The Press Is On For A Nude Beach
by: Mandy Bolen
After the Key West City Commission's recent decision to let voters decide whether the city should offer a clothing-optional beach area, proponents are gearing up for a citywide educational campaign to change the minds of friends, neighbors and business owners who oppose the idea.
The commission last week voted to place the question on the city's Oct. 6 ballot.
"We want to show people that it's not lewd and lascivious, and there's no negative impact to this," said Alan Leigh, director of Florida Keys Free Beaches, a group that formed to lobby for the beach.
The group plans to hold town hall meetings to answer questions and address concerns, as well as appear on a local talk radio station to answer callers' questions.
"We're just going to advertise as much as we can," Leigh said.
The group also may ask the City Commission to change the ballot question so voters would be asked to approve a clothing-optional beach for only two years.
"We want to include a sunset clause in the referendum so that people may be more willing to give it a try," he said. "After the two years, the City Commission could decide whether to continue it or not."
One group with serious concerns about a proposed spot for the naturists, the east end of Smathers Beach, comprises the local kiteboarders who now use the area. A representative from the sport spoke to the City Commission last week about the large amount of space they need.
Although the east end of Smathers Beach has been the first choice for Florida Keys Free Beaches, others have suggested Simonton Beach or the more secluded, county-owned area between the West Martello Tower and Atlantic Ocean, near Higgs Beach.
Simonton Beach, tucked between the Pier House Resort and Caribbean Spa and the Hyatt Key West Resort and Spa, is too small and not secluded because of the tall, adjacent hotels, Leigh said. The West Martello option has been "put on the back burner" since the naturist group began focusing on the east end of Smathers Beach, said City Commissioner Teri Johnston, who has been working with County Commissioner Heather Carruthers on Higgs Beach improvements. Carruthers had asked County Attorney Suzanne Hutton to evaluate the situation.
Johnston, who supports a clothing-optional beach, last week proposed the commission designate an area rather than put the question to voters. Also voting against the referendum was Commissioner Joe Pais, who supports the beach but opposes it being at Smathers, popular among families and homeless people he said already cause problems there.
The other commissioners have mixed feelings about a nude beach, as do their constituents. Mayor Morgan McPherson and Commissioners Bill Verge, Barry Gibson and Clayton Lopez favored the referendum, regardless of their personal opinions about a clothing-optional beach.
Gibson last week said as a private citizen, he would support it, but as a commissioner he would not.
"I can say that 90 percent of my district does not care for the idea," Gibson said.
Commissioner Mark Rossi was absent from the meeting.
In the days just before and after their vote, commissioners have been inundated with e-mail messages and letters from people on both sides of the issue.
The Naturist Action Committee, which supports a clothing-optional lifestyle, asked its members and supporters to contact city commissioners to express their support for the beach. Conversely, the American Decency Association, which describes itself as "an evangelical, religious advocacy organization that opposes pornography and vulgar content in the media," encouraged its supporters to write letters of opposition that threaten to boycott Key West.
"What a shame to even contemplate having such a beach -- we are to be dressed in modest clothing, as spoken by our creator," David and Carol Knick wrote to Verge. "When you meet your maker, you will have to answer for this kind of a decision. May your choice be one that honors God!"
Similar messages included statements about protecting family values. One letter-writer is an educator whose blog describes his fight within public schools to teach creationism rather than evolution.
While it is unclear how many conservative Christians vacation in Key West, the effect of a boycott will not be for the City Commission to debate if the proposed referendum gets another approval at its second public reading on Tuesday.