Public nudity issue sent to Topeka Council public health and safety committee

People still can walk around the city of Topeka in the buff — for now.

The Topeka City Council on Tuesday voted 5-3 to send to the city's public health and safety committee a proposal making public nudity a misdemeanor.

The decision stemmed from a motion from Councilman Richard Harmon, who advocated narrowing the scope of the proposal. There is a legitimate interest, he said, to restricting the ordinance just to the environs of schools and day cares.

The original proposal to ban public nudity came from Councilwoman Michelle De La Isla. Before Harmon's motion, De La Isla made a motion to adopt the ordinance, which was seconded by Councilwoman Elaine Schwartz. Councilwomen De La Isla, Schwartz and Karen Hiller were the three votes against Harmon's motion.

Councilwomen Sylvia Ortiz and Denise Everhart, who was absent from Tuesday's meeting, are on the council's public health and safety committee.

The ban wouldn’t apply to children under 10 years old or any woman breast-feeding her child. Violations would be a Class C misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and/or a fine of between $1 and $499.

The proposal was prompted by concerns expressed by people who saw a man walking nude in south central Topeka near an elementary school.

Neither state law nor city ordinance bans nudity in public, though state law prohibits public nudity in the context of sexual arousal.

Ruth Schoonover, the lone public voice in favor of the proposal during Tuesday’s meeting, said that fact surprised and outraged the people with whom she spoke.

"We all assumed we were protected already," she said.

The 63-year-old new grandmother said her concern came from protecting children. The public, she said, has a right to expect people to adhere to certain norms, including being fully clothed.

“I don’t want to see their private parts, and once you do, it is hard to get that image out of your mind,” Schoonover said.

De La Isla shared her concern for children, saying parents should have the right to determine how to talk about nudity and other mature topics with their children. She cited the proposal as necessary to give police a tool to help handle public nudity.

"This is not a tool," countered Webb Garlinghouse, of the nudist group, Lake Edun Foundation Inc. "This is a club."

He and Dave Bitters, with the Naturist Action Committee, spoke emphatically against banning public nudity. They called it discriminatory against women — classifying female breasts as sex organs and prohibiting them from walking around without a top while men can — and as a violation of American civil rights.

Garlinghouse said the ordinance "criminalizes our maker's greatest gift to us, the human body."

“If you enact this ordinance, it will be to pander to a vocal few who claimed they were offended,” he said.

Bitters, who has visited about two dozen nude beaches, said American culture already is on its way to removing the taboo of public nudity. He said the proposed ordinance violates the basic civil right “to be left alone.”

“Government has no business setting dress codes,” he said.

Councilman T.J. Brown agreed.

“I don’t want to vote for this,” he said. “However, I think the right of a parent to educate their child as they so choose on a subject like this, that should not be forced upon them by somebody else’s actions.”

Margarate Dunlap, the fourth and final person to speak Tuesday, asked that the council defer action to clear up what she foresees as some unintended consequences, including how it would apply to urinals and locker rooms.

“Topeka has many serious problems to address,” she said. “This is not one of them.”

City attorney Chad Sublet said most of those concerns are covered. Locations like locker rooms, urinals, even backyard pools, he said, come with an expectation of privacy, which disqualifies them as truly public spaces.

The council last considered banning public nudity on Oct. 11, 2005, when then-Councilman Brett Blackburn’s motion to approve his proposal to accomplish that died without a vote for lack of a second.

Blackburn’s proposal would have banned nudity on public property or in public view on private property, with offenses being punishable by a fine of up to $50.

The proposal failed after council members heard two opponents speak against it, including a man who suggested the ordinance was unnecessary because he couldn’t recall ever having heard a report of anyone walking naked along the streets of Topeka.