San Francisco Chronicle

Sunday, April 20, 2003
Ryan Kim, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

About 100 people make a plea for peace in the buff along the shores of Baker Beach, united in the naked peace movement.
Chronicle photo by Kurt Rogers

Despite the waning conflict in Iraq, 100 people stripped on a San Francisco beach Saturday in an attempt to gain more exposure for their continuing peace movement.

The protesters took over a section of Baker Beach, dropped their clothes and spelled out, "Make Love Not War" while lying in the sand.

The nudity was part of an international movement that began last year in Marin County.

Organizers of Saturday's event said that while the war in Iraq is winding down, there is still a need to head off future U.S. military action around the world.

"It's really not about the war in Iraq, it's about the fact that the conditions that breed war are still here," said Alan Moore, director of Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace, which organized the event with Baring Witness, a peace group based in Marin County. "Our organization is about creating and preserving the peace."

Since its founding by Marshall resident Donna Sheehan, Baring Witness has spawned more than 75 similar nude protests in 26 countries around the world. Sheehan said that while the displays are no longer new, they have not lost their power.

"People feel like they're doing something," Sheehan said. "They feel so hopeless these days, like they don't count. But when you put your body on the ground, it feels wonderful. This is iconographic. No one's ever done
something like this."

Not everyone agrees that the protests are making a difference.

Fred Jones, a visiting Los Angeles contractor who passed by Saturday's event, said it was fun to watch but he doubted its effectiveness.

"I think they'll get a good feeling out of it, but I don't think it'll have much effect on anything," said Jones, 49.

Participants, however, said they're confident their message will find an audience.

"It's not easy getting naked for what you care about, so it challenges you to grow as an individual and allows you to make a political statement," said Patrick Norager, a 34-year-old San Francisco musician.

Norager said that with all the forms of protests being employed recently, going nude for peace holds a special allure.

"There's always a big interest in naked bodies whether there is war or peace," he said.

rkim@sfchronicle.com
See news article in sfgate


Photo courtesy of Larry 'Bat' Tenney/San Francisco.
Taken by Randi Motson of Santa Cruz with Larry's Leica Digilux camera.

For more photos of the naked for peace movement, please see
www.baringwitness.org and www.naked_for_peace

Thursday, April 17,2003

Naked Peace Project Challenged by Park Service

Make Love Not War
Naked Peace Project Challenged by Park Service
For immediate Release: April 17, 2003

Musicians and Fine Artists for World Peace and Baring Witness are planning a nude peace photo made of couples embracing & spelling out the message Make Love Not War.

We plan to do this with over 100 couples at Baker Beach, San Francisco's only designated nude beachat 12 pm, April 19, exactly one month to the day since the War on Iraq began.

We are organizing this with Donna Sheehan of Baring Witness, originally know as Unreasonable Women for Peace.

This is part of a movement that is catching on around the world.There is a 'website documenting similar actions at
www.baringwitness.org and www.sfheart.com/naked_for_peace.html

We hope to use the photo for the cover of a double peace CD we are producing with the Unity Network as a benefit for our group.
They produced the Not In Our Name CD with the Soundtrack for Peace Project. We also intend to use a portion of any funds from the CD for educational, environmental & nonviolence programs for children & to sponsor future peace events & concerts.

The fact that we plan to produce a CD has caused the National Park Service to require we get a commercial photographic permit,
even though we insisted that this a noncommercial activity and a first amendment sanctioned right. The NPS website states that "if you are planning to do any filming or photography involving talent, products, or props in front of a camera you must apply for a special use permit." The fact that we plan to use no talent, products or props hasn't swayed them so far.

As it stands now, this is not an event sanctioned or permitted by NPS, and we have no idea if they may try to interfere with our gathering.

In a similar situation in West Palm Beach, Florida, a federal court judge barred the state of Florida from trying to block plans by a group of women to gather in a state park, strip nude and form a peace symbol with their bodies in protest of the U.S. war on Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks wrote an eleven-page order stating that "nude overtly political speech in the form of a 'living nude peace symbol' is expressive conduct well within the ambit of the First Amendment."

Middlebrooks also ruled, however, that the state could erect signs to notify the public that the protest would be taking place,or it could put screens around the demonstrators.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida went to court in defense of a naturist and a videographer who planned to record the event.
The demonstration finally went ahead on February 14, 2003, at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park on Singer Island, north of West Palm Beach.

Alan Moore, one of the event organizers and director of the nearly 600 member Musicians and Fine Artists for World Peace, organized 10,000 children to raise butterflies in their classrooms for Earth Day in 1999 as a program sponsored by Butterfly Gardeners Association.
According to Moore, "Imagine how many children we could reach if we had the funds to do more and got the Park Service to cooperate with us so we could proceed with this simple and symbolic act of peace and love unencumbered."

For more information, please contact

Alan Moore
Butterfly Gardeners Association - Founder & director
Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace - Founder & director
International Association of Educators for World Peace - Western States
Program Director
POB 1511, Vallejo, Ca 94590
415-424-7238 Email:bflyspirit7@aol.com
http://www.butterflyspirit.org

or

Donna Sheehan
Baring Witness
PO Box 753
Marshall, CA 94940
Email: info@baringwitness.org.
http://www.baringwitness.org

PRESS Release:
Thursday, April 17,2003
Make Love Not War in San Francisco

On a bright Spring day on a San Francisco nude beach, the latest Baring Witness peace action took place, with over 100 men and women lying naked in the sand to form the words Make Love Not War.

The participants gathered on Baker Beach, near the Golden Gate Bridge as beach-goers and National Park police looked on. After an inspirational ceremony in a circle, the organizers, Alan Moore and Nicole Savage, arranged the men and women into the letters as several photographers and videographers recorded the event.

Moore organized the event with Nicole Savage to occur on Saturday, April 19 to mark the one month anniversary of the US incursion and start of the war in Iraq. Nicole's website at sfheart.com was the first to chronicle the
'Naked4Peace' events that Baring Witnes began.

The organizers said that while the war in Iraq is winding down, there is still a need to head off future military action around the world. Other participants said that the world's violent history has reached a point where the only sustainable, survivable future is one in which peaceful solutions to political differences are found.

"It's really not about the war in Iraq, it's about the fact that the conditions that breed war are still here," said Alan Moore, director of Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace, which organized the event with Baring Witness, a peace group based in Marin County. "Our organization is about creating and preserving the peace."

Moore plans to use the photo on the cover of a double peace CD that they are planning to produce with the Unity Network as a benefit for their group. "We also intend to use a portion of any funds for educational, environmental & nonviolence programs for children & to sponsor future peace events & concerts," Moore said.

The fact that we plan to produce a CD with this nude photo on it had caused the National Park Service to request that we g"et a commercial photographic permit. We insisted that this a noncommercial activity and a first amendment sanctioned right, and did not pay the $250 fee they were asking for," Moore added. "We had no idea if they might try to stop us when we arrived at the beach."

When the group arrived, several NPS rangers approached them and asked to speak to Moore. Moore was armed with a press release that mentioned that U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks wrote an order stating that "nude overtly political speech in the form of a 'living nude peace symbol' is expressive conduct was well within the ambit of the First Amendment. The rangers were very cordial and offered to issue us an immediate first amendment permit," Moore said.

Judge Middlebrooks' order was the result of a similar situation in West Palm Beach, Florida, when he barred the state of Florida from trying to block plans by a group of women that wanted to gather in a state park, strip nude and form a peace symbol with their bodies in protest of the U.S. war on Iraq on February 14, 2003.

Moore, director of the nearly 600 member Musicians and Fine Artists for World Peace, organized 10,000 children to raise butterflies in their classrooms for Earth Day in 1999 as a program sponsored by his Butterfly Gardeners Association. According to Moore, "Imagine how many children we could reach if this CD raises the funds to do more. I am happy that the Park Service decided to cooperate with us so we could carry out this very symbolic act of peace and love."