Tag: freedom of speech

Petition to designate federal land for clothing-optional recreation

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

There is a petition to designate portions of public lands under management of the federal government for clothing-optional recreational use, and it’s gone viral on nudist networks in the US. Surprisingly, it doesn’t come from the Naturist Action Committee or any other naturist organization, but it was backed by American Association for Nude Recreation a few days ago. It is well written and you can get more information on the explanatory website, but I’m pretty sure if you read this blog you don’t need to think twice about it, so go ahead and sign the petition to the White House!

I’ve already posted about some areas in New York that I think could easily accommodate both people who like to be naked outdoors and those who prefer to remain clothed, just make it legal and give people choice! My first choice would be Fort Tilden park and beach, and North 40 Natural Area in Jamaica Bay would be great too! Too bad Central Park is not federal land, or is a lawn for naked sunbathing or frisbee too much to ask? Meanwhile in San Francisco, the fight for legalizing urban nudity seems to gain some success. Naturist activists in the Fog City got so much public attention and support that police decided not to interfere with a naked wedding ceremony in front of the City Hall!

Success of this event, however, doesn’t mean that nudity ban is revoked, so if you’re in the Bay Area, join them for Nudity Ban Protest next Sunday, February 2! Hopefully, soon nobody will get arrested for doing yoga naked in San Francisco 😉

NUDITY BAN PROTEST in San Francisco this Sunday

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

While in my last post I suggested to try to make North 40 Natural Area a naturist-friendly park of New York City, there is a group of naturist activists that is trying to bring body freedom to the city where public nudity was legal until February, San Francisco. It is outrageous that laws banning nudity are being passed in the 21st century, and in San Francisco, out of all places. I know how these silly laws are enforced on my own experience after getting a fine for doing yoga naked in a park in San Francisco. Even if for some reason you think it is not acceptable (unnatural???) not to wear clothes in public, just look at the video from this group’s latest protest and think if this ban doesn’t violate freedom of speech, so cherished in the USA.

Luckily, there are such people who don’t give up, and I wish they had more support from naturist community, as well as anyone who wants to keep our society as free and accepting as possible. You can read more at their website, as well as donate them @ www.MyNakedTruth.tv

Here is also information about their upcoming demonstrations:

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15 @ 12 NOON – JANE WARNER PLAZA – NUDITY BAN PROTEST

Please, join us for another protest against the nudity ban at the Jane Warner Plaza. An award winning Norwegian documentary film maker Jan Dalchow will be filming the protest for his documentary film “The Naked Dream”. His crew will be flying in from Norway to document the body freedom movement of San Francisco. We would love to see you there. Please come and be part of the documentary!

In case of rain the protest will be held at the Sex and Culture Center at 1349 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19 @ 12 NOON – SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL – NAKED WEDDING – GYPSY TAUB AND JAYMZ SMITH will get married naked in front of the City Hall. We will also have a protest/march/parade after the ceremony.

Save Lighthouse Beach – write letters!

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

Naturist Action Committee has made a press release for all those concerned about beach time in New York area this summer. The next thing we, visitors of the beach and whoever cares about freedom and human rights, should do is writing letters to park officials and politicians. For more info, refer to http://www.naturistaction.org/fiis

Check out my previous post on how this issue arose, all of a sudden, starting with an open letter of Fire Island chief ranger.

Save Lighthouse Beach Fundraiser

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

As I wrote in the comments to my previous post about closing of the Lighthouse beach for clothing-optional use, Naturist Action Committee (NAC) seems to have taken this issue seriously and are working on lobbying against the nudity ban on Fire Island. So, the best we, the people who enjoy the beaches of Fire Island, can do for now is to support NAC. There is a perfect opportunity for that at the upcoming fundraiser event in Long Island this coming Thursday, the 21st of March.

It’s going to be a fun-draiser!

Here is info from the event’s facebook page:

So you heard and it’s true, Lighthouse Beach has been shut down. This is our home, where families have been going for generations, where lovers have met for the first time, where we created bonds that last all year round and essentially our “Nude Family” lives. Well What now???
We need to unite and do our best to battle the decision. What better way to join forces then to have a meet and greet fundraiser and unify our voices. Oh and let’s make it Clothing Optional!!!
All proceeds will be given to The Naturists Action Committee, who already has a Lawyer on retainer and lobbyists in Washington D.C. The Naturist Action Committee is the non-profit political adjunct to The Naturist Society (TNS). NAC is a grass roots organization that relies on the involvement and participation of individual naturists and groups at local levels. They are soley based on donations.
So let’s get together, show our support for Lighthouse Beach and begin to unite all our groups together in effort to be one solid front in combating this decision. There is a chance we won’t win, but we couldn’t be satisfied with losing if we didn’t put all our collaborated efforts together and given them everything we got.
Even if we don’t win, let’s set an example for the rest of the Nation and let them know what the real Lighthouse Beach is about and stop this nonsense about it being a bunch of “Drunken, brawling, drug-using, prostitutes” like the media and other officials would like to portray the majority of beach users as.

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TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED AT DOOR CASH ONLY OR YOU CAN PRE-REGISTER @
http://savelighthousebeach.eventbrite.com/

$25/Ticket 21+ EVENT

Can’t make the event but want to show your support please click on the link below and select the donation option to show your support for the fundraiser.
http://savelighthousebeach.eventbrite.com/

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Resident DJ BRANDON will be bringing musical delight to our ears all night long. DJ BRANDON has captured our hearts with his superior beats and his ability to make you dance the night away. We are delighted that he has donated his time and art of music to us all night long!!!

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We will also have a HOSTED Bar serving Wine and Beer.

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We will be serving snacks through out the night and will have a pastry bar with coffee and tea for purchase. All proceeds will go toward the fundraiser effort.

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Bob Morton the director of The Naturist Action Committee will be joining us via Skype to answer some of our questions and give the scoop on the latest news!!

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– Chinese & Silent Auctions Raffle & 50/50

Some Auction Items we Already Have:

* 1 Hour Massage
* 2 Day Passes to Rock Lodge Naturist Resort
* Private Dinner for 2 Cooked By a High End Private Chef
* Professional Nude Photography Items
* Professional Nude Art Items
*Zensuality Nude Yoga passes
*2 night stay at Sunny rest Nudist Resort
*A complete Personal Tax return
*Photo Shoot

And many more generous donations……

We are accepting donations for the auction items from friends, families, & local businesses until March 18th.
Message Us if You would like to be a sponsor!

 

and it goes on… will we fight for our rights???

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

New York’s nudist community has been shocked by recent news: “Effective immediately, state nudity laws will be enforced at Fire Island National Seashore”

It means that three places that I’ve described here – Jones Beach, Lighthouse beach and the Pines of Fire Island – have to go off the list 😦

This is beyond sad, and there is no doubt that we need to fight for our rights, otherwise we’ll be easily stripped off them! The mere fact that “Public nudity has been prohibited in the State of New York since 1984 under New York State Penal Code 245.01”, i.e. it isn’t a vestige of some prudish pilgrim set of laws and is quite new, is scary enough. Look how situation developed in San Francisco: 2011, a towel law is proposed. I found it ridiculous that there had to be a LAW about it. It may be a courtesy, but do we need to put it in law that one has to hold the door for the next person, for example? Look how New York Times started there article: “Perhaps it should not be a surprise that San Francisco does not have a law against being naked in public, nor that a small, unselfconscious segment of the city’s residents regularly exercise that right.” And guess what, that was just a probe, they wanted to see how nudists and others would react, and reaction was very mild. So just a year later, a new law was proposed and passed prohibiting nudity in San Francisco entirely, except for specifically designated events. I myself thought to enjoy the last days of freedom and did naked yoga in Golden Gate park with a friend last November, but we got fined, because they had a law specifically against nudity in parks, which we didn’t know about. And already in February 2013, we’ve got first arrests for public nudity in San Francisco (see the video here): So what makes you think it won’t go any further? And if New York and San Francisco are the most liberal cities in the US, what can we expect other place in the US? What’s next?

Nudity ban passed in San Francisco

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

😦 :’-( :-(((

Nudity ban passed in San Francisco

I was quite surprised to find out that many people didn’t take it seriously, thinking that it wouldn’t happen, ‘not in San Francisco’. Now it has happened. Mind you, it all started with a law that required naked people to put a piece of fabric or a newspaper when seated in public places just about a year ago. Obviously, they didn’t plan to stop on that. What’s next? And we’re talking about the ‘most liberal city’ in the country that positions itself as a stronghold of democracy…

Naturist Activists, Friends and Guests in Bay Area!

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

This Wednesday, if possible, you should take part in the historic RALLY FOR URBAN NUDITY in San Francisco. I wrote previously about an attempt to strip San Franciscans and guests off their right to be clothes-free in public places, but here is a chance not only to stop the ban, but perhaps help to secure and expand this overlooked basic freedom?

So, here is a copy of the announcement, hope it will be success:

Greetings Body Freedom Supporters and Friends!

A reminder that on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at Noon, the  RALLY FOR URBAN NUDITY will take place on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, (across from Civic Center on Carlton B. Goodlett Place).

Clothed, nude or anywhere in between, if you support the right to choose your own form of attire without government interference, come join us!

Vimeo censored our videos

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

This website is barely half a year old in its reincarnation on WordPress and videos powered by Vimeo, and we’ve got the first blow from the latter. All of a sudden, they removed Active Naturists account entirely for ‘ Uploading videos that contain pornography or sexually explicit material’, even though their guidelines say ‘Non-sexual nudity is allowed’.

If you have a moment, write to Vimeo staff and let them know you think it was an error and you miss our vids! You can do so via their email or, if you have an account on Vimeo, through their website.

Here is also our email for reference:

Dear Vimeo Staff,

We do believe it was an erroneous decision to remove our account for ‘uploading… pornography or sexually explicit material’. We find it very sad and unfortunate if you consider any of our videos pornographic and would like to get some explanation from you.
Your guidelines say ‘You may not upload sexually explicit material or pornography. Non-sexual nudity is allowed.’ We are running a blog about naturism, a lifestyle that encourages people to feel comfortable in their natural state, without clothes. In our blog, we particularly emphasized benefits of this attitude in numerous activities including sports, outdoors, dancing… For this reasons, we’ve uploaded a number of videos with us and our friends, as well as several videos from other online sources, where people were performing such various activities as swimming, gymnastics, badminton, rugby, dancing… but we cannot recall having any videos of us or anyone else involved in anything that could be classified as pornographic, even remotely. Of course, since you have erased our account completely, we cannot verify that information and point out to each and every video, but to the best of our knowledge, not only was there no video of people engaging in sexual activities, but there was no one kissing or even hugging. In this respect, we are honestly baffled as to what exactly you consider pornographic.

Your hasty decision to take down all our videos comes even more as a surprise (needless to say, unpleasant), because Vimeo actively promoted anti-SOPA and -PIPA campaigns. But in fact it seems that you act exactly how we feared internet censorship would work: without too much consideration, without clear definitions as to what is allowed and what is not, in other words very subjective and biased. Such actions seem to us especially inappropriate when done without any warning or notice.

Please reconsider your decision, as well as the ways you communicate with your users. My website aims at creating a positive body image and stimulating people to do more sports and outdoor activities, and in the same time speaks for one of the basic and simple human rights that is somehow ignored in mass media – the right to be yourself just the way you are, in your natural state, without necessity to cover yourself in clothes imposed by societal rules. Our videos were essential for the website, and Vimeo appeared to us like a perfect platform for hosting such videos. We hope it is still the case.

Best regards,

Active Naturists
http://activenaturists.net

Act against ACTA!

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

Recently, there’s been an increasing number of attempts to get control over the internet by Western governments. Internet community in USA managed to stop PIPA and SOPA; our website also participated in an online protest, which was expressed as a blackout (together with many other websites, including Wikipedia).

Now, there is a new, international threat to the net! ACTA!

Please sign against ACTA following the link.

Given that the previous version of our website was deleted without any warning and explanation, we feel very sensitive about any issue dealing with control of the internet, so of course active naturists are against ACTA. Find more info at StopACTA.info