Marines land at nudist beach

All they want to do is strip naked and play a little volleyball. Is that so wrong? Outside of San Diego, California, park rangers and the Marine Corps think so.

The “naturalists” that frequented Trail 6 at San Onofre State Beach were told that they had to take their naked-ways somewhere else recently. Going with the flow, the collective of nude sunbathers decided to march on down the short to Camp Pendleton’s Gold Beach. There, however, they are receiving persecution once again.Gold Beach is federally owned and for years has served as a training ground for the US Marine Corps. Nudists are now saying that park rangers have followed them down the beach and, along with the US military, are causing even more complications. "We're peaceful, fun-loving, we're obviously not a threat," Dennis Crane tells a Los Angeles NBC station. "When you're out in the sunshine and you've got that wonderful glow – there's something that's just very magical and peaceful and relaxing. You shed all your inhibitions – Zen-like, almost." Local authorities don’t find a bunch of naked beachgoers all that relaxing, unfortunately, and are now going after them. Last week one naturalist said a Marine grabbed his camera. Allegedly the Marine Corps member was working alongside park rangers but now the Marine Corps say no such thing happened. “The state park rangers are creating their own problem,” naturalist John Squicciarini tells the LA Times. “It’s very childish.”Second Lt. Ryan K. Welsh says that those without DoD authorization cannot go onto the Camp Pendleton side of the beach, with or without clothes. Crane and others don’t see what the big deal is about though. Squicciarini says, "We've gone to great efforts to keep the beach pristine” and notes that there are hundreds of no-clothes-wearing, volley-ball playing, sunray-catching nudists that are keeping the beach under control. To them, Military intervention and citation are just silly.Attorney Allen Baylis is representing the nudists and hopes he will be able to present their case before a jury, with prosecutors realizing it will be too costly and time-consuming to do so and thus side with the naturalists. Baylis equates their strife as, along with what gays, blacks and women have endured, a case of civil obedience to receive equal rights.Equal rights? Public beaches for all and clothing only for those who want it!