This column about public nudity leaves me with a question.
If one can be charged with indecent exposure, when others can see you, how come I could be forced to take a shower after gym class, without a private shower stall? All we girls had were those multiple shower head poles. I hated it, especially as in junior high all of our bodies were changing and out there for everyone to see.
By the time I was in basic training, after high school, I didn’t care.
There is a long, long tradition of same-sex nudity being an exception. Bathing suits are a relatively recent invention.
Here in the State of Maine there is no law for either sex against being topless in a public area.
Even for males it is not common. Private businesses can have “no shirt, no shoes, no service” bans for entering their establishments.
One day, a few years ago I came out of a drug store to see an organized parade of men and women topless walking down our main downtown street. The news called it a “protest”, but I have no idea what they were protesting about as it is legal.
Being a northern state it is generally not practical to not wear at least a t-shirt as the warm parts of the day are rather fleeting at the best of times.
I still don’t understand what point they were trying to make. A week before they had an open gun “protest” in one of our parks. People carried guns openly. That is not illegal either, so I did not get that point.
I had a thought! What if we brought those two groups together and had a open gun topless parade? That I might go see as not much happens here.
This might not be what the OP was trying to say, but I think it is pertinent at least from the waist up.
What John W Kennedy said.
Plus “public” has different connotations depending on the circumstances. I don’t think internal regulations for minors by an entity in loco parentis would come within the ambit of such a provision.
Below the waist nudity is totally illegal.
I have a friend who had to urinate very badly. He went behind a dumpster and relived himself. A police officer saw him and arrested him for Indecent Exposure. He is now a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. He is on the State of Maine’s website for sex offenders which doesn’t discriminate between taking a piss behind a dumpster or a child mollester. It really messed up his job opportunities.
I tell me friends just piss your pants. That is not illegal.