CALIFORNIA: Ninth Circuit Court To Hear Appeal Of Man Arrested For Nudity At 2011 San Diego Pride

You may recall that in 2011 a gay man was arrested for “nudity” at San Diego Pride. On Friday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case. The San Diego Reader reports:

Do San Diego police officers interpret public nudity laws differently for a gay man at a Gay Pride event than, say, a woman in a g-string at the beach?

A federal appellate court will consider that question on March 11 and decide whether to overturn a lower court’s ruling that found Will Walters did not have enough evidence to challenge his arrest for wearing a leather kilt to the 2011 Gay Pride festival.

Officers approached Walters inside a beer garden at the 2011 parade to inform him that his 12-inch-long and 8-inch-wide homemade leather kilt, which covered a thong, violated the city’s public nudity policy. Officers threatened to arrest him if he didn’t put pants on or tie a T-shirt around his waist. Walters disagreed. The officers arrested him and took him to jail where he spent the night in his kilt.

In March 2012, Walters sued the City of San Diego and the lieutenant in charge. In 2014 a U.S. district court judge dismissed the case. Since the dismissal gay rights groups have come forward with claims that the case raises serious questions about whether police enforce nudity laws, or any laws for that matter, differently for LGBTQ members.

From a joint 2014 letter written by Lambda Legal, HRC, and GLAD:



“There can be little argument that the implementation of one standard for ‘public nudity’ at gay events and yet another standard for ‘public nudity’ at straight events, standards that in this case were adopted by the same commanding officer, violates the Equal Protection Clause. If allowed to stand, this discriminatory enforcement policy sends the clear signal to the gay community that their legs, hips, and thighs are somehow offensive and should be covered, but the legs, hips and thighs of straight people are not.”