Not proud of the naked guys
Letter to the Editor, SF Chronicle
June 27, 2012
Am I the only gay man in the city who is aghast at the naked guys parading in the Castro?
Aren't there laws against public nudity and indecency? Why aren't the police enforcing the laws?
I have lived in San Francisco 36 years and I am as liberal as they come. I always thought the Castro was an inviting and interesting place. But not anymore.
I see nothing colorful or exciting about naked, butt-ugly men greeting locals and tourists. I have witnessed too many families and kids with shock and dismay on their faces. I have talked to other gay friends who are just as upset at the spectacle.
Supervisor Scott Wiener made an attempt to remedy the situation by requiring that these naked individuals put a towel or something under themselves when sitting down (and I applaud his efforts), but is that really the problem?
Add the increasing number of unkempt homeless people and the psychotic and drug episodes that I see frequently in the Castro, and I am no longer feeling "gay pride." Rather, I am feeling something more akin to "gay despair."
Jim Ross
San Francisco
San Francisco
Labels: Neighborhoods, Scott Wiener
posted by Rob Anderson @ 10:10 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Aren't there laws against public nudity.
No.
If there aren't, there should be, which is why Wiener's napkin solution was irrelevant and no solution at all.
Oh get over it. I agree it's silly but cracking down on it makes it worse. Let 'em do their thing. As long as they're not harassing anyone, people will get over it. Kids are much smarter than you think, they're hardly going to be traumatized.
No, this is another quality-of-life issue that shouldn't be tolerated, like graffiti/tagging, the homeless living in Golden Gate Park, the sit-lie punks on Haight Street, bad behavior by cyclists, including Critical Mass. It's not "kids" I'm concerned about but allowing a few individuals to bully a whole community into accepting their vulgar, creepy behavior.
They use to say that if you felt the music was too loud that meant you were too old. Sometimes I look around the city, which i grew up in, and say to myself I don't recognize this place anymore. Some people do not get it, they do not get the notion of respect, community and on not being selfish. I also think people come to this city from little repressive mid-west towns and then go ape and do whatever they want where ever they want at anytime of the day or night without regard to anyone else. Yes it is about respect to others. As a Supreme Court justice once said, you can swing your fist, but not in the vicinity of my nose.
This is like anything else. Some people dislike it, while others whole-heartedly support it. As a previous poster commented, those who are nude in public just go about their business and don't harrass anyone. To those who dislike it, just remember that the same could be said for a variety of things we see on the street every day... Each could be considered offensive in its own way to someone. . The great thing about SF is that we have tolerance for those things with which we don't necessarily agree, as long as they're not hurting anyone.
Wouldn't it be more productive to focus attention on fixing the things that are actually causing harm to the community, like vandalism, assaults, robberies, etc. ?
I think people that believe the human body is indecent are terribly self-loathing. There is certainly nothing indecent about nudity, only about certain behaviors (like intolerance of others).
We shouldn't tolerate people living on the streets or in our parks, graffiti/tagging vandalism, street hookers, and public nudity. Just because the offense is of less significance than assault and robbery, doesn't mean we should allow it.
But the other things you listed are offenses, whereas nudity isn't... unless it's accompanied by lewd behavior (and California courts ruled long ago that nudity in and of itself doesn't constitute lewd behavior).
I agree. These guys are just exhibitionists and should grow up. I don't want or need to see their shortcomings.
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