San Francisco: jusqu'où va la tolérance?

Un complément à ma dernière entrée... Scott Wiener est le premier politicien depuis longtemps à réagir aux plaintes concernant la nudité en public dans son district (Castro). Il souhaite "encadrer" un peu plus la pratique de cette "activité"! À remarquer qu'il n'est jamais question de l'interdire, ce qui est le cas d'une majorité de villes. Il est étonnant de se pencher sur le débat quand on associe généralement les États-Unis à à mentalité "puritaine"! J'ai séjourné à San Francisco plusieurs fois avec mes élèves et nous avons toujours apprécié la caractère "ouvert" et "tolérant" celle qu'on surnomme "The City". Une ville magnifique et... Surprenante!

"There is a line between being tolerant and having no standards whatsoever, and that's a line that San Francisco passed a long time ago. Public nudity has become the costume de rigueur in certain corners of the Special City. Twice in the last year, I've see groups of nude adults walking or biking around the Embarcadero - to the delight of some tourists and the disgust of others.

"Clothing-optional" could be the city's new motto, along with "age-inappropriate."

In a well-meaning - dare I say, modest? - attempt to address the Special City's new normal, Supervisor Scott Wiener has proposed a measure to require that nudists not sit or eat in public without "clothing or other separate material as a barrier between his or her genitals, buttocks, or anal region and the public seating." The ordinance language - like its targets - commits the offense of exposing too much information.

"San Francisco is a liberal and tolerant city, and we pride ourselves on that fact," Wiener said in a statement. "Yet, while we have a variety of views about public nudity, we can all agree that when you sit down naked, you should cover the seat, and that you should cover up when you go into a food establishment."

In other words, people who walk around naked somehow are supposed to exhibit taste and consideration.

Wiener represents the Castro, where a number of nudists like to congregate and digest. And a number of constituents don't like it one bit. "Let me tell you, this is an issue," Wiener told me.

Wiener is especially unhappy that he is "the first politician who has touched this issue in any respect" - and yet, he believes, the media have slammed him for not going far enough in not pushing for an all-out ban on public nudity itself.

Why not an all-out ban? The state penal code prohibits a person exposing private parts publicly "where there are present other persons to be offended or annoyed," but some judge decided that police can't decide what's offensive except for outright lewd acts.

City Hall follows a strict interpretation of state law, so the city prohibits police arrests for public nudity absent a citizen's arrest."


La suite de l'article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/15/EDK91L3UL0.DTL