It is more shocking to read about San Francisco residents wanting less government busybody interference than about gay nudists, but that's Frisco for you.
The Castro district, home of the gay rights movement starting in the 1960s, which included desiring more government involvement in securing their rights, has a contingent who don't always think they should be told to wear pants. Maybe that is why gay marriage got voted down in California but not New York - no one in New York is going to insist they can attend church in the nude, it's too darn cold nine months out of the year.
"It's just another form of prejudice," says Woody Miller, an elderly nudist who is hopeful conservatives against more laws and bureaucracy win out this time because, you know, San Francisco is so intolerant. Scott Wiener, the district's newly elected member of the San Francisco city council (and a Democrat, though it seems sort of redundant to mention it) wants nudity gone. Well, not gone, what he wants is rather mild legislation but gay nudist progressives have suddenly discovered the slippery slope of big, heavy-handed government when it is turned on them; Wiener thinks you should have to cover a park bench before you sit down and officially be required to wear clothes in a restaurant, in a 'no shoes, no shirts, no PANTS, no service' kind of way.
George Davis, 65, is downright libertarian for S.F. "I don't know why they want to burden restaurateurs with a whole other level of bureaucracy. It just seems to be a little bit micromanaging." Yes, a lot of people said that about a smoking ban also.
Wiener is concerned about the reputation of the district but he's lived there for 14 years so perhaps he knows more than the rest of us, but when we visit San Francisco, we want to see gay nudists and cookies in the shape of penises - it's likely more of a draw to the majority of America - we just don't want to live there. Like we don't want to live at the zoo.
So for residents who want to continue to be caricatures for critics of gay rights, by all means insist you should not only walk around nude (or else Frisco will be akin to a Nazi regime) but be able to sit naked next to German families in a restaurant.
What would help more for celebrating tolerance and diversity for nudists would be if all of the naked people you see are not middle-aged fat guys, because that is all you will see now. Maybe gay nudism needs its own Title IX law.
