Free Republic

Montana Democrat Rob Quist, a locally famous musician, is a frequent performer at the Sun Meadow Resort, Idaho's premier nudist resort for guests seeking a "family nudist experience." ... Some of Quist's concerts at Sun Meadow came during a period when he claimed he was "unable to work" due to "significant health problems" caused by a botched gall bladder surgery in 1996. He previously blamed financial troubles for his inability to perform at all in 2011.

It is only a matter of time before notorious Canadian nudist Emil Kaminski arrives in the clutches of police after four of his accomplices, including two women, were today served with four-day remand orders in the Kota Kinabalu Magistrates Court following their arrests yesterday. The quartet - two Candian brothers aged 22 and 23, a Dutch national and a British woman - were detained separately, three surrendered at the Kota Kinabalu District police headquarters and the other was arrested before boarding a flight at the Tawau Airport.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Authorities are preparing for the nudity and free-spiritedness they expect to take over a corner of national forest about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City. The first revelers are setting up camp this week at the annual Rainbow Family gathering in northern Utah, and attendance is expected to total about 10,000. They have begun building kitchens and pitching tents in advance of their July 4 celebration. The group has already crashed a nearby wedding reception, raiding platters and forgoing any effort to blend in, members of the party reported to the Wasatch County police.

FULL TITLE: Nudist father facing child porn charges says naked photos of his daughters were 'familyA South Florida nudist facing child porn charges has claimed photos of his three daughters, aged 8 to 12, are family portraits. Brian Martens, who lives at a Palm Beach nudist colony, claimed there was nothing sexual about the photos, which were taken by a neighbor who has since been convicted of child pornography. Martens admits he gave professional photographer Leslie Grey Vanaman permission to take pictures of his daughters, but at least one photo was a close up of a girl's genital area, investigators...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two dozen pro-nudity activists wearing little but their righteous indignation assembled on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to protest a proposed municipal ban on public nakedness. (Snip) "Nudophobic bigotry has now taken root here in San Francisco," Rusty Mills, 69, stripped down to his tanned birthday suit, told his fellow demonstrators as they stood in the sunshine of an unseasonably warm, 70-degree Fahrenheit (21-degree Celsius) fall day. (Snip) On the way back to City Hall, elementary school children playing on a schoolyard gawked and pointed at the naked demonstrators. Supervisor Scott Wiener...

re hours after Politico reported on Republican Congressman Eric Yoder's admitted skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee in Israel, CBS highlighted the story on its Monday morning newscast. By contrast, the network was slow to report on former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner's lewd photo scandal in 2011. On June 1 of that year, ABC and NBC's morning shows reported on the "underwear uproar," while CBS's Early Show punted on the story. The following day, CBS played up conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's early role in spreading word of the New York liberal's indecent Twitter pic: "Supporters of Weiner note that it...

Consider yourself warned: those naked guys in the Castro are going to turn out in force on Saturday for a noon-time “nude-in” at what they call The Buff Stop. (For non-nudists, that’s the plaza at the corner of Castro and 17th Street.) Though the naked guys aren’t fans of Supervisor Scott Wiener’s recently proposed legislation mandating that they put a towel down on a public chair or bench before sitting on it, the nude-in is actually unrelated. It was planned weeks ago as a sort of pre-party for Sunday’s Folsom Street Fair. Because, you know, that day-long celebration of all...

There currently is a debate raging over public nudity in San Francisco. It’s not what you think. It’s already entirely legal to parade about in the buff on the city’s streets, and no one is discussing the resurrection of indecent-exposure laws. Rather, the question is whether sanitary behavior — namely, posterior protection for public seating — should be required of nudists by law. Reports the Los Angeles Times: Retired math teacher David Goldman and his husband, Michael Koehn, were sharing a pleasant alfresco moment at a public plaza in the heart of the Castro district this week, passing a slender...

The naked truth, it seems, is that San Francisco is once again going to emerge as a city ripe for ridicule -- or a beacon of free expression -- depending on your point of view. The latest issue? Public nudity. Supervisor Scott Wiener will introduce legislation today intended to get to the bottom of the gross-out factor when it comes to public nudity. His proposal would require people who bare all for all to see to at the very least place a towel or like item underneath them when they sit down. The proposed restrictions also would require nudists to...

People who run around naked at a Palm Springs resort reject the notion of body scanners at the airport. To date, Palm Springs International Airport doesn’t actually have any body scanners, but the nudist community has weighed in. "It’s an invasion of privacy,’ Michael Patrick Williams, general manager of The Desert Sun Resort, told City News Service. ‘Naturists aren’t really different from anyone else.’" Of course, “naturists” are exactly like the rest of us, except for the part about wandering around naked amid a bunch of strangers. "‘We protect our guests’ privacy’, Williams said. ‘Naturists have as much right to...

Nudists to lobby Capitol Hill this week By Jordan Fabian - 06/07/10 09:53 AM ET The nudist lobby is headed to Capitol Hill this week to discuss issues important to it with Congress. The American Association for Nude Recreation sent out a colorful press release Monday morning announcing the visit. While on Capitol Hill, the AANR will push back against "well-intentioned" Internet legislation it says could affect nudist websites and businesses. Here are some excerpts from the release. Kissimmee, FL (June 4, 2010) — Nudists with the American Association for Nude Recreation say there may not be a nude beach...

More than 5,000 people turned up at the Sydney Opera House today to get naked in the name of art. Braving an early morning chill they shed their clothes, abandoned any embarrassment, and posed naked for renowned American nudist photographer Spencer Tunick. People came in all shapes and sizes and one heavily pregnant woman even postponed the birth of her twins so she could take part.

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) -- Some Orange County nudists are fuming over the burial of a rotting sea lion carcass on a San Onofre beach. The naturists said Tuesday that state parks officials buried the animal on the beach near Trail 6, . . . the dead animal's fin sticks out of the sand just a few yards from a volleyball court near where people still sunbathe naked. He says the stench is so overpowering

SEATTLE -- An Everett mother says she's outraged over a weekend protest full of naked cyclists. The group was riding along the Seattle waterfront Friday night wearing nothing but smiles to expose some of the dangers they face. But not everyone was smiling. "I looked and there were naked men with their genitals hanging out," said Marcy Hayes, who was there with her 6-year-old daughter Ashland. "I'm yelling at my daughter to look away." Hayes says she and her daughter walked out of the Seattle Aquarium and right into the path of a pack of cyclists and all their nakedness....

<p>One of Europe’s most famous nudist colonies has become the subject of an unusual investigation by French detectives after the destruction of three nightclubs in fires blamed on naturist "hardliners."</p> <p>The normally peaceful Cap d’Agde, a magnet for nudists in the south of France, has been plunged into anxiety as investigators suspect "fundamentalist" nudists of harboring a grudge against the échangistes, or swingers, who are drawn to the town by the promise of sex.</p>

This city's famous tolerance for the unconventional just got a little less so. Here is a message from Seattle Parks and Recreation to all you nature lovers: Cover up those rear ends or face a possible criminal-trespass prosecution. The proposed rule will have a public hearing Jan. 8, and parks commissioners will make a recommendation to Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher two weeks later. That means you types who like to sneak a little skinny dipping at one of the city's beaches. That means you naturists who like to get together in some secluded park location, and ... barbecue naked! Maybe...

LAND O' LAKES - Whether they're cooking, cleaning, watching TV or playing tennis, nudists like to be nude. Same goes for voting. People at the upscale, clothing-optional Caliente Resorts off U.S. 41 want to establish the first clothing-optional polling place in the country. Most voters who live at Caliente exercise their rights at a nearby subdivision, where clothing isn't optional. Although there's no concrete data on how many nudists live in the area, state Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, has estimated that Pasco County has 12,000 "nude votes." The resort wants to make it easier for Caliente residents and members of...

A church service for Dutch Christian naturists has been cancelled this weekend after hostile reactions from other, more conventional, worshippers. Naked celebrants abandoned plans to hold a second service after media coverage of their first mass, held in a nudist park during the summer, led to a flood of threatening phone calls and emails from more orthodox Christians. "I don't understand what all the fuss is about," said a spokesman for the Gan Eden or Garden of Eden group. "We are just a group of Christians and we want to hold a church service."....

CASTRO VALLEY - At least one night a year, both the gifts and the nudists come wrapped at the Sequoians Clothes Free Club. "Honestly, there are some members who aren't happy we have clothed events," said the club's vice president, Bill Hendricks. The Sequoians' annual Christmas potluck and gift exchange is a strictly fabric-required event."But we do it so our members can bring their family and friends and everyone can feel comfortable," Hendricks added. "Usually when these people come to an event like this and see what this place is all about, they're much more accepting of the club."Apparently a...

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. --Complaints about young people who spend time in downtown naked have prompted the Select Board to explore an anti-nudity ordinance. Groups of young people have been congregating in a downtown parking lot and enjoying the warm summer weather without clothing, and that bothers some local residents. "A parking lot is not a strip club. It's a parking lot," resident Theresa Toney told the Select Board last week. She said she has seen repeated instances of naked people hanging out downtown. "This is a problem. What about children seeing this?" Toney asked. Vermont has no law against nudity, though...