B@B includes protesters

SF, May 18:
B2B includes protesters
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Berkeley's X-plicit Players strolled naked or topfree for peace on Sunday, May 18, from downtown San Francisco to the west end of Golden Gate Park, over 7 miles. One sign said "Dare 2 Bare 4 Freedom + Peace". The peaceniks were among thousands of walkers in "the back of the pack" at Bay 2 Breakers.

Many costumes and contingents were satirical. My fave was Bush with a television camera attached to his waist and aiming at his face, guaranteeing constant publicity. Every politician's dream?

There are usually two hundred nudes or more selebrating freedom, but I could only see those at the rear of the crowd. I noticed around ten naked men, one nude transwoman, and two bottomless men (wearing shirt but no pants, looking ridiculous). Among genetic women, I noticed one wearing pasties, and three whose breasts were completely bare. Comparing men revealing bare genitals to genetic women revealing bare nipples, one could guesstimate a ratio of roughly 4 to 1. I think this disparity reflects how parents try harder to repress girl children, while conceding that "boys will be boys". Contrarily, the nude peace photos (from November 2002 onward) were mostly composed of nude women -- but often in woman-only groups, and often at far enough distance to conceal individual identities.

In the last couple of miles, along JFK Drive in the park, several different bands and deejays provided music along the way, prompting many people (mostly in their 20s) to stop and dance peacefully in the warm sunlight. Unfortunately the S.F. Police Department, eager to re-open the road to motor vehicles ASAP, repeatedly broke up these spontaneous dance parties, by ordering people to keep moving forward. This was widely resented, tho not resisted.
For future B2Bs, starting in May 2004, SUN proposes: Since some B2B participants enjoy dancing in the road, the western end of JFK Drive (at least from the Mile 6 mark to the Mile 7 mark) should remain a pedestrian and wheelchair zone until 5pm. Such informal dancing should be valued, not suppressed.

-- Tortuga Bi Liberty,
for Senior Unimited Nudes (SUN) of San Francisco
[ http://pages.prodigy.net/seniornude ]
[ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sfbarea ]
18-19 May 2003
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