Vermont town can bare it no longer, mulls nudity ban

The Selectboard plans Tuesday to introduce an emergency ordinance to ban nudity in certain parts of town.

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should," said Dick DeGray, a member of the Selectboard. "You can't go into a store and buy an adult magazine until you're 18, and yet you can walk down the street in Vermont and see naked people. There's something wrong with that picture."

On July 6, a 68-year-old man showed up naked downtown, strolling the streets during Gallery Walk, a monthly social event in which people stop in art galleries and shops.

The man told residents he was from Arizona and had decided to vacation in Brattleboro after reading about its public nudity freedom on the Internet.

Vermont has no state laws against public nudity, although a handful of cities and towns have enacted anti nudity ordinances.

Brattleboro flirted with the idea last summer when a group of teenagers took to hanging around a downtown parking lot in the nude, which led to national publicity and triggered telephone calls from curious people in faraway places.

"They'll call up and say, 'So, I hear you've got a lot of naked people running around town,' " said Jerry Goldberg, executive director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce. "It's so far from the truth, it's kind of laughable," said Goldberg.

Some would-be tourists call to say they are putting off their visit because they're worried about public nudity, he said. Town officials worry, too: The idea of naked people spoiling Gallery Walk night by scaring families with children away is chilling.

"Every time you guys do one of your articles, people come from all over," said police Captain Steven Rowell.

Public nudity is far from an everyday occurrence, but many residents want it regulated.

"It's time they did something about it," said Sherwood Smith, manager of Baskets Bookstore, which is located in the Harmony parking lot, where naked teens gathered last summer.

"I don't care how they robe or disrobe at swimming holes, but in a downtown area like this, it's wrong."

Not everyone agrees.

"I don't like the idea of them taking the rights to something natural away," said Rhiannon Curtis, 19, of Brattleboro.

"I like to swim naked, and that would be affected if they do this. Vermont doesn't need to conform to the rest of society's uptight rules."