Seattle Police Targets Denny Blaine Beachgoers

Don't they have anything better to do? | Photo credit: mom_calls_me_myrtle on IG

On Sunday afternoon, Seattle Police Department officers banned a beach goer from returning to Denny Blaine Park, a historically queer nude beach, for one week after they refused to follow an order from officers to put on their clothes, according to witnesses.

The enforcement action Sunday marked an escalation in the ongoing fight between the wealthy homeowners who live around Denny Blaine (known as Denny Blaine for All) and the LGBTQ+ community members and nude beachgoers who use it (organized under the name Friends of Denny Blaine). 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 other alleged indecent behavior. The lawsuit was the group’s latest attempt to prevent nudity at the beach, after activists foiled their first plot to build a children’s playground nearby.

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Three officers arrived in the midafternoon Sunday and began telling people they needed to put clothes, co-lead of Friends of Denny Blaine Colleen Kimseylove heard from witnesses. When Kimseylove arrived, they spoke to SPD Officer Ella Brooks who told Kimseylove that no Seattle law protects nudity, and if someone called and complained, SPD officers had to respond. The cops also told Kimseylove that someone had directed SPD to routinely check in on the park. They told Kimseylove that people needed to put their clothes on or be trespassed or potentially arrested.

The cops gave Kimseylove about five minutes to pass on the message to other people at the park. After one beach goer refused to get dressed, officers trespassed them from the beach for a week, Kimseylove said.

SPD’s own guidance about nudity in Seattle states that no law exists that makes nudity illegal, and the closest thing is an indecent exposure law. To violate that law, “there must be lewd or obscene behavior for an officer to take action,” according to SPD. No witnesses described the beach goer doing anything beyond lying naked in the sun at Denny Blaine.

Kimseylove called it “ominous” to speak with SPD officers who don’t know that nudity is a longstanding protected First Amendment right in Seattle. Friends of Denny Blaine have tried to find a balance between protecting that right for beachgoers and making neighbors feel safer. They’ve proposed new park rules, signage, or even a micro neighborhood policing plan that might make them feel safer while not restricting beach goers First Amendment rights. Neighbors refused to come to the table, Kimseylove said. Instead, they’ve chosen to hire a private security officer whose job is to report indecent exposure and call the cops, Kimseylove said. The security officer was at the beach Sunday, and told Kimseylove he had yet to see anything indecent at the park, they said.

Denny Blaine for All did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the enforcement action or what plan they would accept for Denny Blaine moving forward.

SPD did not immediately respond to a question about what mechanism they used to trespass the beach goer, but city law does allow the Superintendent of Parks to exclude people from City parks for up to a year for violating a park rule. The rules include the incredibly broad prohibition on, “Conduct that unreasonably deprives others of their use or enjoyment of a park or building.”

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes is scheduled to attend the Leschi Community Council general meeting this week at 7pm Wednesday, May 7 at the Grace United Methodist Church, and friends and activists fighting to keep Denny Blaine a safe place for the Queer community plan to attend.