I love riding my bike. Is it dangerous to share a street with cars? You bet! Should everyone be more conscious of this fact? Absolutely. I can only applaud a biking event that seeks to sensitize everyone about the danger of bikers sharing the streets with cars. Cool message, great initiative! No worries!
However, combining this otherwise worthy effort with a public display of nudity is not cool. First of all there is absolutely no connection between the two. Secondly, I believe the Nude Bike Ride organizers blatantly encourage participants to flaunt the law against indecent exposure, RCW 9A.88.010. The event organizers encourage participants to abandon discretion by shedding their clothes to attract attention. How sad and how unnecessary. Yes, I saw that one of the goals of this event is body image awareness.
If someone wants to take off his/her clothes in private in front of a group of people, then do it. What you do in private is your business. Doing this out on the street in public is another story. It is not necessary to break the law to communicate one’s opinion about body image. In this age of social media there are many efficient ways to get a message out that do not violate the law and other people’s sensitivities.
To sum up, yes to increasing awareness about the dangers of biking but no to associating this worthy message with an unrelated issue and an ill chosen method.
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Ron Doerksen
Lynden
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