Naked teens in Vermont

Did you know you can go naked in public in Vermont?

In Canada, there is a vague federal law that says you can be as naked as "public decency" allows. This will be determined by a judge. I'd recommend already having a criminal record and some spare cash if you want to test the law in your Canadian community by walking around without "enough" cloths on.

The irony is women who go topless at the beach in, say, Quebec, if convicted, would be banned for life from entering the USA, even into neighboring Vermont where, apparently, you can be as naked as you want EVERYWHERE !

As far as I know, only Ontario has had a court case where a judge has decided that, in his province, women going topless in a non-sexual, non-commercial way, is within "public decency". A Saskatchewan judge said it was OK as long as, among other things, no children were present.

In all other provinces you risk a criminal record for violating "public decency" for showing your boobies in public (official exception is breast feeding). Oh, and in Canada, forget about showing your penis in public unless you are at a clearly designated nude beach.

I found this article because I subscribe to "Odd News" in Yahoo. I wasn't Googling naked teens, honest!

The article on this site/blog is better as it has pictures (of adults).

Nude teens raise eyebrows

By Scott Christianson Fri Aug 25, 10:10 AM ET

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (Reuters) - Some have appeared naked in a downtown parking lot. Others rode their bicycles or simply strolled the streets in the nude.

Teenagers in the quaint Vermont town of Brattleboro are raising eyebrows this summer with brazen displays of nudity.

So far they haven't been arrested or ticketed: public nudity isn't illegal in the town of 13,000 people, unless it's done to arouse sexual gratification.

Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition, allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians as well as transplanted entrepreneurs from Boston and New York.

When the weather grew hot this year, a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past the shops wearing only their birthday suits.

Nobody, including the police, seemed to take offense until one local, Theresa Toney, went before the town government in August to complain about a group of youngsters naked in a parking lot.

"The parking lot is not a strip club," she said. "What about children seeing this?"

Town officials asked their attorney to draft an ordinance to ban such displays for the Select Board to vote on in September. When the teens heard about it, some staged a nude sit-in.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal," said Alec McPherson, a recent high school graduate as he sat at a coffee shop table, browsing a thick volume of artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Everyone's naked in this book."

His companion, Jeremiah Compton, a high school junior who plays in a local metal-and-punk band, agreed. "It's just that we're bored and expressing our right," he said.

"We have a nuclear power plant a few miles away and a ridiculous war in the Middle East, countries getting bombed," said Ian Bigelow, a 23-year-old who had gathered with some of his friends outside a bookstore. "So why's it such a big problem if we chose to get nude?"