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Comment on Is it legal to be out in public in just underwear?

It depends entirely on the jurisdiction. Take the city of Seattle, for example (I know this because I planned an executed a nude photo shoot in public view inside the city limits and sought legal council ahead of time to ensure I wan’t risking being charged with any crimes). The general rule for Seattle hinges on whether the activity is intended to tittilate or sexually arouse observers - and if that is obviously not the intent, then even full nudity is not illegal. Many other large cities have very similar ordinances.

The smaller the town, and the more conservative the region, the stricter and less flexible the ordinances. There are beaches in South Carolina, for example, where they even regulate the minimum amount of coverage for bikinis and beachware.

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ultranaut@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s not city ordinances but state law, you can legally be naked in public throughout Washington state as long as your intent isn’t to sexually arouse others.

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- Cstrrider@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  So is it illegal to be in Washington to intentially arouse others fully clothed?
  
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- krayj@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  You are mistaken. City ordinances absolutely comes into play here. In the US, you are subject to federal law, any additional state laws, any additional county laws, and then any additional city municipal-codes/ordinances.
  
  Here’s the Seattle city ordinance that applies:
  
  Seattle Municipal Code, Chapter 12A.10.130, Paragraph A.
  
  A person is guilty of indecent exposure if he or she intentionally makes any open and obscene exposure of his or her person or the person of another knowing that such conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm.
  
  source:
  
  clerk.seattle.gov/search/ordinances/124301#:~:tex….
  
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  - ultranaut@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    My understanding is that Seattle previously had a broad law against public nudity which was challenged in state court, the municipal code you cited was created to bring Seattle into explicit compliance with the state constitution after losing in court. I’m not a lawyer but that’s at least how it was explained to me, there’s nothing special about public nudity laws in Seattle relative to the rest of Washington because the courts have already clarified the situation and the same rules apply everywhere through the state. I did some quick googling and it looks like this is roughly accurate. The court case was funnily enough, Seattle vs. Johnson.
    
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    krayj@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    This doesn’t invalidate my earlier statement that citizens are still subject to city ordinances.
    
    There are around 20,000 cities and municipalities in the United States, most of them have public-nudity/indecent-exposure laws.
    
    You successfully made the point that the legality of city ordinances can be challenged in higher courts (and even sometimes overturned) but the reality is that most people have neither the funding nor the time nor the expertise to take that up…which means ultimately you’re still subject to a city/municipality ordinances as well as state and federal.
    
    In 2017, Tagami v City of Chicago, the US Court of appeals for 7th Circuit ruled 2-1 that the city’s public nudity ordinance did not violate the complainant’s rights and upheld the lower court decisions (which meant that City of Chicago’s ordinance remained intact and validated as enforceable by the city).
    
    At the end of the day, yes you do have to be cognizant of the ordinances/codes of the city in question and cannot rely on State/Federal law alone.
    
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AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I was about to put out a throwaway comment about it depending on whether you look cute, but I guess that’s Reddit toxicity and @krayj brings the goods

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kersploosh@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
IIRC in Seattle it effectively depends on whether anyone cares enough to report you. If your neighbors don’t mind you gardening naked in your front yard then you’re fine. If they gripe about it then you have to put clothes on. Which seems reasonable to me.

San Francisco has actually been tightening their rules on public nudity because it was getting out of hand.

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- kirklennon@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  IIRC in Seattle it effectively depends on whether anyone cares enough to report you. If your neighbors don’t mind you gardening naked in your front yard then you’re fine. If they gripe about it then you have to put clothes on.
  
  That’s not the case. You do not have to put on clothes just because your neighbors don’t like it. Gardening nude is fully legal even if someone complains.
  
  Nudity itself is not obscene, only obscene actions can make it obscene.
  
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  - keeb420@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    you dont have to but you dont want the neighborhood hating you either. or maybe you do. idk.
    
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    richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    you dont want the neighborhood hating you either
    
    Care to elaborate why would you care in one sense or another?
    
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archaix@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Ah yes the classic “planned and executed a nude public photoshoot. There’s so many of those though…which one was yours so we can really pin down these jurisdictional laws?

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- krayj@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Well, I already named the jurisdiction: Seattle, Washington, USA.
  
  The date/time shouldn’t matter since the ordinances haven’t changed, but it was Aug 12, 2012 just in case anyone reading this just happened to be in Seattle at the time and saw us.
  
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- owatnext@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  !nothingeverhappens
  
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