Protest Against Nudity Ban & Appeal Hearing For Nudity Arrests

SAN FRANCISCO—The Appellate Division of the San Francisco Superior Court will hear the appeal in the case of Gypsy Taub who was arrested on the first day of the nudity ban (February 1, 2013) along with three other body freedom activists (George Davis, Trey Allen and Dany DeVero). They were found guilty earlier this year even though the arrests were made in violation of the 1st Amendment and in violation of the nudity ban itself. According to the San Francisco Police Code Section 154 (the nudity ban), public nudity is punishable by a citation. Instead, the SFPD arrested and detained the nudist activists for an hour, which technically constitutes judicial kidnapping under the color of law. In infraction cases arrests can only be made if someone refuses to present their identification to the officer or refuses to sign the citation. On February 1, four people were arrested even though they did present their IDs and were never asked to sign a citation. Besides the above violations, the arrests were illegal on the grounds of 1st Amendment. All four activists were arrested in the middle of a political protest in front of the SF City Hall. Gypsy Taub was arrested in the middle of her speech while George Davis was arrested minutes after he announced his candidacy for District 8 Supervisor. A class action lawsuit against the City of San Francisco was filed in Federal court last year. The trial is set for July of 2014. A protest of these arrests will occur on Friday, November 15 at 2 PM at Dept. 622 of the Civil Court, located at 400 McAllister Street in San Francisco. San Francisco body freedom activists will also have a body freedom parade and a protest against the infamous nudity ban. The protest will be documented by a television crew from Germany for one of the biggest reports about nudist for the Saturday prime time program on German TV. The protest will take place on Sunday, November 17, at 12 noon in the Jane Warner Plaza in San Francisco. Jane Warner Plaza is located at the intersection of Market & Castro Streets. In case of rain, the protest will be held at the Center for Sex and Culture at 1349 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103. It is unclear whether arrests will be made during the protest. According to the San Francisco Police Code Section 154, city-permitted parades are exempt from the nudity ban. However, permits were either denied or not issued—our calls and emails were ignored—by the SFPD every time we applied for them in the past. A permit application was submitted for the November 17 body freedom parade as well. So far there has been no response. For further information, email Gypsy Taub or call 510-495-9661. See Gypsy Taub here.