As nudists, most of us have heard of Stephen Gough. Tales of the Naked Rambler first surfaced in 2003 when he began crossing between the southwestern and northeastern tips of Great Britain, all while naked. The first crossing of the island was almost considered comical by all - a naked man walking across England tempered negative news of wars and economic depression and pain around the world. For a while there were few who held Stephen’s naked journey with contempt but instead it was almost as though his walk was the innocent traverse made by a man who wanted to be clothes-free, and as far as England was concerned there was no real harm done as he wound his way from Land’s End to John o’Groats.Then Stephen Gough started to do it again.
So frequent have Gough’s immediate disrobings landed him in jail, resulting in as many Contempt of Court and Breach of Peace charges that he now faces life imprisonment for his naked civil disobedience.
Many people who shared Stephen Gough’s views, while not following suit, cheered him on and even stood by him through his first few incarcerations. However each time Gough was released he refused to clothe himself and with each new charge it seems the vast numbers of nudist organizations that once cheered on his efforts of body freedom fell silent, as if to say enough is enough - you're calling too much attention to us.
Has this man gone too far in trying to promote his right in being able to live a clothes-free lifestyle? Has he fallen from grace because many of us profess that we want to be able to choose when we are undressed, but none of can imagine walking out our front door naked and then turning the corner of our street that way? Is it because we state we want a clothing-optional lifestyle but we don’t like it when our wants are thrust onto the front pages of the news based on another person's actions, and the man responsible for this lays in solitary confinement in a Scottish prison?
I think that many do feel Stephen Gough has crossed the line, only because the minute his expression of body freedom became illegal and the frequency of his transgressions called into question his motives and mental stability, many organizations once vocally in favor of this man fell quiet out of concern of how the public’s opinion of this one person might now impact the status of “legal” nudism.
In essense, nudists have become concerned with the non-nudists view of us based on their comments and actions in response to Mr. Gough's exteme fight for equality.
We cannot allow this man to sit in prison without him knowing that we are pulling for him and recognize the great lengths to which he has gone in fighting for his freedoms. I admit readily to saying I would like to be naked at anytime and that I should have the right to do so, yet when I think of what it would be like to walk out my door naked, go to the corner, and then keep going, fully aware how people (including fellow nudists) would be standing in judgment of me and how the legal ramifications of these actions would impact me, well lets just say that I couldn’t fill Gough’s boots.
Contributions and well-wished for Stephen can be found by going to the following link:
http://www.nakedwalk.org/
Has Stephen Gough gone to far? If you ask me he went this far for us and quite possibly we haven’t gone far enough for him.
Posts
