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Indybay Feature

Citizens Strip Naked At The Board Of Supervisors Hearing On November 20, 2012

by Gypsy Taub (gypsytaub [at] gmail.com)
As the Nudity Ban passes by a narrow 6 to 5 vote at the Board of Supervisors yesterday, the outraged citizens rip their clothes off in protest against the ban. Gypsy Taub calls the Board of Sups a whore house and yells: "Recall Scott Wiener!" as she strips down and gets dragged out of the hearing room. Other citizens follow suit and rip their clothes off in an act of civil disobedience. Nudists
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Yesterday, on November 20, 2012, the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco voted on the Nudity Ban legislation proposed by Scott Wiener. I went to the hearing not planning to disrupt it this time but to wait instead till the final vote on December 4th. I was so disgusted by the fact that the ordinance criminalizing nudity passed despite all the reasonable and strong arguments against it presented by the progressive Supervisors! The crowd booed in disgust and people started yelling at the Supervisors. I couldn't help myself, and just ripped my clothes off and started yelling: "Recall Scott Wiener! This is disgusting! This is not a government, this is a whore house! We have gutless puppets on the Board of Supervisors! If you have no guts then stay home!" I was grabbed very quickly by sheriff's deputies who had a blanket waiting for me already in advance. The female officer was by far more aggressive than the male officers had been with me on November 5th. She scratched up my shoulder, and I have to say she was pretty forceful. Of course, on November 5th I pretty much walked out of the hearing room myself so force was not needed, while in today's case I was resisting the officers trying to prolong my opportunity to speak my mind. I kept yelling on my way out as the media ran after us holding their mikes out to record what I was yelling. I said: "David Chiu told us in a private conversation that he is with us, that he supports us, that he is progressive, that he goes to Burning Man, but that he is still most likely to vote for the ban because he is afraid to vote against it. He is a hypocrite! How can he represent the people if he is dishonest with himself?"

After making a big "bad guys" scene the sheriff's deputies took me to a room downstairs. I thought they were going to try to scare me a little bit. I wasn't scared at all but figured they might try. Instead they were super friendly and polite. They told me they were going to deliver my clothes to me, they asked me a few times who exactly had my clothes. They left me with the female officer and came back with my clothes. We had a funny conversation. The female officer was trying to lecture me about keeping my nudism private. She said: "What would happen if you went to work naked? What would happen? Think about that." Little did she know! She said: "What do you do for a living?" I said: "I am a stay at home mom right now. But actually my old job would have been perfectly Ok with me being naked." She asked me what my old job was. I said: "I was a strip dancer. In fact, they would have fired me if I wore clothes." Both officers cracked up and had a good laugh. As I was getting dressed the male officer explained to me: "Next time you come to the City Hall and disrobe..." - I thought he was about to tell me that they would have to arrest me, but to my surprise he said: " next time here is what we will do: we will wrap you in a blanket, take you downstairs, give you your clothes back and escort you out of the building." I took it is a friendly invitation to come back and do it again. I can see how other sheriff's deputies might be getting a little envious of those deputies who get the job of catching naked protester chicks, wrapping them lovingly in blankets and then cracking jokes together on the way out of the building.

It was exhilarating beyond words to hear later that other people at the Board of Supervisors hearing ripped their clothes off too to express their opposition to the ban! Yahoo news chose to ignore that very important detail. It's not about one eccentric Russian chick, it's a fucking revolution! Eat that, Yahoo News! Your report is a white-wash! I have to say that as much as I appreciate the media coverage a lot of it is quite watered down. Independent reports seem to be a lot better at capturing the spirit of what happened. But, I do have to say that I feel that the media is overwhelmingly on our side. They are plugging in our protests - wonderful free advertising for us, they are quoting our sings saying "The only Wiener that doesn't belong in San Francicso" - and shows Scott Wieners' face crossed out. The media are helping us as much as they can within the limits that they have to work in.

Scott Wiener said that the media supports him. How did he come to that conclusion? He mentioned the Bay Area reporter - true, the worst coverage of all that we got, but even then they quoted me saying that anti-nudity laws are an attack on sacredness, beauty, love, freedom, art and creative self-expression. They are also the only media outlet that I am aware of that gave us the numbers of how many people attended the Nov. 5th hearing for and against the ban, 22 for the ban, 37 against the ban according to them. How does that support Scott Wiener? They didn't have to give us those numbers, they could have just ignored them.

If I am not mistaken, did Scott Wiener say that the SF Chronicle supports him? Is that some kind of a joke? Did you guys hear the San Francisco Chronicle's quote of the week for the week of Nov.5th-11th? They quoted me saying: "Down with Scott Wiener!" and proudly reposted my video where I got naked at the Committee Hearing.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Unusual-unity-on-all-but-1-measure-4026601.php - go to page 2 to see the quote of the week.

How can Scott Wiener lie so outrageously about the Chronicle supporting him? Or does he simply not bother reading it? Well, in that case he needs to stop making references to it.

I have to say that I was deeply touched by the speeches that progressive Supervisors David Campos, Christina Olague, Eric Mar and John Avalos made. I had talked to John Avalos and he was on the fence at the time, even though he was against the ban. I am really grateful that he found the courage to stay loyal to the people of San Francisco and took a strong stand for body freedom. I loved the speeches made by David Campos, Christina Olague, and Eric Mar as well. I also appreciate Supervisor Jane Kim's vote against the ban. As far as the remaining "gutless puppets" as I called them, it has always infuriated me about the San Francisco politics that anonymous people with deep pockets buy elections and if they can't buy them they steal them as was the case with Matt Gonzalez mayoral election. Gavin Newsome spent, I believe, 15 times more on his campaign than Matt Gonzalez did. Gonzalez still won the election but it was stolen and the victory was given to Gavin Newsome. Big numbers of ballots were found floating in the Bay and San Francisco was called "Little Florida" (Florida being the state where the first presidential election had been stolen by George W Bush (Dubya) ).

Over and over again we see the same sad picture where the shadow government made of anonymous to the public deep pockets run the San Francisco politics with their wallets. Any time a progressive Supervisor runs for office they will go insane throwing money into campaigns to defeat them and to promote puppets, spineless, loyal puppets, whose names and faces are but a facade for the shadow government that lurks in the dark. Is that the case with these 5 conservative Supervisors who voted for the nudity ban and clearly against the people of San Francisco?

David Chiu is considered the swing vote so it sounds like he votes progressive sometimes. (When exactly? Who knows? When it serves his personal ambitions, I guess.)

When we visited different Supervisors' offices in the past few weeks we were given the heads up that Sean Elsbernd and Carmen Chu always vote as Scott Wiener does. (Those 2 were on the Neighborhood Services Committee that the legislation had to go through initially.) Are Sean Elsbernd and Carmen Chu puppets? It surely sounds this way. Are they clones of Scott Wiener or are all the 5 or 6 (if you include David Chu) of the Supervisors ( Malia Cohen, Mark Farrell, Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd, Scott Wiener and David Chiu) clones of some anonymous entity that secretly runs the San Francisco politics? What are they doing on the Board of Supervisors? We knew right away that the first 5 were a lost cause, that we shouldn't even bother wasting our time trying to reason with them. And it turned out to be true, despite the outcries of the city, despite the outrageous opposition to the legislation those Sups voted for it as was predicted from the very beginning. Why are we putting up with a Board of Supervisors where 6 out of 11 Supervisors are puppets/clones? When will there be laws in place that will prevent deep pockets from exploiting and oppressing the people of San Francisco?

I was involved in a local issue years ago when I was living in San Francisco. Watch this documentary that I made about it:

http://www.politicsfromtheheart.com/2008/11/burke-school-and-its-war-against.html

That's when I got to learn a lot about the dirty laundry of San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I know that City Hall looks shining clean, but it is dirty and it stinks once you get to know it better. There seem to always be 5 or 6 Supervisors who prostitute themselves for campaign contributions. It is a legal form of bribery. These people probably didn't get enough attention when they were growing up. As a loving mother I have compassion for that, I honestly do. On the other hand, becoming a political prostitute is not a good way to get attention, it is very destructive to all of us, and ultimately to themselves as well. How can we stop this auction where Supervisor's seats and mayor's seat are secretly sold to the highest bidder and then puppets are installed to conceal the identity of those who are truly running the show? Those guys are smart! Instead of falling blindly for attention and cheap ego strokes they find others who fall for attention and ego strokes to be their puppets, all the while concealing who they are. That way they can keep changing the puppets and create an illusion that there is a democratic process in place, all the while running San Francisco politics. And not only that but I bet there are deeper connections, like connections to the shadow government in Washington (or "Brain-Washington" - as my kids named it). Are you going to call me a conspiracy theorist? Well, explain to me then how is it that 5 Superviors out of 11 always vote against the interests of the people and always vote conservative? Fine, they may all agree on something innocent like helping schools or other legislation that doesn't hit any of the "elite" in the pocket. But when it comes to choosing between serving Big Business and serving the people's interests Big Business wins every single time with these folks. Same applies to sensitive issues that have to do with mentally controlling the masses - this is where sexual oppression comes in and hence the nudity ban. I have heard from progressive activists that capitalism inevitably leads to fascism. I believe it was Ralph Shoenman who said that. It sounded extreme to me at first but then I had to agree after thinking about it. Profits are put above people - this is the driving principle of capitalism as is clearly illustrated in today's world. And when that happens fascism (which I will call "totalitarian oppression" to give it a broad definition) is just around the corner.

Another angle to consider is the emotional one. As established by Wilhelm Reich (one of the most respected psychoanalysts of all times) - sexual oppression lies at the core of fascism. I know, economic exploitation and sexual oppression seem to be unrelated, but they are closely intertwined in every totalitarian society known to humankind. They are simply ways to control the masses through poverty and shame, body shame in this case.

Are we dealing with a fascist shadow government that tirelessly competes with real politicians like the progressive Supervisors mentioned above? That's what I have come to believe. Thank God for people like Matt Gonzalez, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi and a good number of others who are (or were) true activists, true representatives of the people! I feel grateful for the Sups we have on that Board who stood up for body freedom yesterday. Thank God for people like that! I want everyone to wake up and question the political dynamics of the City of San Francisco. Let's figure out a way to keep puppets/clones off the Board of Supervisors and out of the Mayor's seat! We need to abolish the system where "money talks". We need to create a system that doesn't have a single loophole for an anonymous deep pocket to sell San Francisco to the highest bidder. How are we going to do that? Honestly, I am not very well educated in that sphere. But I bet there are solutions out there and I bet there are people out there who know a lot more than I do about those solutions. Let's hear from those people and let's take this seriously! Our city is not for sale!!!

I am planning a protest against the Nudity Ban, for Friday Nov. 30. It will be at the City Hall steps @ 12 noon as usual. Please stay tuned and check my site for updates:
http://www.MyNakedTruth.TV

Please come join us at the next and final hearing on the Nudity Ban on Tuesday, December 4th. Let's have a fucking party and let's all get naked! Let's outnumber the City Hall's blanket supply!...LOL!!!..LONG LIVE BODY FREEDOM!!!
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by Gypsy Taub
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Joan Foley
Gypsy Taub does not even live in San Francisco. Why should she have a say in what happens in a neighborhood or city that she does not live in? Just because she and others are comfortable with public nudity does not mean that the majority of citizens who actually live in this city and those neighborhoods are comfortable with public nudity. Free expression is fine as long as it does not infringe on other people's rights to what they consider a safe, comfortable living environment. That is why most, if not all, communities don't allow public nudity.

In addition, not all the supervisors represent the nudists - some represent the rest of their constituents. This does not make them traitors or wrong. They are doing the job we elected them to do, which is represent us. They don't have to agree with a small group of people that don't make up the majority of whom they represent. That is called democracy!
by Lionel Gambill
Mrs, Grundy has kicked the Goddess out of the former city of openness and tolerance. First the French go prudish, now this! There will not be another Summer of Love in today's city of sham--er--shame. Well, of course, if God wanted us to go naked, we would not be born with our clothes on, right?

Here in China nudity is taboo too, but there was a time when Chinese were known world-wide as the sexiest people this side of the Garden of Eden, and there's an erotic museum that may reopen soon In Beijing. Please keep those SF supes away from Lake County in case their neurosis becomes contagious.

Lionel Gambill
Beijing
by Dog parks
Dear Supervisor Wiener,

I'm contacting you because I have a serious concern about the city's dog parks. Every time I walk by a dog park, I notice that all the dogs' genitals and anuses are on display. Now we humans have God and the Bible to teach us that are own bodies are shameful and disgusting. Dogs, on the other hand, are ignorant beasts who can't read and don't even have a soul-- they cannot be expected to adopt clothing without our help.

You may think I'm joking, but what if a group of children were to walk by? The chaperon would be in the uncomfortable position of explaining why all the dogs are sniffing each others' sinful parts-- perhaps even forced to explain why some of the male dogs are missing their testicles.

Please, we need diapers for dogs. I support a free city-wide program. It could be funded through increased revenue from the micro-apartments that raise rent by sixty percent per square foot.

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