Denny Blaine Park is a treasure with the rarest of amenities—a decent public beach on Lake Washington. It’s part of the historic Olmsted Park system along with Volunteer Park, Interlaken Park, Cal Anderson Park, Seward Park, Green Lake Park, and many more.
But most important to the present moment, it’s been a queer-friendly clothing-optional beach for decades; a sanctuary where anybody with any body can be their full self in peace without fear of retribution or mockery. With the Trump Administration’s constant attacks on trans and gender nonconforming folks’ right to exist, this sanctuary is all the more precious.
I (a queer femme), my trans wife, and all our queer and trans friends have certainly felt safe and comfortable there. Being naked outdoors on a hot summer day, enjoying the water and the sun with no expectation that my nudity is some kind of invitation for unwanted (usually male) sexual attention is a blessing. The existence of Friends of Denny Blaine’s vibrant online and in person community and the abundance of attendees to past public meetings show that many others feel the same.
Despite that, the City of Seattle, and the park’s neighbors, treat Denny Blaine Park like a nuisance. And their “solution”—a crappy, tarp-wrapped, chain-link fence that shuts down about half the park to nudity, is like, well, throwing a tarp over it and hoping it all goes away. Unlike the perfectly good abatement plan put together by The Friends of Denny Blaine, this will do fuck-all to address community complaints about public lewdness and harassment.
You free this afternoon (Labor Day)? Come to the Nude-In at Denny Blaine. It’s a clothing-optional protest for a 100 percent clothing-optional Denny Blaine, even in the parts where the city’s decided we “can’t” be naked. It’s a rejection of the city’s useless abatement plan, and resistance to an attack on yet another queer-friendly and body-positive space. And there’s snacks!
This protest isn’t just about telling the city to take down that stupid, useless fence and put in place the Friends of Denny Blaine’s plan that keeps the park fully bare—it’s about telling the city to go farther.
Putting down Porta-Potties solved (most) of the public urination problem. But what if this well-trafficked, historic park got real bathrooms with flush toilets, sinks, and showers to rinse off in after taking a dip in Lake Washington? (Lovely though it is, it’s not always the cleanest.) The safety rails along the concrete steps were a great improvement, but what if the City installed a handicap accessible ramp so the whole park is ADA-accessible? Speaking of historic, what if instead of just being part of a historic park system, Denny Blaine was named a historic landmark on its own for its role as an important public clothing-optional gathering place for the queer community?
People come from miles around to enjoy Denny Blaine’s chill judgment-free nudist beach vibes. It’s past time to come to terms with the fact that this public beach (like all of our public beaches) has been a tourist attraction for decades. The city should take advantage of this fact and allow food trucks to set up shop. (Ice cream trucks clean up every time they stop by, just saying.) Why discourage people from coming to spend money in our city?
Whether we like it or not, Denny Blaine is going to have park rangers as frequent visitors from now on. If the Parks Department is going to get more involved in managing Denny Blaine, they should have the trash cans emptied more often and get landscapers to remove those blackberry brambles by the roots instead of just cutting them down. And why not have some other services that the Parks Department provides, like affordable exercise classes. Nude yoga in the park, anyone?
So come on down today, be nude in body or in spirit, and let Seattle’s city government know you want them to treat Denny Blaine like the community (clothing-optional!) treasure that it is.
The Labor Day Nude-In starts today (9/1) at Denny Blaine (200 Lake Washington Blvd. E.) at 3pm. You won’t be able to miss it, most of us won’t be wearing pants.
