Some two dozen nudists rallied at Jane Warner Plaza at the Muni Metro subway station at Castro and Market streets before marching to Haight and Ashbury, disrobing and posing for pictures and videos in front of a curious throng.
Nudism activist Gypsy Taub, the San Francisco woman who famously got married in a naked ceremony on the steps of City Hall in 2013, exhorted the crowd with a bullhorn.
“Our bodies are not something to hide or be ashamed of,” she told the assembled marchers and voyeurs, according to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
“Our bodies are meant to be celebrated,” she said.
Earlier displays of nudism have gotten Taub and members of her group arrested, particularly after San Francisco supervisors passed an ordinance barring public nudity without a permit, but marchers came armed with just such a permit after a California judge ordered the city to issue one.
Earlier this year, Taub also obtained a city permit for a “nude love parade” on Valentine’s Day
Sunday’s “Summer of Love” parade was promoted to be in honor of late Grateful Dead bandleader Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995.
As Taub’s group marched north on Castro to Divisadero Street before turning west on Haight Street, she led them in chants including “Ho, ho, hey, hey, body freedom is here to stay” and “Hey there, dude, you’re no prude, get in the mood and join us nude,” the newspaper said.
At the start of the march, Taub criticized San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, sponsor of the nudity ban, by calling the prohibition “body shaming” and urging participants to turn around and “moon” the onlookers holding cameras.
Which they happily did.
