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New York’s Fire Island Bans Nude Sunbathing

nude beach 2A longtime vacation mecca for New York’s gay community is ordering folks to cover up: Park officials on Fire Island have announced nude sunbathing will not be tolerated when the season begins later this spring.

There has been a ban on public nudity on the 32-mile-long barrier island for decades, but its been widely ignored.

But that’s changed in the wake of complaints about public sex, masturbation, prostitution and even assault. Additionally, super-storm Sandy wiped out a lot of the island’s dunes, which offered a measure of privacy.

“We’ve been struggling to make it work because Fire Island has a history of that type of use and people have been coming there for years,” Fire Island chief ranger Koschmann told Newsday. “The more we talked about it and researched it, the more we realized that that use wasn’t compatible with an area like Lighthouse Beach.”

 

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