At chilly gathering, nudists fight to protect an indulgence under siege

MARCOLA, Ore. - At the national convention for American nudists, the brisk winds whistling through the naked volleyball games and topless horseshoe matches weren't alone in casting a chill.

More and more brushes with the law are making this a lifestyle under siege, and the nearly 1,000 nudists gathering this week in the Cascade foothills are spending much of their time strategizing a defense.

"Every do-gooder wants to jump on us," 75-year-old Bill Haller said as he floated naked in the crystal-blue waters of the nudist resort pool.

"Back in the old days, no one seemed to care about us," he said. 'Now we're having to go to court to protect ourselves a lot more than we used to."

The 50,000-member American Association for Nude Recreation, based in Kissimmee, Fla., now has a government affairs division and a legal defense fund to stave off local and state ordinances that try to strip the hobby just a little too far.

"We've had laws that were so broad that we have had to step in at the legislature and say, 'Do you realize that this law would make the locker room at the YMCA illegal?"' said Eric Schuttauf, coordinator of government affairs.

City laws that regulate the consumption of alcohol at strip clubs or keeps teens out of adult businesses leave nudist groups exposed to a whole range possible legal problems, Schuttauf said.

"It doesn't play very well when the family sits down on the deck here for a tuna fish sandwich and dad wants to have a light beer," he added, pointing to the lounge furniture where a buck-naked woman was stretched out with a good book.

Cities such as San Diego are also beginning to crack down on nudity in areas where it was once tolerated, such as Southern California's popular bare strip called Black's Beach. After years of tolerating sunbathers in the buff, the city announced in June it would start enforcing a decades-old pro against nudity there.

The AANR has even gone so far as to hire a Washington lobbyist, after Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., sought to ban nude swimming and sunbathing at a remote beach along the Canaveral National Seashore. That effort last year failed.

Then just last month, the lifestyle took another black eye when the FBI arrested the suspect in the murders of three sightseers at Yosemite National Park. They found their man - Cary Stayner - at a nudist colony near Wilton, Calif.

At this year's convention, Schuttauf hopes to replenish the group's legal fund through an auction of vacation trips that is aimed at generating $6,000.

Still, not all law changes try to blow the top off nudism.

Last summer, the city council in Berkeley, Calif., voted to downgrade the town's anti-nudity law by giving police the option of just issuing a $100 ticket on first offense. Under the original law, officers had no choice but to arrest offenders, who faced a year in jail if convicted.

Over the last 10 years, membership in AANR has increased by 76 percent, fueled mostly by an explosion in high-end resorts and cruise ships that bend over backwards for those who bare their bodies.

Top of the business agenda at this year's convention was the approval of three new nudist clubs, bringing the total number of AANR chapters to 238 in the United States and Canada. The only state that doesn't have one is Alaska. Florida has the most with 22.

Members say the group focuses on wholesome fun for the whole family - contrary to the stereotype that nudists are nature freaks or free-styling swingers.

Nearly 92 percent of the participants are 35 or older, but even toddlers and teen-agers come with parents to peel it off. Often, the lifestyle is passed down from generation to generation.

To Linda Pace, the AANR's membership director, nudism is all about self-esteem, feeling comfortable with one's body and learning to look beneath the veneer when judging someone else. Those values appeal to everyone from factory workers to corporate lawyers, she said.

"It doesn't matter whether the color of your collar is blue or white, when you're not wearing one," she said. "We take off all those masks."

But even these die-hard nudists have their limit. As the unseasonably cold, 65-degree temperatures moved in and the skies turned slate-gray, most of the delegates chose to shed their birthday suits in favor of sweatsuits.

"We shed our clothes, not our common sense," Pace said. "Even nudists get cold."

archive