Public nudity OK in Vermont town
Pastor Dale Morgan
Public nudity OK in Vermont town*
Manager: 'We're quite a bit different than a lot of places' --Rutland
Herald, Vermont
August 30, 2006
By BRIAN MACQUARRIE Boston Globe
BRATTLEBORO — Here on the banks of the Connecticut River, in the busiest
parking area of a downtown peppered with bookstores and coffee shops,
more is meeting the eye than some people want.
A politely rebellious collection of teenagers passing time in the
Harmony Parking Lot this summer has taken to disrobing. Seemingly on a
whim, they shed clothes and soak up the sun, nude.
What began as a lark or an ode to youthful exuberance, has now turned
into a municipal quandary, because public nudity is permissible in
Brattleboro.
In the words of Town Manager Jerry Remillard, if you're naked in public,
and you're minding your business, you're legal.
"We're quite a bit different than a lot of places," Remillard said.
Spurred by complaints, the town's Select Board will consider changing
that, although no changes are expected soon. In the meantime, some
pedestrians avert their eyes. Some youths cheer on their naked friends,
and a few adults are so offended that they become nearly hysterical.
If the two-dozen or so youths, 16 to 19 years old, are seeking to make a
social statement, the manifesto needs some work.
"We just thought it'd be a little fun," said Charles Corry, 19, who said
he stripped to nature's own recently and hung out for about 45 minutes
with five like-minded friends as shoppers, diners and walkers made their
bemused way through the lot. "I don't see it as a serious statement."
Serious or not, the teenagers have made nudity something that can show
its pale or sun-burned self with no warning. Rachel Brooks, who works at
Everyone's Books, sees some of the action on the sidewalk outside the
shop's rear door.
"Personally, if I wanted to be naked, I wouldn't sit around in a dirty
parking lot," said Brooks, 22. "I wouldn't want to get cigarette butts
on my butt."
The nudity began in earnest this year, Brooks said, when one young woman
decided she wanted to bare her chest in public, just like her male friends.
Since then, the no-clothes fashion has gained popularity and has
expanded to include group bike rides, skateboarding, hula-hoop contests,
and a grass-roots music event that the group dubbed the Brat Fest.
One girl even sat partially nude on a newspaper vending box in the
middle of downtown.
"I think most of Vermont wants Vermont to be nude," said Hannah
Phillips, 15, who added that she has not disrobed. "People have a basic
human right to be naked if they want to."
Nearby, older teenagers sat on the sidewalk, fully clothed, their backs
propped against a brick wall, munching on a pizza they found in its box.
A car belonging to one of the group was parked nearby, a
skull-and-crossbones on its hood and the words, "Chaos Infiltration
Squad," on a side door. On the opposite side of the lot, the Back Side
Cafe looked down on the scene.
Although members of the group said they don't intend to offend anyone,
one woman has filed a complaint with the Select Board.
But the wheels of legislation grind methodically here, and the board
must hold two public meetings, followed by a waiting period of nearly a
month before a ban on public nudity can be implemented and enforced.
Vermont does not forbid public nudity, as Massachusetts does, but some
liberal communities in the state have banned it. Remillard said that
outsiders should not begin to think of Brattleboro as a haven for the
behavior. It's just that Brattleboro never had cause to ban nudity before.
"I would suspect that if it were OK, you'd see it in Boston," he said.
Andrew Wdowiak, who works at Everyone's Books, said that he's not put
off by the nudity, but that the act has become a little tired. "I think
it was more for the shock value," he said. "They weren't flagrant about it."
But last week, when about a half-dozen naked teenagers congregated
outside the store," it was like they were baking a cake, and they really
frosted it," Wdowiak said. "All the men were naked, and the women were
topless. I needed about three drinks to erase that vision."
One patron of the bookstore let loose with hysterics of Academy Award
proportions, he added.
If the town passes an ordinance this year, cool weather will have begun
to settle in this slice of the North Country.
But Remillard, for one, doesn't think the bracing air will accomplish
what Brattleboro's laws have been so far unable to do.
"That isn't necessarily going to bother this group of people," he said
of the cold.