The Daily Newds

• Beat It: Australians are upset that gay men are masturbating in front of women and children on a nude beach.
• The Great Nude North: Wreck Beach has been named one of the top 10 nude beaches in the world.

  Judy Williams likens Canada's foremost nude playground, Wreck Beach, to "a beacon in the night of naturism."
  
  "It brings people from all over the world because it has the rare combination of physical beauty, a sense of place and a sense of history," says Williams, chair of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society.

• Emancipation?: A sculpture of a naked little boy might be allowed to remain in front of a Michigan city hall, but some don't like it.

  One of the city council members - Mark Bekken - was quoted in the local paper as saying "It's not appropriate to have a nude African boy in front of city hall."

• Into the Underbelly: A brave reporter bares all in a trip to a nudist retreat.

  After a while, it doesn't even seem weird anymore that we're all just sitting around like pre-fig leaf Adams and Eves, nothing to hide, nothing to cover up, soaking up the sun and one another's company. Truth be told, I could kind of get used to this—once you lose the mindset that nakedness outside the bathtub and the bedroom is wrong, it's more natural than it seems. As the saying goes, “If we were meant to be nude, we would've been born that way.”

• Body Freedom Fighters: The Body Freedom Collaborative is working hard to get clothing-optional park and beach areas in Seattle.
• Give Bates a Chance: Nudists in Santa Barbara County are trying to reclaim a strip of Bates Beach for nude sunbathing.
• More Bad News: Naturism is on the decline in Great Britain, and traditional nudism in the US is also in trouble.

  American naturists fear that their way of life is shrivelling into extinction. At a conference convening in Florida next month, the American Association for Nude Recreation will discuss how it can lower its age profile; the average age at its US naturist clubs is typically 55. It's a similar figure in Britain, where, although one million people may have sampled naturism at some point - usually on nude beaches overseas - British Naturism's membership has shrunk to less than 15,000.

• Trim Your Bush: The Naked Gardeners in Britain are holding six clothing-optional days at their Abbey House Gardens this year. On a recent day, 300 people wandered nude through the five acre estate.

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