Seattle World Naked Bike Ride 2011

I'm wondering what the Rainbow Gathering might have been like, if I had been able to go (money limitations). I was excited by the idea of an environment with lots of people where I could walk around naked all day and be accepted by everyone. I wouldn't have know what to do there, or how it worked, but I think I could have figured it out.

Instead, to console myself, I planned on going to the World Naked Bike Ride, organized by a bunch of activists who ride naked through the streets of Seattle to protest dependence on fossil fuels. They're cyclists and nudists and activists, though I was really just there so I could ride naked on a bicycle through Seattle. I wouldn't have decided to go to a public, naked protest against fossil fuels, considering that I have a car myself and drive it regularly. However, after going, I figure that if I had a bicycle myself, I would not need to drive my car and spend money on gas. As for the bicycle, I spend 2-3 days looking for one on craigslist, and finally asked to borrow Mom's. There is a severe shortage of bicycles in our house.

I went into the city on July 9th for the bike ride on the ferry. Then I rode around the city for half an hour until I figured out I was in the wrong area (I had to ask someone for directions), then rode to the Belltown area for the pre-ride party. It turned out to be in an arts space that is normally used for bands playing music. Inside I saw one or two naked men, so I figured I was in the right place. I took off my clothes right away, and spent the next 3 hours before the ride just walking around inside, meeting and watching people. One person had a juicer and was making drinks with blueberries, oranges, apple, kale, lettuce, real health-nut stuff. I had one with blueberry and lettuce, but the bitterness from the lettuce ruined it for me. I hadn't been expecting that. We were all supposed to bring our own paint, but I got someone to paint black & white speed stripes down my side from my armpits to my calves. It looked really cool. On the other hand, at the end of the day I had two white stripes running down my otherwise slightly reddened body. I should have worn sunscreen.

I spent a lot of time looking around and wondering how many people would be showing up. I also looked around at the people who weren't naked and wondered which of them would be riding. I could already tell it would be a mostly male ride, there were no naked women in the room. There were 2 women in there, but one was a girlfriend of someone riding who didn't yet have the courage, and the other was apparently just there to paint people. About half an hour before we were supposed to leave a couple showed up, and the guy got naked so he could be painted by the woman. I asked her if she would be riding, she said she wasn't sure, but 5 minutes before we had to leave she took her clothes of and joined the other. Another woman showed up after everyone was gathered in the parking lot ready to go, and still another early in the ride. Out of 30-35 cyclists there were only 3 women riding. I was kind of disappointed, because what does it say about me and the men riding if there are few women with us. I think it makes us look bad.

While inside the arts space I talked to some of the people about the laws in Washington regarding nudity. I don't want to quote the law verbatim here: the law says that for a person to be prosecuted they must be guilty of lewd and lascivious behavior (ie sexual behavior), someone must complain, and at least in Seattle, they must be willing to go to court and testify. Those three present such a high bar that there are never any prosecutions, at least for the nude cyclists. The Seattle Police department tried something last year before the election, but since then the city attorney has said he doesn't want any nuisance prosecutions, nudity charges just aren't worth his time, because they aren't really harming anyone.

The bike worked fine, and I figured out the gearshifts fairly quickly (they are on the frame instead of the handlebars). I am in pretty good shape, and had no trouble getting up the hills. Some of the other people did, though. I was at the front of the pack for most of the ride. I can't remember the route exactly, but we rode first down to Alaskan Way to the waterfront and got a lot of cheers from the crowds of tourists. They thought it was great. Then we rode east to capitol hill, and as we climbed the hill there were fewer cheers, because it was mostly locals. In capitol hill itself we got more cheers as we rode past restaurants and bars, and then fewer as we got to quieter neighborhoods. I noticed that black people had the strongest negative reactions after seeing us. On the whole, however, I was surprised by how much of a sense of humor the people in Seattle have, and how easy it was for us to ride through the city. We weren't even looked at by a police officer.

The only time we had any trouble was at Seattle Center, where one person decided to complain. One person. No one else at Seattle Center seemed to have a problem, someone affiliated with the ride had gone ahead to tell them we were coming, so few people were surprised. The person's objection was absurd because Seattle Center had given us a permit to be there for 20 minutes, and both spectators and security knew in advance that we were coming, but it seems that one security guard was going to tell us to stop. After about 10 minutes of waiting we were given the go-ahead and went into the fountain to wash off our paint. One guy climbed on top of the fountain, which was bad because it could have given them an excuse to charge us with something.

After leaving the fountain we rode down to the sculpture park off of Alaskan Way to a beach and went skinny-dipping. There were some people already there, but they didn't object. It felt great getting in the water on a hot day. I also talked some more to one of the women who was on the ride about when the next one might be. It's going to be on August 6th, and apparently she and some other people will be riding naked there too. If I can borrow a bike again I might go to that one. After about half an hour to 45 minutes I decided to catch the ferry home. I didn't want to put my clothes on after being naked all day, but I had to. I'd really like to do this again.