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Opening Arguments

The naked and the dread

A brave stand for human dignity in San Francisco!

Reuters) - Two dozen pro-nudity activists wearing little but their righteous indignation assembled on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to protest a proposed municipal ban on public nakedness.

"We are here today in response to an attack on our fundamental freedom, our freedom to be ourselves in our own city," disrobed rally organizer Gypsy Taub declared as her fellow activists displayed signs saying, "Nudity is Natural" and "Nude is not Lewd."

[. . .]

Following the protest, attorney Christina DiEdoardo filed suit on behalf of the nudists seeking to block the proposed nudity ban from enactment.

She contends that a prohibition on public nakedness would deprive her five clients, one of them a former mayoral candidate who ran on a nudist platform, of their constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection under law.

"The city is getting into trying to legislate and criminally enforce a dress code," she told Reuters. "My clients are trying to save the Board of Supervisors from acting unconstitutionally."

"Nudophobic bigotry has now taken root here in San Francisco," Rusty Mills, 69, stripped down to his tanned birthday suit, told his fellow demonstrators as they stood in the sunshine of an unseasonably warm, 70-degree Fahrenheit (21-degree Celsius) fall day.

Yeah, that's the main reason I linked to this, so we could marvel at the new word of the day: nudophobic.

Nudity as a free-speech and equal-protection right -- who knew? Ever have one of those anxiety dreams where you suddenly realize that, though you're in public, you're naked, and are in fact the only one naked? When I have those dreams I oddly don't find myself in San Francisco on a balmy 70-degree day. Rusty does show up occasionally, though.

Eeeu. At least that's one reason to be thankful we live in a climate that gets really cold in winter.

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