Social nudity in San Francisco

For over a century, the city of San Francisco, California, allowed unrestricted public nudity. In 2012, the city changed the law to require a parade permit for certain displays of public nudity.

In 1967, San Gregorio Beach, 20 miles south of San Francisco, became the first official nude beach in America.[1] The San Francisco Bay Guardian published a guide to California clothing-optional beaches annually.[2] Several beaches in San Francisco are clothing-optional.[3]

The California Supreme Court, in In Re Smith (1972), held that sunbathing on an isolated beach was not lewd.[4]

There is a rarely enforced anti-nudity civil ordinance in the parks of San Francisco, including Golden Gate Park. This ordinance was put in place in 1970 in response to hippies dancing nude in a circle every Sunday in Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park.[5]

In 1969, Carol Doda began go-go dancing bottomless at the Condor Club on Broadway and Columbus in North Beach (she had been dancing topless at the Condor since 1964).[6] Soon nude dancers began dancing at various clubs in North Beach. Three gay bars featured nude go-go dancing between 1969 and 1972. However, because of complaints, in the summer of 1972, California banned nudity in places that serve alcohol.[7]

In September 2011, San Francisco city supervisor Scott Wiener introduced an ordinance to put restrictions on certain public nudity in San Francisco in response to complaints about a group of nudists who regularly gathered at an outdoor plaza in the Castro, which caused protests by nudists.[8][9][10] A suit to block the ordinance was rejected by a federal judge.[11] On November 20, 2012, the city's Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance banning public nudity in San Francisco without a parade permit[12][13][14] and the nudity ban went into effect on February 1, 2013.[15]

Female toplessness was not affected by the ordinance and is allowed throughout the city.[16] Since the 2012 ordinance was passed, nudist events are still held in the city with a permit.[17]