Dear friends, dear body freedom supporters, dear journalists,

Thank you all so much for coming out to stand up for body freedom. Your presence here is historically important to all of us. Thank you for taking a stand for what you believe in!
Please, join my email list if you haven’t yet.

My name is Gypsy Taub. If you want to watch my TV series called “The Naked Truth” it airs on Saturdays at 10 PM on channel 29. You can find it online at www.MyNakedTruth.TV
As the City continues to violate our constitutional rights we continue to protest against this illegal, illegitimate self-proclaimed shadow government. As we all know the nudity ban was forced on the people of San Francisco despite the fact that the majority of the public was against it, despite the fact that it goes against the state law of California and despite the fact that it violates our constitutional rights such as the 1 st Amendment (our right to freedom of speech and self-expression), the 14th Amendment (that gives us equal protection rights) and the Declaration of Independence that protects our right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

As we all know we were all born naked. As we all know, there are numerous cultures around the world that live nude every day of their lives. Yet we go around pretending that the human body is obscene and that it hurts children. Our society feeds children graphic violence and poisonous processed food that is known to cause cancer and diabetes.

Let’s face it, it has nothing to do with protecting children. In this city it is perfectly legal to beat your child as long as you don’t use objects like a belt. Even though you can kill a child just using your hands, it is perfectly legal to beat them with your hands.

I was shopping at Berkeley Bowl one day and I saw a father hit his young son in the head in front of everybody. I called the police. The police arrived but they did absolutely nothing. They don’t even report this kind of abuse to the child protective services. Yet if someone stripped naked in front of that child they would be facing jail time and become registered as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.

When Scott Wiener and his corporate Wiener suckers on the Board of Supervisors passed the nudity ban they said that nudity would be allowed at city permitted parades. I recently applied for a parade permit and was denied. The explanation was: “Your parade is not safe for cars.”

According to the nudity ban public nudity is punishable by a citation, not an arrest. Yet at every protest we have had since February 1st illegal arrests were made.

We were arrested 3 times while clearly exercising our 1st Amendment rights, once while engaging in a dance performance and twice while making political speeches in front of the City Hall. Our nudity was political without a doubt.

We went to court to fight our citations. Media was denied access to our trials. ABC news applied for a permit to film and was denied. So was the Norwegian documentary film maker Jan Dalchow. The City obviously has something to hide. They don’t want their dirty laundry aired on ABC news and in an award winning documentary.

At the first 2 trials our charges were nearly dismissed due to the absence of the arresting officers but the City attorney’s lawyers pressured the judges to uphold the charges.
Both judges also said that they had no authority to deal with constitutional issues. Here is the text of the oath that judges take before taking office:
“I solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California.” According to this text Scott Wiener and the City attorney Dennis Herrera are domestic enemies of the Constitution and our judges swore to protect us from them. But apparently corporate power brokers are above the law.

I had an arraignment for my last 3 citations yesterday. I had completed 60 hours of low income services. Normally the charges get automatically dropped once proof of services is given to the judge. However, the City attorney representative bullied the judge and wouldn’t let her drop my charges that she was very much willing to drop. In the end the DA dismissed one of the charges and gave me a reduced fine of $300 for the other two.

Had my last 3 violations been treated as misdemeanors I could have got up to 1 year in jail per violation. How many of you feel safe to exercise your 1st Amendment right now?

We are the people of San Francisco. It is up to us and not up to a handful of corrupt bureaucrats to decide what our city stands for.

Does anybody here remember why San Francisco was named “San Francisco”?

San Francisco was named after Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis was an Italian Catholic preacher. Though he was never ordained to the Catholic priesthood, Francis is one of the most respected religious figures in history. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment, and is one of the two patron saints of Italy.

Saint Francis served lepers, preached to many people, and even to animals. He renounced possessions, and rebuilt small churches.
“I shall go naked to meet my naked Lord.”

These were the words St Francis of Assisi addressed to his father in one of the most well-known scenes from his life.

Francis had taken some of his merchant father’s finest materials to raise funds to rebuild the Church of St Damian. For this act his father brought him before the court on charges of theft and of rebellion against parental authority. And so the famous scene unfolded. The trial took place before the bishop and his court in the presence of Francis’ father and other merchants and townspeople.
In response to the charges laid against him, Francis proclaimed: “I return not only my money, but also my clothes. I shall go naked to meet my naked Lord.” At which he stripped off all his clothes, threw them to his father and walked off naked. This is who San Francisco was named after.

Scott Wiener, Mayor Lee and the City Attorney Dennis Herrera have made a 180 degree turn away from what Saint Francis represented. They are trying to destroy our history, our heritage, our culture. They are trying to destroy the honesty, dignity, freedom and compassion that San Francisco stands for.

What are they going to do next? Rename San Francisco into Wiener-town? Will San Francisco be declared a “constitution free zone”? It already is.

Our elected officials and our judges are continuously flushing the constitution down the toilet. They are hoping that with time we will forget all about it. They are hoping that with time we will forget about our history, about our values, about our dignity. They are hoping that with time we will forget about freedom. They are hoping that we will forget who we are.

The power brokers are drunk on stolen power. They may not realize that it is up to the people and not up to them to decide what’s right and what’s wrong in this city. But it is very important that we realize that it is all up to us. The power brokers can only rule us against our will if we let them. We need to stand up for what we believe in, for our rights, for body freedom, for freedom of choice.

Let’s lead the way. Let’s start practicing more body freedom in our lives and let’s start openly talking about it everywhere we go, at home, at work, with our friends, our co-workers, wherever possible.

We all need to come out of the closet about our views about nudity. Too many of us still feel insecure about our desires to be free from body shame. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Just as there is nothing to be ashamed of if you are gay. Sexual freedom would be impossible if masses of people hadn’t come out of the closet.

Let’s all come out of the closet. Let’s make a commitment to become free from body shame. Let’s take little steps if big steps are hard to take. I encourage you to start talking about body shame and body freedom to more and more people in your lives. Let’s become more and more free, little by little. With time the difference will become huge in your personal lives and in our life as a society. Let’s reclaim our personal freedom and then our collective freedom. Let’s remember that we create our own reality and that the future of our city is entirely up to us.