Nude in Palm Springs

[+ Lucky]

No, not me! Only in the shower. But I was surprised to learn that Palm Springs has a dozen nude resorts. One, the Desert Sun Resort, gets about 10,000 visitors per year.

It is featured in the local paper as some of its members, staying anonymous, are suing the resort for banning children under 18. Apparently it is a hardship to find sitters whilst you spend time in the nude.

The Desert Sun Resort isn't small either. The local newspaper, also named the Desert Sun, says: "The complex straddles North Indian Canyon Drive and features a covered walkway over the street to connect both sides of the resort, which includes a 32-room hotel, several villas and 59 condos."

 

For the first three years the current owners had the property, they allowed children under 18. But now, they are worried about pedophiles. The paper reports: "Last October, a 49-year-old Texas man was sentenced to 50 years in prison for making videos of himself molesting little girls at a central Texas nudist resort and his home. The treasurer of a nudist club in Ottawa, Canada, was sentenced to five years in prison in January for possession of child porn. And an English couple were convicted late last year of setting up an online nudist forum as a cover for their abuse of two children younger than 13."

 

Other than that, many folks find children annoying, and prefer to patronize establishments that don't allow them. Why a nudist colony could not be free to do so escapes me. After all, taverns can do so, why not nude resorts? Do children have a constitutional right to be nude in public?

[leigh.bess.toad]

Interesting Lucky. Out of curiosity, are any of them LGBT-oriented? I wonder if any of the lesbian-oriented resorts are even clothing optional. After a few days at Helios, where the option was normally no clothing (although certainly not everyone went naked), I was wondering?

 

As far as the under 18 issue. there are several large nudist resorts in Virginia and I believe they also have a "no under 18" policy.

[+ Lucky]

The paper says that there are gay nudist colonies here, but did not specify how many. I think the gay resorts which are clothing optional would not be considered among the colonies.

Palm Springs is a good place to get naked though.

[nate_sf]

I think the idea of having children at a nudist resort goes back to an alternative lifestyle idea that there is nothing wrong with the nude human body, it's nothing to be ashamed of, and since there is nothing wrong with being nude it it's OK for families. It is not meant to be a sexually-charged environment, at least in theory. I read an article about the Desert Sun Resort in the local paper on my last day in PS and the owner said something to the effect of "well, it isn't the 60s anymore."

 

The gym I go to near my day job has a lot of families, and in the men's and women's locker rooms children under the age of 13 are not allowed. I'm not sure how they came up with age 13, but that's what they've got. They have separate locker rooms for families. I don't know how the family locker rooms are configured, but presumably it offers some privacy.

[+ FreshFluff]

To me, this has little to do with shame about nudity. They're right to be concerned about pedophiles, who are very attracted to "family nudist resorts". Also, there is a whole genre of child porn that is taken at nude beaches.