"Hey, can you tell me where the clothing optional beach is?"
Donn Murphy of Xcalak, Mexico, and Colorado Springs, Colo., wrote about the incident in an open letter addressed to “citizens and legislators of Virginia.”
Murphy and his wife Cindy own and operate the Playa Sonrisa resort about 250 miles from Cancun, Mexico. They were cited for public nudity last Sept. 11 during a trip to Assateague, resulting in a $250 fine each, he said.
An Assateague official said the beach cites a handful of visitors each year for nudity, and one repeat offender has been banned for life from the area.
Murphy said the self-described “hardworking 50-something couple” was on a road trip through several East Coast states and had been advised by Virginians who were guests of their resort that the Virginia portion of the Assateague Island National Seashore had a clothing-optional beach on its northern end.
It did decades ago, but the practice has long since ended.
They walked some two miles north of the parking area to where there were no other beachgoers present “to insure we wouldn’t offend anyone,” he wrote.
But a park ranger driving a four-wheel drive vehicle found them and cited both for public nudity, despite the fact that Murphy was swimming out in the ocean at the time and did not come ashore.
Murphy called the crime “victimless” and the regulation “misguided.” He said his purpose in writing about the incident now is “to be proactive in effecting a change in legislation and park management policy in order to eliminate similar unnecessary negative impacts on other naturists in the future.”
Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge Deputy Manager Kim Halpin said this week that park law enforcement officials routinely patrol the seashore all the way to the Maryland line.
“We’re interested in public safety; we’re constantly checking” to see whether visitors to the national seashore need any assistance, she said.
An average of five people a year are cited for public nudity at Assateague, out of a total of 1.4 million people a year who visit the national seashore, Halpin said, adding, “This is not a significant issue.”
In 2007, five other people besides the Murphys were cited for public nudity. Five citations were handed out in 2006 and three in 2005, and one person last year was arrested and banned for a lifetime from the beach for being an habitual offender.
Public nudity is a class one misdemeanor in Accomack County, punishable by a fine of $225 per offense, Halpin said.
“What we actually enforce is 50CFR (a section of the Code of Federal Regulations) that prohibits indecency and disorderly conduct as defined by local law,” she said.
Locally, the federal citations are based on an Accomack County ordinance that prohibits public nudity and dates to the 1980s, Halpin said.
Murphy said in a follow-up e-mail that the couple paid the fines because their business in Mexico requires their presence and the logistics involved in contesting the citations were too difficult.
He cited Sandy Hook National Seashore in New Jersey, which he said has an area designated for nude use “with appropriate signage warning beachgoers what to expect in either direction.”
That section’s parking area, he said, “fills up by 8 a.m. every weekend, yet the ‘textiled’ beaches see relatively little use.” Canaveral National Seashore in Florida also has a nude section, he said.
Murphy said in his letter that Chincoteague businesses would benefit economically by accepting “harmless Naturists on the remote expanse of National Seashore.”
Murphy cited Thomas Jefferson, “your most famous and honored statesman,” who he said was “a vocal proponent of enjoying an ‘air bath’” by strolling in the nude.
Murphy also sent copies of the letter describing the incident to three organizations — The Naturist Society, the American Association of Nude Recreation and the Federation of Canadian Naturists — “in hope they will chose to inform their tens of thousands of readers that Naturists are unwelcome in Virginia,” he said.
Courtesy of DelmarvaNow.com
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