
This week, I learned that Topeka, Kan., has a public nudity problem.
"We’ve got too many naked people running around, and it’s not the same person," said Topeka City Council member Sylvia Ortiz, who helped pass a ban on nudity in the city Tuesday.
Now, nude jogging or showing butt cleavage -- yes, that's an actual thing -- will be punishable in Topeka by fines ranging from $1 to $499 and up to 30 days in jail, according to Topeka Capital-Journal reporter Tim Hrenchir.
And judging from the city council's debate on the ban, it seems like there are plenty of let-it-all-hang-out joggers in Topeka to crack down on.
"I am a huge supporter of individual liberties," said Council member Jeff Coen, the sponsor of the ban, which passed unanimously, "but jogging naked down Wanamaker [Road] affects the quality of life for the rest of us."
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Public nudity bans are actually quite common in America and have been litigated for decades, according to Wayne Overbeck, Genelle Belmas and Jason Shepard -- authors of "Major Principles of Media Law" -- including at least two cases that went to the Supreme Court.
But some fights over baring it all are more high profile than others. And there are actually several high-profile ones taking place even as you read this.
San Francisco
In 2012, the San Francisco board of supervisors voted 6 to 5 (close call!) to ban public nudity, cracking down on "the naked guys" who liked to lounge at a park plaza in the Castro district, one of the first gay neighborhoods in America.
"The nudity situation in the Castro has become extreme," said Scott Wiener, a city supervisor who represented the Castro district at the time, according to the New York Times. (No, we did not make his last name up.)
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After the ban was passed, opponents in City Hall stripped in protest. Police, expecting this, quickly wrapped them up in blue blankets.
Despite the protest, high-ranking public officials approved of the ban.
"Enough with the nudity," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who represents San Francisco, told the Huffington Post after it passed. "Please. We have our standards.”
The ban survived a court challenge, too. A federal judge ruled the law does not violate free speech, especially since the ban still allows for for topless protests. And during certain city-approved functions, like the festive gay pride parade, you can still expose your private parts willy nilly.
Berkeley, Calif.
In 1993, there was a University of California at Berkeley student known simply as "the Naked Guy." He would allegedly walk around wearing nothing but sandals and a backpack. The school subsequently banned public nudity. And after the 6-foot-5 Luis Andrew Martinez showed up to a City Council meeting naked, the council banned it as well.
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The New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post profiled "the Naked Guy" in 2006, when he died at age 33 "in the throes of schizophrenia," according to The Post's Linda Goldston.
Martinez's high-school girlfriend told Goldston that he routinely researched public nudity laws to see if they were based on hygiene --- "If that were the case, he'd wear clothes" -- or "puritanical values."
Berkeley's ban, too, was upheld in federal court.
Sacramento
(Sensing a trend here?)
In California's capital city, you can walk down city streets and sidewalks totally naked-- for now. Public nudity opponents call the varying rules a loophole in the city's 1975 ban on being naked in parks, playgrounds and waterways.
"Somebody is just walking around naked, there’s really not much the police department can do,” Sacramento Police Capt. Katherine Lester said, according to Richard Chang of the Sacramento Bee.
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The Sacramento City Council is moving to change that. It actually voted Tuesday — the same day as Topeka — to expand the ban to all public places in the city. It is expected to adopt it officially at the next city council meeting.
Erie, Pa.
This small municipality has one of our nation's more famous public nudity bans. In 1994, Erie's City Council made it illegal to knowingly appear naked in the city. The local strip club, Kandyland, sued for the right to have its erotic dancers appear nude.
The case actually went all the way to the Supreme Court. In 2000's Erie v. Pap's A.M., the court upheld Erie's public nudity ban, saying the city had successfully made the case the strip club was harming the community and that the ban did not violate free speech.
"The government generally has a freer hand in restricting expressive conduct than it has in restricting the written or spoken word," the majority opinion said.
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The decision upheld a 1991 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that a public nudity ban in Indiana was constitutionally sound. Kandyland went out of business before the case was decided.
New York City
New York City has only recently begun seriously discussing laws limiting public nudity. The "desnudas" of Time Square, or naked ladies, are drawing more attention lately since they became a fixture in the tourist spot around 2013, parading around in nothing but heels, a thong and paint on their body parts.
The city's not considering a full ban. Just think, after all, what would happen to the Naked Cowboy! (Incidentally, his wife tells the New York Times she's not a fan of the desnudas).
But Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) has announced he'll address the women's toplessness, having formed a task force to look into what to do. The New York Daily News is leading the charge, publishing an editorial Tuesday that said: "Times Square is no longer a vehicular transitway. It's a giant public plaza. New York should reclassify it as a park [in order to ban topless women.] Bye-bye, Elmo. Bye-bye, bare-breasted women. Unless they want to stand there without making a cent. Yeah, right."
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