GAT
Weeding Through the Language:
Protecting Nude Use This Legislative Season
February is when we start our vegetable plants indoors for spring planting. Part of the fun of gardening is choosing what to grow and then learning what will grow best in our conditions. Some are new varieties of old favorites, and some are new to us.
This is the same with planning the legislative year. We spend these first months reviewing what’s out there now and what will be coming in the months ahead. We see some of the same old language from years past recycled to appear new, and see some new varieties of old plans.
Occasionally, we see a whole new plan for nude use, but that is rare.
Beginning in late November, we started reviewing pre-files in some states. We know from what we have seen so far that protecting children continues to be big in the language of these bills. Unfortunately, protecting children usually means someone sees simple nudity as unacceptable for children to see, much less see as normal. So, we look at the intent of the bill. Sometimes the intent is admirable, but too often it involves writing rules too general or vague to actually let the intent guide the language.
We try not to get into writing the language for the bill, but we do suggest where the proposed language is open to misinterpretation and suggest ways to tighten up the intent. This approach allows us to guide the discussion of what language to use without having to employ staff to write legislation that, in many cases, we don’t really want to see passed in the first place.
Your GAT Team is a group of committed volunteers who care about protecting nude use of public lands and protecting your rights on private land, too. We are seeing legislation that tries to limit where you can be nude on private property. While some address visibility from public roads, we also see ordinances introduced that deal with nudity in your yard, where a fence is between you and the public space. So, whether the nudity is in your house or on public lands, we review all the bills we find that address nudity and try to find the best alternative to make sure when Spring comes, you can be nude where you want to be and are safe doing it.
-Tim Mullens
Government Affairs Chair
