From Birth to Shower: The Absurdity of Anti-Nudity Legislation
Last August, I was reading the Project 2025 tome. Since then, I have seen a lot of the ideas expressed in it acted upon in legislation across the United States. The idea that individual expression of freedom may be blocked is paramount to the idea that we must conform to the idea of the perfect society embedded in that document.
One of the areas where we are seeing that repeated across a lot of legislation this year is in increasing the penalties for violation of antinudity laws. This expansion is designed to make punishment for failure to adhere to the perceived notion of ‘bare genitals is bad’ a felony. Just exposure, not actions. Raising the penalties has the effect of deterring people from fighting to dismiss a charge when the severe consequence of losing means you become a felon. The threat of being labeled a sexual offender forced to register forever makes people agree to reduced charges rather than risk that designation. We are seeing numerous bills where increasing penalties and blurring the definition of offensive behavior is the goal.
In the real world, the burden of proof is on the government to prove you acted with malice or bad intent. Simple nudity is not a reason to have to register as a sex offender, except in the social pattern being espoused in the legislation we are seeing coming out of the advocates of Project 2025. This is a bad precedent. We have spent the year fighting to block legislation that increases penalties for crimes involving nudity.
The idea that nudity in the presence of children, no matter the situation, is bad has been proposed in legislation. We fought a bill that would have made it illegal to ever be nude. From birth to death, you could be charged with a crime if you were simply naked. Imagine a law that says you have to be born fully clothed? How does that work? Showering with clothes on? Do I have to put socks on before I can change my underwear? What kind of society elects people who think these are good ideas for legislation? What about focusing on bills to replace all the lead water pipes? Isn’t that a better use of our money than snooping on people in the shower, or in their home, or enjoying some nude time? Better not relieve yourself while you are out hunting, you’re in violation of the law in some jurisdictions. This is just bad legislation.
Tim Mullins
AANR Government Affairs Chair.
