Brattleboro trying --again-- to ban nudity

[KBCraig]

No word about doing yard work in nothing but your wellingtons.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19783221/

Vt. town considers banning nudity
Town known for its easygoing strip-and-let-strip attitude may draw the line
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:14 a.m. CT July 16, 2007

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - Topless women on parade? That was fine. Teenagers loitering in the buff, in a downtown parking lot? No problem. Naked sunbathers at swimming holes? It was just au naturel.

But a senior citizen in his birthday suit, walking through the center of town on a Friday night, wearing only a fanny pack? That's where Brattleboro draws a fig leaf.

After years of allowing public nudity, the town famous for its strip-and-let-strip attitude is considering banning it in parts of town, saying naked notoriety has begun drawing people here and is offending locals.

The town's Select Board plans to introduce an emergency ordinance banning nudity in some parts of town Tuesday.

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should," said Select Board member Dick DeGray. "You can't go into a store and buy an adult magazine until you're 18, and yet you can walk down the street in Vermont and see naked people. There's something wrong with that picture."

'Naked people don't impress me'
On July 6, a 68-year-old man showed up naked downtown, walking the streets during Gallery Walk, a monthly social event in which people roam downtown, stopping in art galleries and shops. Gallery owner Suzanne Corsano was locking up for the night when she encountered him on a sidewalk.

"Naked people don't impress me," said Corsano, 60. "But to be walking down the street like that. I just looked straight at him, and he looked down. He was trying to get me to look down there, but I wouldn't."

The man told residents he was from Arizona and had decided to vacation in Brattleboro after reading about its public nudity freedom on the Internet.

Vermont has no state laws against public nudity, although a handful of cities and towns have enacted anti-nudity ordinances.

Brattleboro flirted with the idea of an anti-nudity ordinance last summer when a group of teenagers took to hanging around a downtown parking lot in the nude, which led to national publicity and triggered telephone calls from curious people in faraway places.

"They'll call up and say, 'So, I hear you've got a lot of naked people running around town,'" said Jerry Goldberg, executive director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce.

Some would-be visitors call to say they are putting off their planned visit because they're worried about public nudity, he said. Town officials worry, too: The idea of naked people spoiling Gallery Walk night by scaring away families with children is chilling.

"Every time you guys do one of your articles, people come from all over," said police Capt. Steven Rowell.

Last week, a man charged with a felony sex crime for dancing naked in the street pleaded to a lesser offense and got a one-year deferred sentence. Adhi Palar, 20, of Brattleboro, was among the group that dabbled with nudity last summer. He was cited because police said he was seen dancing naked and pulling a piece of clothing back and forth between his legs, rubbing his genitals.

'It's time they did something about it'
Public nudity is far from an everyday occurrence, but many here want it regulated.

"It's time they did something about it," said Sherwood Smith, manager of Baskets Bookstore, which is located near a parking lot where naked teens gathered last summer. "It hurts a store like this. People who are likely to buy used books are often conservative middle-aged people, or older."

Not everyone agreed.

"I don't like the idea of them taking the rights to something natural away," said Rhiannon Curtis, 19. "I like to swim naked, and that would be affected if they do this. Vermont doesn't need to conform to the rest of society's uptight rules."

[Pat K]

The town's Select Board plans to introduce an emergency ordinance banning nudity in some parts of town Tuesday.

LOL, emergency, warning warning danger Will Robinson!!

[Russell Kanning]

are they posting pictures of ugly people to help put this into effect?

[KBCraig]

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1823185120070718?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true

Vermont town bans public nudity after brash displays
Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:37AM EDT
By Zach Howard

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (Reuters) - A Vermont town that is gaining national attention for brash displays of nudity -- from teens in the buff to naked elderly people -- awoke on Wednesday to an emergency ban on nakedness in most public places.

Officials in Brattleboro voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday night for a temporary 30-day ordinance prohibiting people from going about in the nude.

Public nudity made headlines last summer when the weather grew hot and a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past stores wearing only their birthday suits. The disrobing has resumed this summer.

But many locals say it has gone too far. Some cite a case in which a senior citizen from Arizona strolled through the center of town wearing only a waist pack and sandals.

"We've received quite a number of complaints on this," Assistant Town Manager Barbara Sondag said. "This was brought up last summer ... and kind of died down. Then a couple of incidents again this summer have got the issue to resurface."

Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition, allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians as well as transplanted entrepreneurs from Boston and New York.

Although skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing will stay legal in the state, doing the "full monty" in the middle of this town has now become taboo. A violation can cost $100.

The topic is hotly debated at Harold & Son's Barbershop, where Heather Birmingham, 30, cuts and colors hair.

"(Nudity) does rub some people the wrong way," she said.

"Some people say 'to each his own'. But some of the older people say 'be respectful'."

She disagrees with the ban. "This whole town is about peace and about being your own person. So if it is, then why isn't nudity accepted?"

Caleb Morris, 15, said he wasn't surprised by the town's tough response because outsiders could find the nudity offensive, but he added that Vermont has always been unique.

"It's a lot more free-spirited than some other states. We don't have a lot of laws banning things here."

The ban covers nudity in the main part of town and near schools and churches and is part of a broader anti-nudity proposal that is likely to be decided next month. Breast feeding in public will still be allowed.