The ewsletter Go all over! June 2010 June 1 ,

Washington Beach

vs. Urban Development LLC /Naturist Action Committee/Naturist Education Foundation

Mark Storey NAKED PADDLING TO POINT WELLS, with asphalt plant in background.

Receiving little by way of naturist Once on the beach, sunbathers are trucks to enforce the trespassing laws ballyhoo, the traditionally clothing- out of sight of all houses and roads. A designed to keep people from walking optional section of Seattle area’s Point forested, undeveloped bluff rises up on the tracks and getting killed by Wells Beach will likely close to nude use behind, and open water laps gently in passing trains. Word of $500 tickets in the next few years. People keep having front to the west. A freight or passenger has motivated beach users to access babies, and counties are increasingly train whizzes by along the base of the the traditionally nude section of the mandated to plan for the dense living bluff every hour or so, but conductors shoreline in alternative ways. communities coming their way. The and riders are used to seeing naked Most beach users now approach story’s become all too common: secluded people here. Point Wells Beach from the north, nude beaches are under pressure from Years back, naturists and other parking at Edmonds City Park, also on increasing population. naked-minded folk could park nearby, Puget Sound. From there, they either Point Wells is located in Woodway, and walk the railroad tracks passing walk at low tide along the exposed beach, just north of Seattle on Washington’s through the area to the beach. But local or take their chances and walk beside the chilly Puget Sound. Much of the residents convinced authorities to place railroad tracks south for a half mile. peninsula-like bulge that is Point Wells is “No Parking” signs along the nearby NAC board member Mark Storey, taken up by an aging asphalt plant, but the streets, preventing non-residential beach who lives nearby, paddles his kayak lonely stretch of beach immediately to the users from their longstanding approach from the city park to Point Wells two or north has for many years been frequented to the shore. three times a summer. “It’s a nice beach,” by naked sunbathers, often observed but The railway also began patrolling Storey said, “but the water there is often ignored by the plant workers. the tracks with specially wheeled pickup gunkier than 200 yards in any direction,

www.naturistsociety.com • www.naturistaction.org • www.naturisteducation.org Go barefoot all over! NAC’S MARK STOREY AND BOB MORTON kayaking naked off Point Wells. Washington Nude Beach vs. Urban Development, cont.

because the point causes an eddy here that collects natural debris. Still, the setting is quiet, and the views across the Sound are stellar.” June 2010 June TNS member Kathy Blanchard likes the site too, but she notes that some sleazy guys often hang out there. “The last time I kayaked to Point Wells with my husband, some naked guy approached us on the beach to chat for a few minutes, and that was nice; but a while later he was playing with himself 2 behind a rock only twenty yards away.

Women show up occasionally, but this Mark Storey seems pretty much a guy beach.” The Naturist Society, Guy beach or not, Point Wells is one of the few salt-water settings in now sit. Local residents and a handful development tide. If the beach had western Washington that naturists can of politicians are opposing the move, attracted a healthier user base, it’s confidently use nude. The difficulty in claiming reasonably that the limited conceivable that it could join local reaching the site legally has kept it low access to the area makes dense, urban- residents to fight the commercial on the regional naturist profile. Still, it’s scale development nonsensical. Point onslaught. But a handful of unsavory a visually attractive place to be naked, Wells would need to be rezoned as an types, many of whom are happiest and Washington naturists have learned urban center for all this to happen, and hiding behind bushes, does not make an to take what they can get. LLC with pressure on the county to make effective activist group. But they soon may not have even this. room for increased population, and with Nude beaches must be used—and /Naturist Action Committee/Naturist Education Foundation The Snohomish County Council is visions of revenue-generating permit used regularly—by naturist men, women, considering revamping its design rules fees dancing entrancingly before county and their families. To ignore such sites is to allow property developer Paramount council members, development of Point to give up any hope for their future. We Northwest to build high-rise condos and Wells is virtually a sure thing. still have many enjoyable nude beaches, a dense urban waterfront center where There’s little Seattle area naturists but we must use them or lose them. the asphalt plant and naked sunbathers can do to stem the population and Naked Swiss Hiker Wins Appeal

Europeans have been hiking the “indecent behavior.” A court initially In “The Offense of Public ” Swiss Alps naked for quite some found the man guilty and fined him (N 22.2; see also www.bodyfreedom.org/ time. It’s not exactly common, but 100 Swiss francs (approx. $86.50). His guide/essays/offense.html), Mark Storey naturists enjoy it often enough for lawyer—also a naked rambler—argued argued that by appealing to philosopher both local anti-nudity zealots and the that Switzerland’s penal code did not Joel Feinberg’s discussions about offense bemused international media to take specifically prohibit nude hiking in (i.e., a wrongfully produced, non-harming, notice. public areas. unwanted mental state) and the law, Recently both the Agence France- Obviously, if the man had broken naturists can show most instances of Presse (AFP) and Associated Press (AP) no law, he should have been acquitted, non-sexualized public nudity to not provided reports of a 47-year-old man and never found guilty in the first place. result in serious offense, thus making acquitted in Switerland’s Appenzell But the arguments offered by the hiker criminalization of public nudity largely Ausserrhoden canton appeals court on and his lawyer are worth noting, as they unjustified. May 28, 2010. He had been hiking nude illustrate clearly principles important Feinberg had argued for con- along a secluded mountain trail, and a to any thoughtful naturists making sideration of ten “balancing factors” in woman saw him and complained of his considerate use of public lands. weighing offenses. Some factors indicate Go barefoot all over!

Naked Swiss Hiker Wins Appeal, cont.

and a woman reported him to police.” Neither report indicated how close the hiker sauntered by the Christian center, nor if he knew it was there or what it was.

Few localities on earth, however, can 2010 June guarantee a naturist hiker 100 percent certainty of not passing briefly within sight of someone ill-disposed to the authentic human form. It appears that— all else being equal—this clothes-free peripatetic was causing no legitimately serious offense.

The hiker’s desire to remain to 3 himself in his walk, and wishing to avoid offense if possible is also evident from his arguments. Feinberg contends The Naturist Society, that if there is no “malice or spite” or other intention to cause offense, then that undercuts the seriousness in any offense taken by the action. The hiker’s choice of isolated location points to his having no intention to cause unwanted HIKERS IN THE ALPS are surrounded by beautiful mountain vistas. mental states like affront or alarm. Also, the AP report quotes the lawyer as saying, “We’re not exhibitionists, we LLC

just want to be free.” Here the lawyer ./Naturist Action Committee/Naturist Education Foundation that—all else being equal—the offense nude over the past two years, and that speaks to the issue of what Feinberg taken is serious and thus the offending he always sticks to little used tracks.” calls “personal importance.” If the behavior may be open to some minor The AP story reported him also as saying offending behavior is unimportant to the form of criminal censure. Other factors that in these two years he had never actor, then it would be unclear why he or indicate that—all else being equal—the encountered any problems. she is doing it knowing that it’s causing behavior is important enough to the Here the hiker appeals to Feinberg’s offense to others. If the behavior is of actor or society that the offense taken is “Nature of the locality.” Some potentially great personal importance to the actors, something society should tolerate. offensive behavior may likely cause and that’s their motivation for acting so, The AFP and AP reports on the more serious offense in some places then—again, all else being equal—that Swiss hiker’s court arguments exemplify over others. A man sunbathing naked mitigates to some degree how much naturist use of four of Feinberg’s one Sunday will cause less offense emphasis the criminal law should accord balancing factors. The AFP reported that, (probably) at an established nude beach those claiming offense. “Freedom” “The nudist’s lawyer argued however that than he will at most church parking lot. (whatever that means here) is clearly his client was not behaving in an indecent The Swiss hiker had been making important to the hiker, and should count manner, and that the woman must have a point for two years to ramble naked in some way in determining how much followed him to observe his actions.” where others would less likely see him, weight to give the tender sensibilities of Feinberg argues from a well-established and in areas where two years’ worth of the offended Christian matron. legal principle called the “Volenti experience told him no others would be Obviously, greater discussion maxim,” which says that if someone bothered. Surely, if any public locality is is warranted in shaping a thoughtful freely chooses to get offended, then the appropriate for nude hiking, this Swiss response to an offended person’s offense is to that extent not serious, and man appeared to find it. grievance, irrational and culturally should not be open to criminal sanction. The nature of this locality may conditioned though it may be. Still, it’s The Swiss lawyer appealed here to just not have been ideal for a nude hike, satisfying to see one court in one land such a principle. however, as the AP report explained that appear to hear the voice of reason. Also, according to the AFP story, “the unidentified hiker chose a path that “The hiker said he has been rambling passed a Christian rehabilitation center . .com

.naturistsociety www.naturistaction.org 1-800-886-7230 Morley Schloss - Florida [email protected] Virginia Schnee - Massachusetts [email protected] Judy Williams - British Columbia [email protected] Don Zirbel - Oregon [email protected] www.naturistsociety.com Schedule Gathering www.naturistaction.org www.naturisteducation.org Contact the NAC Board the NAC Contact

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Editor: Mark Storey in your area! your in

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The In The Tunkhannock Attorney’s “horrified”

June 2010 4 The Naturist Society, LLC/Naturist Action Committee/Naturist Education Foundation