Vermont's Naked Town Calls Emergency Meeting To Ban Nudity

A week after a naked, elderly tourist strolled through the centre of a Vermont town well-known for public nudity, residents were told to keep their pants on in public.

In a 3-2 vote, town officials have passed an emergency rule banning nudity on the main roads and within 75 meters of any school or place of worship, among other places. Violators could face a $100 fine.

The community of Brattleboro has long been a place where skinny dipping was a rite of summer. But it began flirting with a nudity ban last summer after a group of teens took to hanging around a downtown parking lot naked.

It took an elderly man wearing only a fanny pack and wandering through the centre of town last week for the Select Board to decide it had seen enough.

"People have a reasonable expectation that when they are going out, they're not going to run into any nude people," said board member Dick DeGray, who wrote the ordinance. Next month, Brattleboro will hold a public hearing on whether the ordinance should be made permanent. The ordinance defines nudity as the showing of genitalia, buttocks or female breasts, but it allows for public breast-feeding.

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