Seattle residents are pushing for the city to stop the "rampant public masturbation" at their local park, Denny Blaine.
Denny Blaine for All, a community group is suing the city over ongoing and unaddressed illegal activity at the park, which is basically an unofficial nude beach where LGBT+ community go to sunbathe.
"It's bad activity," Lee Keller, a spokesperson with Denny Blaine Park for All, said. "It's illegal, it's illicit. It's masturbation multiple times a day. By men sitting on the wall, sitting at the park, in view of the homes, and view of everything and it's non-ending and it's really troubling."
Sophie Amity Debs, the co-leader of the Friends of Denny Blaine community group noted that park is a special place for the city's LGBT+ community and is cautioning against drastic changes.
"Denny Blaine means a lot to a lot of different folks," Sophie Amity Debs said. "I think it's one of relatively few beaches that are pretty actively inclusive space. A lot of folks who want to be out in their bodies, so for a lot queer and trans folks who might face harassment at other types of beaches,” Debs said. “Denny Blaine is just a really safe place. I think if you look at the neighbor's lawsuit, it becomes very clear that it involves removing nude use of the beach entirely".
So, basically there are women who are using the beach to freely move around nude, and men have been going there to watch and masturbate. Keller disagrees with Debs' concerns, about the group's lawsuit being about stopping the nudity.
"This is not anything about getting rid of nudity,” Keller said. “Nudity is legal in Washington state. That's not what this lawsuit says. We're talking about getting rid of illegal and illicit activities, that include masturbation, inappropriate come-ons to people on the neighborhood, men pulling their parts out and asking women if they want to touch them. That is not legal nudity, that's illegal, and that's what we're asking the city to take care of."
To be or not to be nude at Denny Blaine Park, that is the question.