SAN FRANCISCO - A public nudity ban may put in place in San Francisco as a city lawmakers are set to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would prohibit nudity in most public places.
If the public nudity ban is passed, it will become illegal for anyone over the age of 5 to expose their genitals in public. It will only be legal to be display public nudity during parades and festivals held under a city permit, according to the ordinance.
The public nudity ban comes on the heels of a two-year tiff between a devoted group of men who go nude in h the city's famously gay Castro District and the supervisor who represents the area, Scott Wiener.
A first offense would carry a maximum penalty of a $100 fine, but prosecutors would have authority to charge a third violation as a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and a year in jail. Exemptions would be made for participants at permitted street fairs and parades, such as the city's annual gay pride event and the Folsom Street Fair, which celebrates sadomasochism and other sexual subcultures.
Public nudity is currently legal in San Francisco, as long as the naked person is not sexually aroused. California law doesn't specifically ban nudity, but it does prohibit "lewd acts." Other Bay Area municipalities, like Berkeley and Marin County, have passed their own nudity bans.
