SF Nudists Press Anti-Nudity Lawsuit, Hire New Attorney

SAN FRANCISCO—With the facial challenge to San Francisco's anti-nudity ordinance, Hightower v. City and County of San Francisco, completely in the rearview mirror, nudists led by activist Gypsy Taub have regrouped, hired a new attorney and are preparing a new civil action based on the arrests that have taken place at various nude events around the city over the past year since the ordinance, authored by Supervisor Scott Wiener, was enacted. "People have been arrested, they have been given citations, been detained a number of times, and the last time, someone who's not a plaintiff in the lawsuit but who attended one of the rallies and was naked, the police came up behind him, grabbed his arm and he was startled and pulled away, and they said, 'Now you're going to jail for resisting arrest'," revealed Gill Sperlein, the nudists' attorney. "They threw him to the ground, they were pulling his hair, handcuffed his arms behind his back, and the guy's got no clothes on. I mean, really, it was beyond the pale."  A well-known attorney in adult entertainment circles, Sperlein is a former Board member of Free Speech Coalition, a member of the First Amendment Lawyers Association and has represented several SF-based adult production companies. His staunch advocacy of freedom of expression brought him into contact with the nudist activists. "From my perspective, this is about how the statute is being enforced and this case is about defending a principle," Sperlein stated. "Now, of course, my clients aren't a 'principle,' they are people, and I respect them, but I think that they would agree it's also about principle, and we're fighting at the edges so that people's right to protest and present their message in the way that they want to is protected. "A lot of it has to do with how the police have been handling the whole situation," he continued. "I assume that that's coming from some level of city government. When the ordinance was enacted, it basically prohibited people from exposing their genitalia on public streets and sidewalks—there's a list of places. There's an exception, though, for parades, fairs and festivals. The Folsom Street Fair, for example, is exactly what they had in mind; the Gay Pride parade; there's another smaller version of Folsom Street called Up Your Alley—these are places where traditionally there's been some nudity and it hasn't been a problem, and so my clients, seeking to express their free speech rights, applied for a number of permits and the applications were either ignored or rejected on pretext, so they tried to bring themselves within the exception in the statute and the city basically wouldn't let them." Sperlein has his work cut out for him. Since few (if any) depositions or other discovery activities were undertaken in connection with the Hightower lawsuit, it'll be up to Sperlein to get city officials, police commanders and patrol officers on the record regarding their contacts with nude protesters, not to mention how the city could have handled the situation in a more congenial manner. "Frankly, the permitting statutes for parades do have some safeguards in them, but unfortunately, if there's too much discretion written into a statute, it can be unconstitutional on its face," Sperlein noted. "Here, similar to what's happened with the nudity ban—and they're all tied together, of course—what might be a constitutional permitting statute is being applied in an unconstitutional way, so the solutions that I see would be to expand the permitted activities exceptions so that it also has like a permitted political rally or something like that. "The city has never come back to my clients and said, 'You can have your parade permit but we're worried about these times,' or, 'We're worried that it's not widely enough publicized so that people who don't want to see nudity can avoid it,' or, 'We want you to have, if you're going to be marching, a buffer with some people with signs warning, "Naked people ahead" or whatever it might be," Sperlein added. "The city hasn't done any of these things so they could address their concerns while still protecting my clients' constitutional rights to engage in political speech and expressive activity, which is probably what they should be doing. We have to do some discovery and then I think both sides agree there's not too much of a factual dispute," he concluded. "There may be some, but I think that we'll be able to resolve the case on summary judgment and I would anticipate that that will happen by autumn. It's a good case; we're going to win." In the meantime, however, the nudists won't be biding their time, but will continue to push for their right to speak freely, especially when nude. Self-described "body freedom activist" Gypsy Taub will be holding a protest against the now-infamous nudity ban on March 8, which is International Women’s Day. "Besides the issues of body freedom, freedom of choice and unalienable rights to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' that should be guaranteed to us by the Declaration of Independence, we will be addressing the issues of gender inequality," Taub wrote in a press release. "All throughout history and in almost every corner of this planet, women’s rights to body freedom and sexual freedom (which we see as an integral part of body freedom) have been denied to a greater extent than those of their male counterparts. Women are commonly treated as sex objects and at the same time are subjected to severe body shame. They are both admired and hated for their sexual powers. Our society devalues the feminine while glorifying violence, war and oppression. Our society is tragically out of balance and as the women suffer, so do we all. Our society also lashes out against men who favor their feminine side, who are softer, gentler and more compassionate and are not the macho stereotype that is glorified on every billboard. We need to expose the hypocrisy and end the oppression. We need to end the war against the feminine. We need to end the war against women." The protest will take place beginning at noon on Saturday, March 8, at Jane Warner Plaza in downtown San Francisco, and the activists will also hold a "body freedom parade" from the Plaza to City Hall. In case of rain, the protest will be held at the Center for Sex and Culture at 1349 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. All are welcome, clothed or not.