As I have traversed the net promoting our GOUGH NUDE! campaign to free Stephen Gough, several well-meaning nudists have asked me why I am supporting someone who flaunts the law with his nudity in such a public manner?  Doesn't this type of showboating pose a risk of blowback for all nudists?

First, let me go on record as being someone who supports public social nudity only in sanctioned areas, such as my backyard, or at a nudist beach, resort or club, or at acceptable nudity allowed events like the World Naked Bike Ride or a Spencer Tunick photo shoot.  Would I like to be able to walk down any street without any clothing whenever I feel like it?  Maybe, but that is not the world in which we live and the practice is neither practical nor adviseable.

So if I hold these beliefs, how can I also support Stephen Gough's much more public nude behavior?  The simple answer is that when I go nude outdoors, I am doing it for relaxation and recreation.  When Stephen Gough goes nude, arguably everywhere he goes, he does it as a statement of freedom of expression ... he does it in formal protest of laws that he believes to be unjust.  And THAT is something that I can get behind.

Beyond the validity of Gough's stated mission, a couple of other things drive me to think that supporting him is something we all should do. First, the harshness of the penalties assessed against him are enough to make any right thinking citizen stand up and say 'that's not right!'.  Gough has spent the better part of the last seven years in and out of one form of detention or another.  When one couples that fact with the grim reality that the Sherrif of Nottingham, err, Perthshire has pledged to arrest him "again and again and again" with the likely result that Gough could be imprisoned for the remainder of his life, it makes me want to gather a crowd, grab a pitchfork and a flaming torch and storm down the cobblestone roads of some small Scottish burg yelling "Let Gough Go!".

The second thing that drives me is the fundamental cultural opposition to nudity and thus nudism.  There is absolutely nothing sexual about the display of ass, penis, vagina or breasts.  Sure, the idea of the display of these 'bits' has been massively over-sexualized by many aspects of modern culture.  But the notion that the sight of Stephen Gough walking down the street and actually being some type of potent sexual threat ... to anyone ... is just preposterous.  And you know what?  We pretty much all know that this is true, except for some members of the reactionary fringe who are so blinded by their dogma that they don't even know what they see.  But the opposition drives me to take action because every time any type of public nudity comes up in the discussion, those opposed to it hold up a moral absolute that public nudity is wrong and must not be allowed under any circumstances.  That is just plain wrong and far too often the voices of opposition overpower anyone who wants to speak in favor of the proposition of public nudity, what ever the context, be it a small sliver of beach for nude use, or nude swimming nights at the local pool, or the conditional use permit for the nudist club.

Having watched the gains and losses in the acceptance of recreational nudity here in the United States for nearly forty years, I can say that there have been great gains in the public's acceptance of the concept of nude recreation in the form of "Nakations", nude cruises and so forth while at the same time, those in opposition to any form of public nudity continue to mount often successful attacks on any peaceful nudist venue.  Just this year, for example, we lost our right to use San Onofre beach, which has been one of the largest, established nude beaches in Southern California since the mid 1970's.  And in the fracas, we managed also to lose the Cahill Policy which could result in outlawing public nudity on all state park land across California.  That is not the kind of progress you can believe in.

So when we have somebody like Stephen Gough who is willing to bravely stand up for his right to be nude.  Who is valiantly willing to go to prison, indefinitely for something that he believes in, that we believe in, then I am ready to show my support for the guy.  And as I have said many times before - anybody who cares about any type of nudist rights ought to be supporting him as well.

If you want to join in go to: GOUGH NUDE!