Glad I don't bike nekkid. Or run nekkid. Not in Brattleboro, anyway.
Here's the scoop from ibrattleboro and the Brattleboro Reformer:
Wednesday, July 18 2007 @ 12:25 AM EDT
After a spirited debate in which Brattleboro Selectboard Members and an evenly-divided audience of close to 50 people expressed their opinions, the Board passed an emergency anti-nudity ordinance by a vote of 3 - 2. Selectboard Chairwoman, Audrey Garfield, voted with the majority.
The ordinance is for 30 days, at which time a permanent ordinance, if passed by the Board, will kick in. Selectboard member Rich Garant unsuccessfully attempted to amend the ordinance to include genitals but not breasts or buttocks. In rebuttal to Garant's contention that the ordinance should only address the actual cause of offense, genitalia, a woman from the audience said that she had only seen the naked man at Gallery walk from the back, and had been deeply offended.
The fine for first offense will be $100, with fines for subsequent exposures progressing by $100, with a maximum of $500 and a lower schedule for those electing to pay a waiver fee (which means they do not contest the charge). The ordinance will only prohibit nudity in geographical locations named in the ordinance. These include the Brattleboro Downtown District, The Brattleboro Common, Living Memorial Park, any area within 200 feet of the center line of Route 9 from downtown to Sunset Lake Road and of Route 5 from the Dummerston line to Guilford, and up to 250 feet from any school, church, or place of worship. Exempt from the ordinance are doctor's offices, hospitals, enclosed single sex public restrooms or functional showers, lockers and/or dressing room facilities, and it does not include, "those places in which nudity or exposure is necessarily and customarily expected outside of the home and the sphere of privacy constitutionally protected therein." Breastfeeding mothers are exempt, but if other women want to take off their shirts, they are going to have to borrow a baby.
The issue brought out people who ordinarily do not attend selectboard meetings, including a number of people who said they are from Vernon. The arguments centered on conflicting rights: "Why should children have to see that?" asked local resident and former Selectboard candidate Bob Sisler.
A girl of about 10 tried to speak about her reaction to seeing the naked man at Gallery Walk, but broke down into tears and buried herself in her mother's arms. Her mother said that this was the same reaction when she saw the naked man and asked why she should not be able to feel safe allowing her children to walk by themselves, because they might run into a naked person?
A man from West Brattleboro told the Selectboard that he would be disgusted to even think of sitting on a bench on a hot day after a naked person had stained it with sweat and body fluids, and a woman said that she has a right to walk down the street feeling secure that she will not run into a naked person. She said that as a woman, she feels that being confronted by a naked man is intrinsically threating. "The police are not always around," she said. "Am I supposed to just wait for somebody to do something? We need guidelines about what is OK and what is not OK."
Dora said "I walk around a lot and I worry about dangers. Personally I am not worried about the naked person because they are right in front of me and I know what they are doing. I am more worried about the fully clothed person who is lurking." She said that she understands people are upset by this, but that their reaction to nudity comes from their religious and moral upbringing, and we should be very careful about using legislation to impose our religious and moral beliefs on others. Lise LePage said that there are lot of things which people feel upset about, but just because people feel upset about something is not a sufficient reason to outlaw it.
Donna K-Brooks challenged to Selectboard to explain: "Why do the supposed interests of business override everything else?" She charged that the ordinance was written "to appease business." That put into play a debate about nudity and business. Steve Steidle replied: "I will vote for the ordinance, not because of business but because I think people have a right to come downtown with their children and not be subjected to something they find unpleasant." Rich Garant read language from the ordinance specifying that it is needed to protect business. Earlier, in response to Dora's challenging the need for an emergency ordinance for something which is not on par with an earthquake or flood, the Town Attorney explained that it is an emergency because of the danger of nudity to business.
There were also a few minor items at the meeting, such as the town borrowing in excess of $7 million dollars for a sewer project at Tripark, A debate over who is responsible for a $26,000 overrun on the original $8,000 estimate for asbestos removal for the Honeywell project (which is efficiency upgrading in the town's heating systems designed to save more money in the long run than the upfront costs) the Finance Director's budget report, and the appointment of
Justin Bates, our new Zoning Administrator.
By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff
Wednesday, July 18
BRATTLEBORO -- Walking down Main Street naked will no longer be tolerated after the Selectboard passed a temporary anti-nudity ordinance by a vote of 3-2.
In fact, it will get you a $100 ticket.
Brattleboro has become known around the world for the handful of nudists who have strummed guitars in the Harmony Parking Lot and on Main Street, for a naked bicyclist and for a senior citizen from Arizona, who visited Vermont just to walk naked during Gallery Walk.
And just last week, a 50-year-old man from Whately, Mass., was threatened with a ticket for riding nude on his skateboard on a public sidewalk. Wearing no clothes was not illegal, it was riding his skateboard downtown that got him in trouble.
The emergency ordinance -- and its proposed permanent version -- wouldn't ban public nudity completely from Brattleboro, only along the Route 5 and Route 9 corridors. Outside of the boundaries defined in the ordinance, walking on a public street naked would still be legal as long as it's not within 250 feet of any school, church or place of worship. Living Memorial Park and the village of West Brattleboro were also mentioned as no-nudity zones.
On Tuesday night, the board passed an emergency ordinance and agreed to hold a public hearing on Aug. 7 on whether the ordinance should be made permanent.
"People have a reasonable expectation that when they are going out, they're not going to run into any nude people," said Selectboard member Dick DeGray, who crafted the ordinance with acting Town Manager Barbara Sondag and Bob Fisher, attorney for the town.
DeGray said all of the media attention was making Brattleboro a laughingstock, which would all go away once the ordinance was passed.
One member of the audience was concerned that business owners' concerns were taking precedent over someone's right to express themselves by taking their clothes off.
"This is not a business issue," said Selectboard member Stephen Steidle. "It's an issue of principle and expectations."
"I have not had one person tell me if we enact this ordinance, they're not going to come to our town," added DeGray.
"It's absolutely about business," said Selectboard member Rich Garant, who referred to the clause in the ordinance which calls nudity "a nuisance to commerce."
The Selectboard should respect the rights of people before business, said Nancy Crompton, whose son was arrested for lewd and lascivious behavior for what she called dancing naked in a puddle. He was given a one-year deferred sentence.
"He is a kind-hearted young man," she said. "He just wanted to express himself as a human being."
Crompton added she was opposed to the ordinance.
Of the half-dozen business owners he talked to, said Garant, none of them were in favor of the anti-nudity ordinance. But Garant was challenged by Peter Johnson, who said of the 49 business owners he talked to, "every single one was in favor" of the ordinance.
"This is not about the guy who owns the business," insisted Bob Woodworth, the owner of Burrows Specialized Sports. "It's about the customer. In this case, the rights of the individual are subservient to the rights of the group."
"I understand a lot of people find it uncomfortable to be faced with someone nude," said Selectboard member Dora Bouboulis, but that's based on their cultural and religious values.
One of the best things about living in the United States, she said, is "we're careful not to legislate morality." Bouboulis and Garant voted against the emergency ordinance.
Steidle, DeGray and Selectboard Chairwoman Audrey Garfield voted to approve it.
"The people not in support of this are really in the minority," said DeGray, who said he was willing to pay the political price "right here, right now" for voting for the ordinance.
In the proposed ordinance, nudity is defined as the showing of genitalia, buttocks or female breasts. A provision to allow breast-feeding in public is the exception to the ordinance. Nudity is prohibited in "any location likely to be observed by members of the public and where the public is present or likely to be present, including streets, sidewalks, parks, parking lots and business and commercial establishments."
"I'm not looking for a townwide ban in every nook and cranny," said DeGray. "We though we would start in a smaller region. This is the primary area of concern."
If the ordinance makes it into permanent status, he said, the area of coverage could be expanded if residents ask for it.
"I have no problem covering the whole town," said DeGray.
Another audience member asked if people had "a Constitutional right not to be offended?"
"There are a lot of potentially offensive things out there," said Lise LePage.
"Public nudity is not a Constitutional right," said Fisher. "Let's be clear on that."
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