Thoughts on Being a Nudist

As many readers know, I have been an out of the closet gay nudist for over twenty years. In the early 1980's, I was a founding member and officer of the Everglades Rawhides, South Florida’s first gay naturist organization. Though my active participation in gay nudist clubs decreased somewhat after I met my life partner Michael, I kept my membership current in the various groups that succeeded the Rawhides in the eighties and nineties. To my humble self, clothes are but a necessary evil; and I enjoy every opportunity I have to be naked by myself, with my partner, and in the company of other, like-minded men. As I see it, there is nothing more beautiful in God’s green earth than an attractive, naked man; and my participation in nudist venues and events gives me plenty of opportunities to indulge my aesthetic sense.

As a gay nudist, I am especially fortunate to live in South Florida, where the climate is conducive to year round public nudity. Though local liquor laws forbid nudity in bars and night clubs, gay nudists have at our disposal an assortment of private homes, guest houses, health clubs and the clothing-optional area of Haulover Park just north of Miami Beach. South Florida is also the home of several large, active, gay nudist clubs, most notably WildFyre (the largest “local” gay nudist group in the world). Fort Lauderdale and Key West are two of the three leading centers of gay nude recreation in the United States; the third one being Palm Springs, California. Unfortunately, naturists (gay or otherwise) who live north of the Palm Beach County line are not so lucky. As befits a beautiful state with horrible rulers, most Florida counties have strict laws against public nudity - enacted to “protect the children,” of course. Even in South Florida, Haulover Beach would only be a wistful memory if it wasn’t for the existence of the South Florida Free Beaches/Florida Naturist Association (SFFB/FNA).

While I am fortunate to live in a community that offers many opportunities to an openly gay nudist like myself, time restrictions and other obligations have often kept me from taking advantage of those opportunities. More often than not, a gay-and-naked party sponsored by one of the local clubs conflicts with some other personal, professional, religious or political commitment on my part. And while in the past Michael and I attended three gay nudist gatherings sponsored by IMEN (International Men Enjoying Naturism), to this day we have not been able to attend the much greater ones sponsored by GNI (Gay Naturists International); surely the most notable collection of naked men since Adam and Steve. Nothing would please me more than to be able to attend a GNI Gathering, of which I have heard so much from many of my friends and from other gay nudist colleagues. Unfortunately, GNI Gatherings are in late August, when school terms begin. This means that openly gay nudists who work for educational institutions, like Michael and me, are unable to attend. I will just have to wait til I retire (or win the lottery) before I can attend the world’s premier event for gay nudist men.

Openly gay nudists are but a small percentage of the gay male population. Most gay men share the non-nudist population’s dislike for public nudity; or the belief that public nudity should be limited to those favored individuals who look like Colton Ford or Matthew Rush. But most openly gay nudists do not look like porn stars (darn it!). Rather, we run the gamut from the incredibly hot to the incredibly not. Even a large percentage of the men who attend gay-and-naked parties are not nudists in the personal or political sense of the word. Some of those men go to parties to meet sexual partners; while others go there to socialize. Still, just by being at a gay nudist function these men gradually lose their inhibitions and become part of the gay nudist experience.

As an openly gay nudist, I believe that public nudity - in appropriate venues - should be a human right. Unfortunately, society treats nudity as a privilege, and a highly restricted one at that. Today the same forces that oppose a woman’s right to choose and the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered minorities also oppose clothing-optional beaches and other nude venues. That is why we should support naturist activist groups like SFFB/FNA and The Naturist Society (TNS). Without them, those opportunities that we who are nudists now take for granted will no longer be at our disposal.

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and activist who has been working for GLBT rights in South Florida for thirty years. Write him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.