Nude 4 Peace at SF Pride

WEARING MY MASK
on SF Pride Weekend 2003

by Tortuga Bi Liberty


In hot sunlight, I stand almost naked outdoors for several hours on San Francisco's Pride Sunday, demonstrating for freedom and peace.
Almost? My attire consists of mask, wig, belt, signs, backpack, boots -- leaving my front bare from shin to chin.
I adopted the mask a few years ago, to give me more chutzpah. I continue wearing it because of the positive effect it has on reactions from most of the adult public, or at least the hipper adults.
When I take off the mask, my face and hair emphasize my age, 61 on July 4. I then look like what I really am: an eccentric old man. Bare-faced, I'm avoided by most people. Especially by most gay men, who seem to fear that age may be contagious.
Wearing this mask, this naked guy still seems way weird, but the artsy mask signals no particular age. (As in the traditional slogan quoted by Helen Keller, "There is no age on the vaudeville stage.") Whiteface with red eyes and mouth, it suggests mime, clown, silent performer. Like a set of quotation marks, it invites suspension of disbelief, and authorizes oddness.
I hold a flagpole, heavily decorated, topped by a picket sign. When I remain dressed, at less-hip festivals..., the mask and sign attract only a few passers-by to accept my leaflets, take my photo, and/or have their friends take photos of them with me. When I add nudity to these props, many do so. In these demos, nudity is a costume.
I think of these actions as political and cultural advocacy. Others may view them as performance art, or as sheer insanity, You get to choose the label.
On this weekend, my political goals are to publicize Nude Freedom Day, celebrated each July 4 at Baker Beach, SF;
to prove that ordinary (non-lewd) nudity is lawful on the streets of San Francisco (unlike most California cities); and to symbolically express ideas which appear as text on SUN's website [http://pages.prodigy.net/seniornude ]:

".... Dare2bare4freedom&peace! Beyond mere words, our nakist bodies signify our ideals of human liberation. They represent the genome of the human species, surprisingly similar on every continent. Our semantic nakedness conveys messages of hope, and of danger. Our bodies speak for our souls. Our anti-costume calls for freedom now. Our public nudity, open to sun and fog and wind, calls for understanding that our Mother Earth is mortal, and that we must come swiftly to her rescue. Our vulnerable flesh, lacking all armor, calls for co-existing with our fellow humans, when possible. Fascistic censors want to suppress our utopian messages. In the short run, measured in months and years, censorship may win. Yet in the longer run, measured in lives, we believe the tide of enlightenment flows toward freedom and love.... "

On 28-29 June 2003, at the Pink Saturday/OutLoudSF street party on Saturday night, and at the SF Pride Festival on Sunday afternoon, I pass out around 300 leaflets, in a low-key manner. I pose with dozens of men and women. And hundreds of people take solo photos of me and/or my sign.
Most photographers stand at a distance, presumably taking full-length pictures. A few close in on my mask, while even fewer aim upward at my sign....
Toleration of street nudity has slowly been expanding in SF, and becoming less disreputable, since the Seventies. In 2002, I realized that S.F. Pride had stopped forbidding "mere" (non-lewd) nudity at its Sunday festival. In 2003, my naked vigil at Pride was honored by a friendly visit from Joey Cain, a leader in SF Pride and in the Radical Faeries.....
Negative reactions? Some people silently turn their faces away. On Saturday, I don't hear any negative comments. On Sunday I hear one objection to my nakedness, and one complaint about my "frightening" mask. Most audible remarks are people alerting their friends to the presence of a "naked guy" (a term popularized in nearby Berkeley in the Nineties), often in a joking tone. Some smiling persons make playful comments to me, like "I hope you're using sunscreen!" A few come up to me quietly, and say "I'm glad you're doing this". Perhaps their unspoken subtext is, "I'd like to go naked today, but I don't dare."
I rarely speak, since my white mask implies a silent mime.... When people ask what's up, I hand them a leaflet....
Experiences at Pink Saturday/OutLoudSF and at the Pride Festival, in 2002 and 2003, clearly demonstrate that San Franciscans don't mind mere nudity at outdoor queer events. As for women going top-free [in SF], that's even less of an issue.....

For freedom until death!
Tortuga Bi Liberty