An Open Letter to Tom Mulhall

Tom Mulhall reports that he has been elected to the AANR West Board of Directors. I wholeheartedly congratulate him on this well-earned honor.

Tom and his wife Mary Clare are experts in public relations and have made their Terra Cotta Inn clothing-optional resort a model for success in the nudist industry. They are by far the most enthusiastic and friendly spokespersons in the industry, qualities which they will no doubt bring to AANR.

In his announcement, Tom writes:

If people have questions about AANR, feel free calling me at 800-786-6938. If you want me to bring something up to the board, let me know.

OK, I'll bite.

It's no secret that I have been critical of AANR's failure to support the NAC's initiatives in trying to save the clothing-optional status of a section of San Onofre Beach. It is my opinion that by ignoring the legal front and attempting to come to some sort of "deal" with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, AANR has not only thrown San Onofre Beach under the bus, it has endangered the status of all clothing-optional beaches on state lands. AANR is blaming the NAC's lawsuit for creating the hostile atmosphere, but the real truth of the matter is that the DPR made a unilateral decision to ban nudity at San Onofre, would not bargain with the NAC, and left no alternative but to sue to protect nudist and naturist rights.

I would hope, Tom, that as a private business owner with a successful resort, that you will not forget the public lands issue. There is a common belief out there that AANR is deliberately sabotaging the public beaches because it will drive more people into private AANR affiliated resorts like the Terra Cotta Inn.

I don't subscribe to this misconception. From my point of view, the more public lands are set aside for nude recreation, the more people will become accepting, and overall participation will increase. In Florida, the creation of Haulover Beach appears to have contributed to a boom in private resorts throughout that state, and now Key West is looking for its own clothing-optional beach in order to increase tourist revenue. Crowded nude beaches means crowded nude resorts.

The banning of nudity on public lands in California only serves to propagate the myth that nude recreation obscene and dangerous and should be made illegal. Nudist resorts are always at risk from government encroachment and could be next.

I humbly suggest that you keep in mind that in accepting a board position with AANR you are representing all of the hard-working dues-paying members who all share the same basic philosophies that wholesome family-friendly nude recreation should be a basic human right, and not just for people who can afford expensive resort vacations.

I also suggest that you help to find some way to secure greater cooperation from AANR with TNS, NAC and local free beaches associations in helping to protect naturist rights.

I wish you great success in your new position with AANR West, as well as continued success to you and Mary Clare at the Terra Cotta Inn.

N Magazine Summer 2009 Issue

The current issue of N Magazine has been published by The Naturist Society and is available for purchase here. The editors were kind enough to put the table of contents and an article on Haulover Beach online for all to read. Also, kudos to The Academic Naturist for his article "Freehiking Wisconsin", but you will need to purchase a copy to read that one, as well as "Naked in Santa Barbara", "Lake Como Love Story", "Getting Back to the Naturist Future", and much more.

Haulover Beach Celebrates its 17th Birthday

And, naturally, everyone is wearing their birthday suits.

Annie Bernstein of Tamarac has been coming to Haulover Beach to shed her clothes and swim for 15 years. She said the beach has a more friendly atmosphere than its clothed counterparts, as she observed on a recent trip to a Fort Lauderdale beach with her 16-year-old stepdaughter. ''Everyone was hitting on her -- and that's with a bathing suit on,'' Bernstein said. ``That doesn't happen here.''

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The State of Florida's Gay Nude Beaches

Jesse Monteagudo concludes that Florida offers both the best and the worst when it comes to gay nude beaches. [Gay South Florida]

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The Daily Newds 1/17/08

• A Vietnamese artist has won two gold medals at Japan's International Asahi Shimbun photo contest, both for nudes. Quoc Dinh ignored the advice from other photographers who advised him not to focus on nudes because it was a "sensitive" subject matter. [Vietnam.net]
• A junior high school soccer coach in Japan who made students run laps in the nude has committed suicide. [myfoxstl.com]
• One of the top ten Miami activities is to take it all off on Haulover Beach. [southbeach-usa.com]
• Nude artists' models in Italy are protesting poor wages by putting their clothes back on. [Yahoo! News]
• Sienna Miller has won a court case against a photographer who distributed nude photos of her taken on a movie set. [Yahoo! News]
• A Wisconsin town with no adult businesses has joined the long list of jurisdictions to pass an anti-nudity ordinance as a preventive measure. [postcrescent.com]
• A senior at James Madison University explores the art of the nude female form in different cultures.

  “In the contemporary college setting, I think we’re constantly bombarded with marketing which uses the body and sex to advertise objects which are completely unrelated,” Stewart said. “So I became interested in how past cultures used the female body in visual media, and to what ends.” [The Breeze]

• A Florida teen could face felony child pornography charges over nude photos of juveniles found on a MySpace page. [firstcoastnews.com]
• No longer "Banned in Boston", full male nudity takes the stage in three productions at the Boston Center for the Arts. [bostonherald.com]
• A Vancouver Federal Court judge has ruled that Canada Post cannot refuse delivery of a Sex Party pamphlet even though it contains an image of an erect penis. [xtra.ca]

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The Great Naked Debate: Nude Activism

The latest installment of The Great Naked Debate is now online at the Nudist Day blog. The subject this time is whether or not nude activism is helping or hindering the nudist cause. Are people like Stephen Gough misguided, or are they ahead of their time?

The general consensus is that nudist/naturist organizations are better served by acting to preserve existing clothes-free areas, and to lobby for additional spaces for nude recreation. The example of the success of Haulover Beach is seen to be a model for success in this area.

We are living in a time where Christianists have achieved strong influence in governments and the judiciary, so it has become increasingly difficult to convince localities to designate clothes-free areas. The Naturist Action Committee has been forced to "put out fires" in Brattleboro and Huntington Beach when legislators have tried, and mostly succeeded, in passing general anti-nudity ordinances. To its credit, the NAC proceeded to organize a legal nude swim in Huntington Beach to show that the anti-nudity law that was passed this summer was unnecessary.

Personally, I would like to see more "grass roots" organizing. If you are interested in the nude lifestyle, join your local club, landed or non-landed. Join a national organization such as the Naturist Society or AANR. I think that there are an awful lot of closet nudists out there who are fearful of being "coming out".

Taking a naked walk down the main street of your city or town will not change anything except to make the laws against nudity even tougher. Getting together in small local groups to organize swims and other nude recreational activities is the best kind of activism.

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked