sxnahm@ubvax.UUCP (Stephen Nahm) (05/31/85)
Saw this article in the paper yesterday. By the way, I visited
Playalinda beach a while back (as matter of fact, the same week
STS-1 launched). It's a beautiful beach, and the free part is
quite removed from the textile part. I'm glad the legal hassling
has ended. Next time you're near Kennedy Space Center, give it
a visit.
Steve
-----
May 27, 1985
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The National Park Service says it "won't
hassle" bathers at beaches in national seashore areas who choose
to wear nothing.
"We do not condone nude sunbathing and we certainly aren't
going to designate areas in any of our national seashores for nude
sunbathing," George Berklacy of the park service said. "But
we're going to treat all bathers the same."
Berklacy's comments last week followed statements by an
assistant superintendent of the Canaveral National Seashore Park
in Titusville, Fla., that park rangers would no longer interfere
with nude sunbathers on the park's Playalinda Beach, just north
of the Kennedy Space Center.
Earlier, Park Superintendent Arthur Graham had dispatched
rangers to stop the practice, arguing that it attracted crime-
prone "fringe elements."
There is no federal law against beach nudity.
"People who come out to sunbathe in the nude...will not be
hassled by rangers," assistant Canaveral superintendent Linwood
Jackson said.
"I think what he's saying is all bathers are going to be
treated alike unless there's complaints (against nude sunbathers)
and there's cause for action," Berklacy said.
In Kissimmee, Fla., Arne Eriksen, executive director of the
American Sunbathing Association, said the result will be an
unofficial "clothing optioanl" area on a Canaveral Seashore beach
that often accommodated up to 1,000 naked people on summer
weekends last year.
As for beaches in other national seashore areas, Eriksen
declined to predict whether a surge in nude sunbathing is likely.
Pete Hart, chief ranger at Cape Cod National Seashore, said
Cape Cod is the only one of 10 National Park beach areas with a
specific federal regulation barring nude sunbathing.
"It has been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals, and until
there's some sort of change, it will be enforcd," Hart said.
Hart said his rangers enforce the rule "in a low-key manner.
We don't go out specifcally looking for people, but if we come
upon someone who is not clothed, they are asked to put their
clothes on."
--
Steve Nahm
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