Sally Heyman, Miami-Dade County Commissioner, former Florida State Representative
"As an area resident, former municipal councilwoman, and a Florida State Representative for Northeast Miami-Dade County, I am familiar with and have been involved with Haulover Beach Park for over 40 years, including the clothing-optional portion of the beach.

I have witnessed the growth of the clothing-optional beach from the beginning, 10 years ago, and have been involved in meetings with county personnel from various departments and members of the South Florida Free Beaches naturist association. I have also visited the beach several times, have had discussions with those responsible for the operation of the beach, and have observed the benefits of the volunteer Beach Ambassador Program.

From this hands-on experience, I became aware that the visitors to the naturist beach are well behaved, helped keep the facility clean, and had no negative impact on the other areas of the park or the surrounding communities.

As Vice Chair of the state Tourism Commission, it is my responsibility to be aware of what facilities and market segments are good for Florida's tourism. Haulover Park's naturist family beach has been good for tourism because of its positive effect on the hospitality and tourist industry in attracting visitors from around the world.

I have supported Miami-Dade County's Master Plan for the redevelopment of the park, which includes the extension of the clothing-optional beach."

(From letter to Pinellas County Commission, April 16, 2002.)

Dave Samson, Mayor, City of Sunny Isles Beach
"Haulover Beach Park, a county regional park, is contiguous with the southern boundary of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, and the naturist beach is less than 100 feet from our city...We have seen this beach grow from a few hundred visitors a day to its present several thousand visitors on a weekend day.

Many of the visitors to Haulover's naturist family beach are citizens of my city, and our hotels are enjoying high occupancy rates as tourists come here to enjoy the beach. Some of these visitors have bought condos here and have made Sunny Isles Beach their home, while the tourists have contributed to our resort and sales tax base.

The visitors to this beach have been well behaved, they keep the beach clean and they stay within the designated area. The naturist beach has had no adverse secondary effect on our city or on our citizens...The citizens of Sunny Isles Beach walk and jog within a few feet of the length of the clothing-optional beach, and we have received virtually no complaints.

Prior to this section of Haulover Beach Park becoming a naturist beach, it was not a safe area. The presence of naturist families significantly cleaned up and improved the area...The naturist beach users have been good stewards of the beach."

(Excerpts from letter to Pinellas County Commission, 2002.)

William F. Lone, Executive Director, Sunny Isles Beach Resort Association
"As a business and tourist-related association, we keep in close communication with local police and park department authorities for obvious reasons. The clothing optional beach area has proven to be safe, is extremely clean, and as a result of self-regulation and self-policing by its attendees, through all these years there have been no reports of negative conduct nor any reported serious crime.

It is worth noting that the regional core of naturist beach users: participate in assuring that the beach resources are maintained at the highest quality level; work with the county to initiate safety programs; organize fund raising efforts for needy causes; and effect social functions, which greatly add to the enjoyment of a beach visit.

Relative to benefits, weekly our Association office responds to numerous visitors' inquiries on the clothing-optional beach and requests for lodging arrangements, in order that guests may enjoy this resource...Additionally, our local restaurants and retailers also financially benefit from the infusion of these guests.

In essence, the decision made almost a decade ago by our Board of Directors to support the establishment of a clothing optional beach, has brought our community many positive returns."

(Excerpts from open letter, August 14, 2000.)

Vivian Donnell Rodriguez, Director, Miami-Dade Park and Recreation Department
"Approximately ten years ago the South Florida Free Beaches association began using the north part of Haulover Beach Park as a clothing optional beach. This element and park function was recently approved by Miami Dade County Board of County Commissioners as part of Haulover's Master Plan.

Haulover Park has approximately 645,000 visitors a year; we estimate 425,000 of them visit the clothing optional beach. Haulover Park generates approximately $900,000 a year in revenue to offset park operations; 2/3rds of that income is generated from the parking lots that are in close proximity to the clothing optional beach."

(Excerpts from letter to SFFB/FNA, March 19, 2002.)

We assume Ms. Rodriguez's visitor figures are an average over several years, since no specific year was given. We have subsequently received an estimate from the Miami-Dade Park Department of approx. 975,000 Haulover Park visitors in 2001.

The Gospel of Thomas
"His disciples said, 'When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?' Jesus said, 'When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then [will you see] the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid.'".
(Translation by Thomas O. Lambdin)

The Gospel of Thomas is one of a number of texts used by early Christians that was not included in the New Testament when the canon was formalized in the 4th century C.E. It contains some unique sayings of Jesus, and many variant readings of sayings found in the canonical Gospels (which of course often vary in quotations among themselves.) Helmut Koester maintains that, in comparison with the canonical Gospels, "The Gospel of Thomas almost always appears to have preserved a more original form of the traditional saying [of Jesus]..."  According to a theory put forth by Professor Elaine Pagels, Thomas antedates The Gospel of John, and the latter was written as a (generally negative) response to Thomas. One may here also note that early Christians practiced baptism by total nude immersion before the congregation, and that God specifically instructed Isaiah to preach naked for three years (1 Isaiah 20: 2-4).

Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II)
"Because God created it, the human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve intact its splendor and its beauty...Sexual modesty cannot then in any simple way be identified with the use of clothing, nor shamelessness with the absence of clothing and total or partial nakedness. There are circumstances in which nakedness is not immodest... Nakedness as such is not to be equated with physical shamelessness. Immodesty is present only when nakedness plays a negative role with regard to the value of the person... The human body is not in itself shameful, nor for the same reasons are sensual reactions, and human sensuality in general. Shamelessness (just like shame and modesty) is a function of the interior of a person."

(Excerpts from Love & Responsibility, 1981
 — Compare with INF statement on Naturism on our Naturist FAQ page)

Paul M. Bowman
"Twenty years ago, I heard about a natural hot springs in northern Idaho...so my wife and I decided to try it...To my surprise, when I arrived at the clearing in the forest, there were about forty-five to fifty people scattered over the hillside at the several hot pools - and almost all were naked. One feature of the scene I observed was that it looked more like the Garden of Eden to me than the Den of Hedonistic Iniquity I had always been taught that open nakedness would bring. I could not see anything untoward; everyone was behaving just as they would if they had all been clothed at a church camp. This challenged my Christian education related to nudity...clearly, I needed to study the Church doctrines regarding nakedness a bit more.

My initial study quickly showed that most of the Biblical arguments against nakedness were based on passages that did not directly mention nakedness. This seemed strange, since I believed that it made more sense, in determining a Biblical doctrine, to first use the verses that directly address the matter in question. I knew there were many such passages..."

Paul's initial accidental encounter with Naturism led to much Biblical research. Still an Evangelical Christian, he is now also a Naturist. His book Nakedness and the Bible, available at our on-line Beach Shop, is a definitive study, chapter and verse, on what the Bible really says. This book is an invaluable reference and refutation of those who claim scripture condemns social nudity.

Rev. Robert Francis Kilvert
"Thursday, 24 July, 1874: At Seaton while Dora was sitting on the beach I had a bathe. A boy brought me two towels as I thought, but when I came out of the water and began to use them I found that one of the rags he had given me was a pair of very short red and white striped drawers to cover my nakedness. Unaccustomed to such things and customs I had in my ignorance bathed naked and set at nought the conventionalities of the place and scandalized the beach. However some little boys who were looking on at the rude naked man appeared to be much interested in the spectacle, and the young ladies who were strolling near seemed to have no objection."

"Friday, 12 June, 1874: Bathing yesterday and to-day...At Shanklin one has to adopt the detestable custom of bathing in drawers. If ladies don't like to see men naked why don't they keep away from the sight?"

Excerpts from diary of Rev. Robert Francis Kilvert, commenting on the then recent introduction of the fashion of wearing bathing suits at the seashore in England.
Quoted by Cec Cinder in The Nudist Idea. (Available at our on-line Beach Shop.)

Montaigne: from essay "Of the custom of wearing clothes" (c. 1572)
"Wherever I want to turn, I have to force some barrier of custom, so carefully has it blocked all our approaches. I was wondering in this shivery season whether the fashion of going stark naked in these lately discovered nations is forced on them by the warm temperature of the air...or whether it is the original way of mankind...It is in truth incredible that we alone should be brought into the world in a defective and indigent state, in a state such that we cannot maintain ourselves without external aid. Thus I hold that, just as plants, trees, animals, all things that live, are naturally equipped with sufficient covering to defend themselves against the injury of the weather...so were we; but like those who by artificial light extinguish the light of day, we have extinguished our own means by borrowed means. And it is easy to see that it is custom that makes impossible for us what is not impossible in itself; for of those nations that have no knowledge of clothes, there are some situated under much the same sky as ours...Between my way of dressing and that of the peasant of my region I find far more distance than there is between his way and that of a man dressed only in his skin."

It is of interest that throughout this essay Montaigne does not even consider the aspect of "modesty" so often raised in connection with the use of clothing. His theme of clothing as an almost effete custom of civilized man, rendering him more delicate and enervated than the hearty savage, was later taken up by Thoreau and other writers. It was certainly an important theme to early nudists, particularly in Germany and England, who emphasized healthy living and an escape from the unhealthy and unnatural environment of industrialized urban society.

Paul Okami, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
"Clinical opinion...on the nature and effects of childhood nudity tends to be polarized...surprisingly, considering the wealth of clinical opinion...only three groups of researchers addressed the consequences of childhood exposure to nudity from an empirical perspective: In the first study (Oleinick et al., 1966), there was no association between belonging to a group of psychiatric outpatients and having been exposed to parental nudity. In the second study, Story (1979) described positive effects of exposure to nudity in the context of social nudism...it is interesting that no pathogenic effects—indeed, positive effects (more positive "body self-concept")—were found for a group of children raised in the context of families who had intentionally adopted a nudist lifestyle because its members apparently believed in it—in spite of social disapproval. The authors of the third study (Lewis & Janda, 1988) reported mixed results that may be viewed as positive, negative, or neutral, depending on one's social ideology. None of the empirical data, then, supports dire predictions for childhood exposure to parental nudity."

Excerpts from "Childhood Exposure to Parental Nudity"
reported in The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, 1995