Here is the San Francisco Chronicle article about our parade:
Nudity on display in S.F. Valentine’s Day parade
http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/1st-annual-Valentine-s-Day-nude-parade-in-SF-6829162.php#photo-9399593
To see more photos of the Nude Love Parade by Ingleboy Photography please go to think link:
http://ingleboy.zenfolio.com/p314757185
And here are some of our photos of the Nude Love Parade 2016 taken by my daughter Inti Gonzalez:
This past Valentine’s weekend we had our very first annual Nude Love Parade.
When I decided to organize this parade and sent out a press release the media literally jumped on our story. We have a lot of wonderful supporters among news reporters. Whether they openly express their support for our cause or just write encouraging stories in many different publications, they have always been at the core of our movement and have helped us grow while helping us get our message across. Most of the media coverage we got in the past few years was overwhelmingly positive and supportive. This time was no different. We hadn’t done anything since late September and the media clearly missed us. There was so much publicity and so much excitement both from the media and from nudists from all over the world.
I had 4 radio interviews (one of them with live105) and an interview with channel 7. SFGate did a big story and so did SFist and a few others.
After all the interviews were done and the stories were out it seemed like everybody knew about our parade.
I went to the auto part store the morning of the parade and the clerk at the desk said he knew about it and was planning to go as soon as he gets off work at noon. On the night after the parade I was at the airport on my way to Seattle. The guy in line behind me knew about the parade. Publicity was through the roof!
Till the last minute I didn’t know if we were going to have a permit and had no idea how many people would show up. But the permit was finally granted after all and then almost 50 nude and at least 3 times as many dressed participants showed up at the rally in Jane Warmer Plaza. This time we had quite a few women. We ended up having a march of about 60 participants, most of whom were fully nude. This was truly a huge victory for the body freedom movement and freedom of self-expression. It was also a great victory over the corrupt city government, it was truly a victory of the people!
To give you a little bit of history if you are not familiar: under the nudity ban one is subjected to a $192 fine the first and second time they get naked in public and then on the third violation within one year they can get a $500 fine and a year in jail. A year in jail for merely taking your clothes off on a warm day!
The infamous nudity ban was spear-headed by the corporate sell out district 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener and then passed by the full Board of Supervisors with a 6 to 5 vote. The swing vote David Chiu told us in person that he was on our side and that he goes to Burning Man but he made it clear that he would still vote against us. We assumed it was because of his future career plans.
Supervisors Christina Olague, David Campos and John Avalos put up a big fight against the nudity ban, Eric Mar and Jane Kim voted against it. All 5 of the progressive Supervisors voted against the nudity ban. They saw through Scott Wiener’s lies and understood that the nudity ban was about oppression and nothing else. They as well as everyone else on the board were fully aware of the huge opposition from the people of San Francisco.
When the public hearing was held to discuss the proposed nudity ban 2/3 of the attendees were against the legislation. We held numerous protests inside and out side the City Hall.
I was the first one to get naked at a public hearing at the City Hall. When I did it for the second time a number of people spontaneously took their clothes off too. The third time (when the vote was finalized) 7 of us (Gypsy Taub, Ckiara Rose, George Davis, Kelsey Beyer, Stardust, Natty from Germany and Ray Barkowski) got naked at the Board of Sups meeting. We were detained and let go of every time except for the last vote when Ckiara was arrested by the orders of Scott Wiener (I was told that the police were talking about receiving a phone call from Scott Wiener).
We held dozens of protests in the streets of San Francisco. We were cited and arrested many times.
According to the nudity ban itself we are allowed to be nude at city permitted parades and fairs. That clause was used like a flag by Scott Wiener and the City attorney to give everyone an illusion that our rights to free speech were going to be respected at least at those parades. First of all, our rights to free expression should be respected and protected by our government 24/7/365 (all the time).
Second of all, the city permitted parades excuse was just a smoke screen. The City attorney had no intentions of letting us be nude at parades. As soon as the nudity ban passed major annual city permitted parades were attacked in strange ways. Bay to Breakers, for instance, mysteriously lost its regular sponsor. Gay Pride was pressured to restrict nudity also. I remember hearing complaints about oppressive statements posted on their website. On top of that the SFPD started citing people at those parades and threatening them with arrest even though violation of the nudity ban is only an infraction and therefore is not supposed to be punishable by arrest.
We applied for parade permits dozens of times and were either ignored or denied every single time, always with a new excuse. The first time we applied they simply ignored us. The second time they told us that our parade was “unsafe for cars”. The next reason for denial of permit was that “it is illegal to be nude under the code 154 etc…” even though parades were clearly exempt from that legislation. The SFPD exhibited amazing creativity in creating one illegitimate excuse after another to deny us permits.
The war was on. We continued to protest and get arrested. I believe I was cited and arrested at least 8 times within the first year. But since we had also filed a Federal lawsuit against the city on the basis of free speech violations the city officials were afraid to jail me. It would have been the best thing they could do to lose their case in Federal court so they just left me alone.
Federal Judge Chen dismissed almost all our claims (including the ones about us getting arrested at peaceful protests and always being denied permits and being cited at city permitted events that were exempt from the nudity ban). There was only one claim left that was not dismissed. That claim was not good for us (it was about selective enforcement – the SFPD clearly targeted our protests for political reasons while leaving alone the World Naked Bike Ride and a Naked Sword film shoot in the Castro. Winning that claim could have simply encouraged the SFPD to cite and arrest the World Naked Bike Ride participants which was going to only hurt our cause. We settled that claim for about $20,000. That money went to prepare and file an appeal in the 9th district court. We are still in the process of the appeal.
In mid September of 2015 we applied for another parade permit for our annual Nude In. The permit was denied as usual. This time however our lawyers Gill Sperlein and Larry Walters went to district court and won. District Judge Seeborg issued us a TRO (temporary restraining order) against the SFPD. They were not allowed to interfere with our parade and were forced to give us a permit.
We had an amazing permitted parade on September 26th, 2015. The same cops that harassed us before had to block traffic for us and give us police escort. It was hilarious! It felt weird to us and I am sure it felt no less weird to the cops to have to protect and escort our non-conformist procession of bad-ass naked rebels and revolutionaries.
The City had to pay a nice chunk of money to our lawyers for their time. It started becoming expensive to mess with us. Besides, now that so many people are demanding that the Cheif of police Greg Suhr resign over the recent racist texts scandals and the murder of Mario Woods, Suhr is in so much hot water now that he probably feels that he can’t afford to violate our rights to free speech like he used to for the past 3 years. Greg Suhr was personally present at our protest on the day the nudity ban was first enforced (February 1, 2013). He gave orders to the 18 officers that were there to arrest us even though nudity ban violation is only an infraction and can only be punishable by arrest if the person refuses to show ID and refuses to sign a citation. I showed my ID to the police. I was never given a chance to sign a citation and I was handcuffed and dragged into a patty wagon in the middle of my speech. Greg Suhr was personally present. He was having a lot of fun.
If we take a quick glance at history we will see a clear correlation between Greg Suhr and Adolf Hitler. Both targeted racial minorities, both hated free speech, both prosecuted nudists (which in my opinion is a form of sexual oppression which Hitler was famous for). I am not by any means trying to diminish the tragedy of Mario Woods’ murder by the SFPD. I am just pointing out that Greg Suhr is a fascist. And if we learn and get into a habit of recognizing fascism in its early stages we don’t have to experience another tragedy like that of Mario Woods. We need to take fascism very seriously because it is as real today in America as it was in Germany in 1933.
To get back to the Nude Love Parade, we assembled in Jane Warner Plaza. It was amazing to see such a great turn out. At first there was a huge crowd of supporters most of whom had cameras in their hands, we had some media present but just a few nudusts. But then as if my magic more and more people got naked and soon the plaza was filled with beautiful naked bodies. The weather was absolutely gorgeous.
I had my kids with me: my daughter Inti is 15, my son Nebo is 13 and my little son Daniel is 11. All my kids are body freedom activists. They made public testimony against the nudity ban at the very first hearing and made speeches at some of my protests. They enjoy running around naked at permitted parades.
I made my speech (the text is published below). We tried to do a group photo with all the nudists but our group was so big and the crowd was so tight that there wasn’t enough room for a camera to get the whole group in one shot. Wow! What a wonderful problem to have! It’s like the nude parade organizer’s wet dream!
I had my kids with me: my daughter Inti is 15, my son Nebo is 13 and my little son Daniel is 11. All my kids are body freedom activists. They made public testimony against the nudity ban at the very first hearing and made speeches at some of my protests. They enjoy running around naked at permitted parades.
I made my speech (the text is published below). We tried to do a group photo with all the nudists but our group was so big and the crowd was so tight that there wasn’t enough room for a camera to get the whole group in one shot. Wow! What a wonderful problem to have! It’s like the nude parade organizer’s wet dream!
We finally lined up and started marching down Market Street. The mood was joyous, we laughed and chanted. It was surreal. It seemed like a dream to me.
It was a blast to march nude in such a big crowd down the streets of San Francisco together with old friends and body freedom activists with whom we all dreamed this dream into existence.
People were honking, waving at us and taking lots of pictures. I heard later that a woman saw our parade, stripped down and joined us.
Here are our chants that were chanted:
Ho-ho, hey-hey,
Body freedom is here to stay!
Hey there, dude,
You’re no prude!
Get in the mood,
Join us nude!
We got skin,
You got skin,
Love your body –
Ain’t no sin!
Hey hey, how does it feel?
Hey, hey, warm, soft and real.
You are naked under your clothes
Hey hey, what’s the big deal?
2, 4, 6, 8,
Human bodies all are great!
Clothes are boring, clothes are lame!
Let’s say No to body shame!
Body freedom, body freedom,
It’s not rude, it’s not lewd!
We’ll keep marching in the nude!
Shed your clothes, we won the fight!
Get your clothing out of site!
Join us now, nude or dressed,
This parade’s a big success!
Someone joyously announced to me that Judge Scalia died. “Our nudity killed him, he couldn’t take it!” – he laughed. What a great Valentine’s Day gift of love to America! If anyone had any doubts that God exists – this should be blatant proof.
It felt great to bring our naked bodies to the steps of City Hall that failed to represent us, where we were arrested and harassed by the SFPD so many times.
But this time we had a naked crowd standing our ground and representing ourselves.
(last photo by Steven Torrey)