Beach Goer Trespassed From Denny Blaine Speaks Out
- Ashley Nerbovig
- May 9
- 4 min read
The transgender woman who Seattle Police Officers trespassed from Denny Blaine Park on Sunday said the Seattle Police Department (SPD) needs to be “shamed” and prevented from ever again bullying naked sunbathers at the historically queer, nude beach. She also demanded answers from SPD about who gave the order for officers to threaten to arrest nude people at the beach over the weekend.
The woman spoke exclusively to The Burner Thursday, and asked to be identified by a pseudonym, Ocean, due to concerns about her safety.
What happened to Ocean was not “a mistake, it was an experiment,” bent on uprooting the queer, clothing optional, community of Denny Blaine Park in order to satisfy the wealthy homeowners who surround the beach, Ocean said. Those homeowners, known as Denny Blaine for All, filed a lawsuit earlier this year against the City for its failure to curb nudity at the beach, as well as alleged indecent behavior. (Proponents of nudity at the park and LGBTQ+ community members have coalesced under the name Friends of Denny Blaine.)
When Ocean arrived at Denny Blaine on Sunday, SPD officers had already begun telling beach goers to cover up or face arrest. Someone leaving the beach warned Ocean as she walked up from her car. Ocean thought to herself, “They can’t do that,” because it would violate state law. Arresting someone at Denny Blaine would mark a massive escalation in the yearslong battle over public nudity centered around the beach. She recalled thinking to herself, “I’d like to see them try.”
So, Ocean went about her normal routine. She stripped down, hopped in the water, swam for a bit, and then returned to her towel to dry off before she laid out in the sun. While she started to dry off, Colleen Kimseylove, co-lead of Friends of Denny Blaine, approached her. Kimseylove said the cops gave them five minutes to warn people to cover up or face arrest. Ocean remembers saying something to the effect of, “This is bullshit,” and then telling Kimseylove she planned to stay naked.
Ocean gave another Denny Blaine regular her friend’s phone number to call in case the cops arrest her. A few minutes later, SPD Officer Ella Brooks showed up at Ocean’s towel and told her to get dressed, or Brooks would ban her from the beach. A nearby beach goer interjected to remind Brooks that Ocean was doing nothing illegal. Brooks told the person if they didn’t stop interfering, she planned to arrest them for obstruction, Ocean recalled.
Ocean didn’t take kindly to the cops making up new laws on queer bodies. Brooks asked Ocean how she identified and she said she identified as “fuck off, pork.” Ocean remembered telling people they didn’t need to comply with what the cops had requested. She also shouted, “Fuck Stuart Sloan,” referencing the wealthy owner of University Village who lives near Denny Blaine and had previously attempted to discourage nudity at the beach by proposing a children’s playground nearby.
Brooks handed Ocean a business card, apparently to symbolize her ban. Ocean asked under what authority Brooks had trespassed her. The cop’s answer? Because I said so. Brooks recounted the interaction: She’d asked Ocean to put clothes on, Ocean had refused, so Brookes banned her from the park. If Ocean returned, she would be arrested, Brooks said. Ocean clarified and asked if being nude was against the law, and Brooks said, it was. (It’s not.)
The Burner verified Ocean’s story through independent sources.
Her ban, originally reported at The Burner, sparked outrage in Seattle’s queer and nude-positive community — and its many allies online. A fired up contingent of Friends of Denny Blaine took over a Leschi Community meeting later that week where Ocean confronted Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes about the trespass order.
At first, Ocean did not know if she would speak up in the meeting. She planned to mostly just stand in the back and “menace.” But when she heard Barnes say she had violated the park’s code of conduct, she interjected.
“I was simply angry that this farce of trying to retroactively make what happened to me legitimate was happening right in front of me,” Ocean said.
She never felt as though Barnes addressed her directly, except vaguely gesturing toward her at one point when he asked her to come back to the beach. He said her trespass order would be rescinded, but no one from the City called to follow up with her after the meeting, despite having her phone number. She feels like the City is more embarrassed about what happened to her than regretful.
Ocean sees a parallel between how the cops treated her over the weekend and how they bully people living unhoused in Seattle, or those using drugs on the street, or sex workers on Aurora, or the students at the University of Washington who occupied the Boeing-funded building on campus.
Ocean hopes people can continue to fight these tactics from cops. She understands not everyone can risk arrest, but she wonders what would have happened to her Sunday if a few more people had stood with her and refused to their clothes back on.
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