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Indybay Feature

SF Nudity Ban is a Political Witchhunt

by Had Enough
San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener succeeded in obtaining passage of a very reactionary nudity ban in San Francisco in a close 6 to 5 vote on November 20, 2012, with opposition from David Campos, Christina Olague, John Avalos, Eric Mar, and Jane Kim. All 11 supervisors are Democrats. Supervisor Wiener, elected in 2010 from District 8 (the predominately gay Castro plus Duboce Triangle, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights and Glen Park), who happens to be gay, has hopefully promoted one piece of reactionary legislation too many, as this is clearly a slap in the face to the gay community, so that he is defeated in the next election.
The 5 supervisors opposing this legislation are the usual supporters of good legislation most of the time, and opponents of the reactionary supervisors, namely Wiener, Mark Farrell, David Chiu, Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd and Malia Cohen.

This is why we call the Democratic Party the graveyard of all political struggles. All Peace & Freedom Party and Green Party candidates oppose all nudity bans and clothing restrictions.

This viciously reactionary piece of legislation is best described by the San Francisco gay newspaper, the Bay Area Reporter, at
“Federal judge to review nudity ban” by Matthew S. Bajko, 11/22/12, at
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68273

Mr. Bajko states:
“The prohibition against anyone over age 5 from exposing his or her genitals, perineum, or anal region in public would take effect February 1 unless the court blocks it. Due to the pending litigation, the date for when the ordinance would become law was pushed back to give the court time to hear the case.”

It is outrageous that this nudity ban includes physically immature children, which includes children ages 6 through 8.

The tone of this article in San Francisco’s gay newspaper clearly indicates that Supervisor Wiener is in trouble in his own district. District 8 voters have a good voting record but when it comes to electing a supervisor, it is always a bitter battle between the pro-landlord candidate, like Wiener, and the pro-tenant candidate, and so far, District 8 has been electing the pro-landlord candidate.

The 11/20/12 news story of the Bay Area Reporter (BAR) on this vote is at:
http://ebar.com/blogs/?p=5136
and gives more information about who voted and what they had to say. The fact that they devote so much detailed coverage is a clear indication that they understand this is an outrageous attack on the gay community.

Any nudity ban is unenforceable as the police cannot be everywhere at once, and thus becomes a political witchhunt. It is also a profound waste of our tax dollars to have this garbage on the Board of Supervisors agenda to begin with, and now there is the inevitable federal lawsuit in which the city plans to defend itself and promote this reactionary legislation, costing the taxpayers even more money. Meanwhile, this City has at least 15,000 homeless, all of whom could be housed immediately if the Board of Supervisors exercised its right of eminent domain to take over all the empty housing units to house the homeless. They could transfer the money from the police budget to a housing budget to pay for this public housing; they could also lower the salaries of all the managers, public officials and all others on the city and county payroll who make over $200,000 a year to $200,000 a year, and transfer those excess funds to a housing budget.

All clothing restrictions are by definition an attack on all women and on the gay community, and are always on the agenda of the witchhunters and the pro-business reactionaries. This writer can easily remember the Fascist Fifties when there was no gay liberation or women’s liberation movement, when women could not wear pants to school, work, the opera house and the like, when men, women and children, had to literally dress up to go shopping in the Union Square area, and much more. The peace movement of the 1960s protesting the war against Vietnam was the umbrella for the counter-culture and all the liberation struggles, including the black, women’s and gay liberation struggles.

Former Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay supervisor on the Board of Supervisors, elected from the Castro, and assassinated on November 27, 1978 by a former cop and member of the Board of Supervisors, Dan White, would be horrified at this legislation. Harvey understood that unity was the key to success of the gay liberation struggle, and to that end, did an excellent job of uniting labor, nonwhites and the gay community on the many issues we have in common.

The nudists need to join with the many protests for various liberation struggles that go on in San Francisco to build a base of support. Bring your classic nude paintings to all of our peace marches; support the Palestinian liberation struggle; support women’s right to abortion against the Catholic Church’s anti-abortion, anti-women parade on Market Street every January, permitted by the local Democratic Party, all so you have more supporters at the next Board of Supervisors meeting as this was only the first reading and now that there is a lawsuit, there could be an injunction.

It is irrelevant whether any of us personally like or dislike the nudists; this is a political issue and as we say in the labor movement: An Injury to One is an Injury to All.
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Had enough? You've had enough? You really think *you* have had enough? Jeez. I've had my fill of this kind of crap. I finished packing a shipment of clothing for my wife's family last night. They live in a little village in Ghana. I put the news on, and SF is pre-occupied with this non-fucking issue. Meanwhile the death toll in Gaza mounts. And you're whining about being able to wander round naked in San Francisco? I can't imagine how we're going to explain this horrific and world-shaking act of fascist oppression to the folks back home. And, to cap it all, I just know some selfish outraged liberal is going to post some pompous response to this. Shove. It. Up. Your. Ass. White. Trash.
by twin peaks bear
from this castro resident, thank you scott weiner! i have had enough of naked guys in wigs and sunglasses waving their oiled-up genitals at traffic telling me i must be some kind of prude for not respecting them in their natural state!
I finally was able to open the agenda item from the latest fascist bill consisting of 158 pages (including Emails) on the 11/20/12 Board of Supervisors agenda from the mouthpiece of the capitalist class, including its anti-rent control real estate buddies who want to gentrify San Francisco so as to maximize profits, the name of the game always being money. The link is:
http://www.sfbos.org/ftp/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/bosagendas/materials/bag112012_120984.pdf

You will see that while the pretext may have been a handful of silly old men showing off their pathetic aging bodies, which is hilarious, the scope of this bill is very broad, clearly promoting a "cleansing" agenda throughout San Francisco. On page 2, it states:
"A person may not expose his or her genitals, perineum or anal region on any public street, sidewalk, street median, parklet or plaza, or in any transit vehicle, station, platform, or stop of any government operated transit system in the City and County of San Francisco."
"The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to (1) any person under age of 5 years or (2) any permitted parade, fair or festival held under a City or other government issued permit."

Thus children who are not mature, ages 5, 6, 7 and 8, are not allowed to be nude. And the ban is citywide. This bill was created by people who are not part of our world; it was created by snooty rich people who do not live among the majority of us, the workingclass.

You will see on page 9, the Go Topless organization objects to this vicious attack on humanity as the next step will be to once again ban exposing women's breasts, even during breastfeeding. I remember the fight over this.

The people who spend our tax dollars on anti-nudity, clothing code ordinances are ALWAYS the same people who promote the private profit gentrification program. CLOTHING CODES ARE ALWAYS POLITICAL WITCHHUNTS as they are unenforceable against everyone, and anything that is selectively enforced by the whim of the police is a political witchhunt. Women and gay people are always VICTIMS OF CLOTHING CODES. Supervisor Scott Wiener and his fellow 5 fascists are the Fascist Majority on the Board of Supervisors and most do not represent their districts. They include District 3's mouthpiece of reactionary anti-rent control, election-frauding Republican-endorsed Mayor Ed Lee, David Chiu, a 70% tenant district from Nob Hill to Telegraph Hill and District 10's mouthpiece of the real estate industry, Malia Cohen, a workingclass district that is home to most African-Americans in San Francisco, from Potrero Hill to Bayview Hunters Point. Clearly District 3, 8 and 10 are not being represented on this Board. The others represent the richer homeowner bastions of reaction: Mark Farrell of District 2, the Marina and Pacifica Heights; Carmen Chu of District 4, the Sunset, and Sean Elsbernd of District 7, West Portal to St. Francis Wood.

Supervisor Wiener led the fight AGAINST children having free bus passes, knowing that there are no school buses and children usually do not go to neighborhood schools. This is about as cold as you can get.

We hope to see Supervisor Wiener and his 5 Fascist Friends defeated in the next election. Elsbernd is about to be replaced but we do not know how his replacement stands on this issue.
by Juan
Hypothetically:

Artistic sexual self-expression is fine but not at the cash register.
The naked men hanging out at Jane Warner Plaza were planted.
They were no real terrorists. And the actors weren't sexual either.
The quite corpulent men were advertising a new diet for the west.
They were people come to earth with a higher, spiritual message.
You know: the aliens' artistic information and cover-up by the CIA.
by No
You are some kind of prude. You're also a yuppie. Now GTFO.
by No
This is not an attack on women - it's an attack on men. I guess that makes it politically "ok".

by Had Enough
Michael Petrelis, a long time San Francisco activist, has an excellent article on the illegal tree lighting ceremony in the Castro apparently on Black Friday or that weekend in November, 2012 where the nudists protested the nudity ban of Supervisor Wiener with 2 excellent posters comparing Fascist Wiener with Fascist Dan White, the killer of Mayor George Moscone and gay Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978 at
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2012/11/castro-xmas-tree-lighting-zapped-by.html

All of these tree lighting cermonies on public land celebrating a religious holiday are illegal as they violate the church state separation mandate, but that did not stop public officials such as Supervisor Wiener and the anti-Communist Cuban, former Republican now Democrat District Attorney George Gascon from attending. Don't these people have anything better to do with their lives then attend tree-lighting cermonies? As to the protesting poster:

Poster 1:
In 1978, San Francisco Supervisor Dan White killed San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.
In 2012, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener killed nudity, tolerance, and the spirit of the community in Harvey Milk Plaza.

Poster 2:
"I see naked men walking around which doesn't bother me as far as my personal standards of nudity but it's just not proper." SF Supervisor Dan White, 1978
"I don't have a problem with nudity in general--but it's not proper to expose your genitals on the street corners for hours and hours." SF Supervisor Scott Wiener, 2012
by nude in sf
Those anti-Wiener nudist protest posters have pissed off lots of mucky mucks. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/12/08/18727535.php
by Harvey Milk Fan
STOP the San Francisco public nudity ban! Donate on the crowd-funding page to help offset the legal expenses. THANK YOU! https://rally.org/stopthesanfrancisconudityban
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