(7/12/99)
Looking for some relief from the heat? Take note: The American Association for Nude Recreation, acting long before the heat wave began, has designated July 5-11 as Nude Recreation Week.
Perhaps with that in mind, dueling nudity amendments recently found their way into the Interior Department's appropriations bill on the House side. The House Appropriations Committee version has a section that says no funds "may be used to designate, or to post any sign designating, any portion of Canaveral National Seashore in Brevard County, Florida, as a clothing-optional area or as an area in which public nudity is permitted."
Loop Fans may recall that the full House overwhelmingly approved such language in prior legislation to stop what a sponsor called "lewd and lascivious" activity there, including brazen sunbathing, wanton protest against the Gingrich ``Contract With America,'' and absolutely anything relating to Mapplethorpe artwork.
But this year, the National Parks and Conservation Association, an ever-vigilant "watchdog" group, spotted an amendment to the Interior bill by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), adopted last week in committee, that says: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a woman may breastfeed her child at any location in a building or on property that is part of the National Park System, the Smithsonian Institution, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" and other spots, "if the woman and her child are otherwise permitted to be present at the location, and she's a hottie."
Publisher Larry Flynt commented, ``I'm all for breastfeeding in public, as long as there are people with cameras around.''