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Will San Francisco Tell Its Nudists To Cover Up?

By: Mark Memmott // November 19, 2012
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San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener (yes, that's his name) says last year's law ordering those who bare everything in public to put a towel between their bottoms and public benches or restaurant seats hasn't stopped the complaints he gets about men who prefer to go without (clothes, that is) in the city's Castro District.

So Tuesday, the city's board of supervisors is scheduled to vote on an ordinance "amending the San Francisco Police Code ... to prohibit nudity on public streets, sidewalks, street medians, parklets, and plazas, and on public transit vehicles, stations, platforms, and stops, except as part of permitted parades, fairs, and festivals."

"I don't think having some guys taking their clothes off and hanging out seven days a week at Castro and Market Street is really what San Francisco is about. I think it's a caricature of what San Francisco is about," Wiener tells The Associated Press.

Those who enjoy being free and easy say they'll challenge the ordinance in court if it passes and is signed by Mayor Edwin Lee. A complaint already filed in federal court "alleges that [such a] ban infringes on the free speech rights of nudists and discriminates against those who cannot afford to obtain a city permit," the AP says.

Our friends at KQED revealed more about all this last month in a conversation with Wiener, Dan Schreiber of the San Francisco Examiner, Castro business owner Daniel Bergerac and nudist activist George Davis (the "nude yoga guy").

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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