Tim Mullins GAT
As mentioned here in September, voting is more important than ever this November. Nudists need to be involved in local politics and must be sure to elect people to positions of authority that know nude use is a legitimate use of public land, and private use of one’s own land in the nude is not a crime.
Remember the stare decisis doctrine. Stare decisis is the doctrine that courts will adhere to precedents in making their decisions. Stare decisis means “to stand by things decided” in Latin. Many of AANR’s actions to support members who face challenges to nude use depend on this traditional understanding of decided law. GAT is seeing challenges to this expand since the United States Supreme Court action that made slight of this doctrine.
Nudists have long enjoyed the comfort of decisions previously made to build arguments for further expansion of nude use areas. All politics is local, so whom one votes for at the local level must involve one acting to find out their position on nudity, as many of these people will move up in politics. They need to have a history of knowing nudists are part of their constituency.
Local involvement in politics as a nudist or nudist advocate gives the local politicians a new voice to seek out when issues involving nudity arise in the conduct of their business, the people’s business. Let them know you are a rational, productive member of the community, and you support nude use. I have met my local congressman and he knows I am a nudist. I have done the same for my city, county and state leaders. I don’t miss a chance to let them know nudists are responsible citizens who vote.
Nudists need to be able to challenge the idea that nude use is an unacceptable use of public lands. While some agencies’ campsites and grounds are generally clothes-free, many Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sites have no restrictions, though it is not the case across the board for any agency’s lands. Everyone needs to work together with Parks Superintendents and Forest Service Managers to begin the process of making exclusion from nude use the track that is harder to justify. To do this one needs to educate the elected leaders that nudists are strong stewards for protecting the integrity of public land. Their support often means the administrative staff will follow their lead.