(Image: Seattle Parks)
A King County judge won’t close Denny Blaine Park but he does want the city to come up with a “plan of abatement” to address complaints of drug use, masturbation, and sex at the popular nude beach on the shores of Lake Washington east of Capitol Hill.
Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung issued the order Monday in a hearing over a bid from the Denny Blaine for All neighbor group to immediately close the park to the public. The group has mounted an ongoing legal fight over the park that is being defended as an important gathering space by queer and nudist communities.
CHS reported here on the requested injunction and the City of Seattle’s defense of the park “as a nude queer space,” “Nudity is subject to City regulation, and the City has determined that not regulating public nudity at Denny Blaine is in the public interest. Based on this decision, nudity alone at Denny Blaine is also not a nuisance,” Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison wrote.
While Chung declined to grant the injunction closing the park, the judge has ordered the city to quickly come up with a plan to address illegal activity at Denny Blaine, saying “nudity as constituted” amid documented illegal activity is, indeed, “a public nuisance.”
Seattle City Hall now has two weeks to respond.
The order does not ban nudity in Denny Blaine which is not a crime in the state but the city will have to grapple with how to separate the park’s clothing optional culture from challenges around reports of masturbation, sex, and drug use related to the park’s use.
CHS reported earlier this year on the lawsuit from unnamed park neighbors demanding the city address concerns at Denny Blaine over “public masturbation, public sex and other types of indecent exposure, drug use, unlawful public nudity, environmental damage to the shoreline, and scofflaw parking.” The case includes documentation including logs and photographs neighbors say show extensive examples of the criminal activity that occurs around the park.
The June motion for an injunction demanding the closure followed a decision by Chief Shon Barnes and the Seattle Police Department in May to end increased patrols of the Denny Blaine nude beach and park that has continued to be a significant gathering place for queer and naturist communities despite the increased complaints and legal threats from residents.
The group Friends of Denny Blaine has continued to seek community solutions as the lawsuit has played out. It is currently scheduled for an April 2026 trial.
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