A recent Tuesday, 2:24 p.m.: The \"naked guys\" who hang out at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro district have gotten a lot of attention since Supervisor Scott Wiener proposed legislation that would require them to put clothes on or be fined. <\/p>\n
Opinions have been voiced. Stories have been written. Now, everybody knows how awful some find it to see naked people in the Castro - but what do the nudists think? <\/p>\n
To find out, I decided to conduct a nudist fashion shoot of sorts. A casting call was made on a sunny afternoon in the plaza at the corner of Castro and Market streets. The only requirement was that participants give me an honest response to Wiener's proposed legislation - and, of course, agree to be photographed for all the world to see in the pages of The Chronicle. <\/p>\n
Nine people showed without any clothes, four of them women, and only one had second thoughts about being photographed. <\/p>\n
Wiener's proposal \"is turning us into criminals, and it's criminalizing the human body,\" said Woody Miller, 54, a waiter working on his master's degree in history at San Francisco State who moved to the city in 1982 from Lancaster, Pa. \"I think San Francisco has always been a place that has drawn people who've wanted to reimagine themselves. <\/p>\n
\"Very rarely do people ask me why I do this,\" Miller said. \"I like the way it feels. I like the feel of the sun and air on my skin. I think it puts me closer in contact with who I am. <\/p>\n
\"A lot of people say we are too fat, too old, too hairy. But I consider my body to be a record of my lived experiences,\" Miller said, noting a dramatic scar from a heart operation that plunges down his chest and ends in a dimpled cross just above his abdomen. <\/p>\n
Pete Sferra, 57, of San Jose locked arms with his wife, Laura Vaughn, 59. They smiled, wearing only their shoes and wedding bands. <\/p>\n
\"San Francisco sets the bar for tolerance of alternative lifestyles of all kinds,\" said Sferra, a technical writer at a large company in Silicon Valley. \"The myth is that we're all sex-crazed. I'd like others to know that we're normal people. <\/p>\n
\"I'm very comfortable being nude,\" Sferra said. \"There is nothing sexual about it. It's not really a statement; it's about comfort. ... It's about freedom, which is what San Francisco is about.\" <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The rest is here:<\/p>\n
S.F. nudists say it's about the freedom<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A recent Tuesday, 2:24 p.m.: The \"naked guys\" who hang out at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro district have gotten a lot of attention since Supervisor Scott Wiener proposed legislation that would require them to put clothes on or be fined. Continue reading