If not, could one be found and retained? This could help with utopia positioning and also blindspots that laypeople might have.
The case law they cited of Tagami v. City of Chicago seemed to have relied on "promoting traditional moral norms and public order" to deny top equality between the sexes. You're absolutely right that this is tied to constricting rights and freedoms for multiple groups. I can understand why you are concerned.
The organizations generally do retain lawyers and lobbyists, at least in Florida. AANR's Executive Director Erich Schuttauf is an attorney. I'm sure a certain contingent of AANR's members are lawyers or have legal experience, and might be able to advise on a voluntary basis. Most of the orgs are volunteer based, working with limited resources to do a lot of things. Of course, productivity and effectiveness is often be stymied by the inherent bureaucracy and ego clashing that comes with any organization of efforts.
When I read the new regs, the first thing I thought was "How will that work for breastfeeding" and then I noticed that there were exceptions for that as well as other conditions.
This might be overly simplistic thinking, but designated clothing-optional spaces and events could be added to thar phrase. That would leave space for nudity without criminalization. It might even be a benefit that there has now been time between when the beach was open in the past and now because inferring that the same alleged behaviour would occur would have a level of unsubstantiation.