Court Grants Loincloth-Wearing Gay Pride Attendee Appeal
A federal appeals court sided with a man Tuesday who was arrested for "nudity" in 2011 while wearing a loincloth at San Diego Pride. The court ruled there was evidence that showed the city's police possibly discriminated against him, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Back in 2011, Will Walters donned a revealing gladiator costume, which partially exposed his backside with a loincloth flap, while attending San Diego Pride. During the event, local police approached him and told Walters to cover up.
Walters refused, however, and police wrote him a ticket.
Police Lt. David Nieslet reportedly told pride organizers in advance at the time that officers would enforce stricter rules, which would require buttocks to be fully covered, according to evidence presented in the case. In previous years, however, the center of the buttocks had to be covered by a one-inch strap.
Walters' lawyer, Christopher Morris, argued the rule was being enforced because it was a LGBT event. He noted the rule was not being enforced at other special events around the city, like the Over The Line tournament, where woman often wear G-string swimsuits, the newspaper reports.
Deputy City Attorney Bonny Hsu said police enforce the measure in San Diego but citations are not usually written up because people often comply when asked to cover up.
In 2014, Walters lost his case when a San Diego federal judge sided with the city.
"There is nothing on the record that reasonably suggests sexual orientation had anything to do with the decision to insist upon compliance" with the law, the judge said, according to the Union-Tribune.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows Walters' lawsuit to go back to the lower district court in San Diego for a jury to decide. The three-judge panel said there are still issues of fact that a jury, and not a judge, should decide. One of the issues the judges brought up questioned whether police actually did enforce the cover-up ordinance in the city and said whether they were targeting gay pride attendees "is tantamount to targeting gay individuals and individuals who support gay rights."
"That an officer referred to Walters as a 'drama queen' during his arrest is additional evidence of discriminatory purpose. ... Although Defendants (police and the city) may ultimately establish that another purpose motivated their nudity policy at the Pride Event, that question is seriously disputed," the court said.
Morris told the newspaper he is looking forward to the court date.
"We are confident they'll see this case the way we have, which is that Will Walters was discriminated against by the San Diego Police Department," he said.