Tag Archives: denny blaine

‘Intervening party’ — Friends of Denny Blaine takes big step in legal fray over nude beach

Posted on by
2

A crowd filled the park during a puppet show protest last August

The Friends of Denny Blaine group that has grown as an advocate for community solutions around protecting the Seattle park as a queer-friendly nude beach is starting of 2026 with new legal powers.

FoDB is now on its way to becoming an intervening party and is being represented pro bono by law firm Perkins Coie.

The group announced it has organized as a nonprofit and filed to formally intervene in the lawsuit brought by a group of neighbors against the city over the park. The legal filing will give Friends of Denny Blaine stronger say in the beach’s future. Continue reading →

‘Reasonable efforts in abatement’ — Judge rules against immediate closure of Denny Blaine Park — UPDATE

Posted on by
Reply

A King County Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Seattle efforts to improve conditions around Denny Blaine Park including new fences and signs added late this summer are adequate to keep the space open to the public while a lawsuit from neighbors over the nude beach moves toward a spring trial.

Judge Samuel Chung heard an update Friday on the city’s “abatement” plan for Denny Blaine and ruled against lawyers representing a group of anonymous neighbors seeking to shut the park down. Continue reading →

Friends of Denny Blaine: Park and nude beach added to Washington Heritage Register

Posted on by
2

The park in 1903 (Image: Seattle Municipal Archives)

The Friends of Denny Blaine group is celebrating what they say was a symbolically important recognition this week of the lakeside park and nude beach:

Today, September 23, the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) voted unanimously to add Denny Blaine Park to the State’s Heritage Register of historic places. This decision marks two historic firsts: the first nude beach ever nominated in Washington, and the first nomination to explicitly include a direct connection to LGBTQ+ heritage.

The state register is intended to form an “official listing of historically significant sites and properties found throughout the state” but does not have an administrative component at this time to oversee preservation and protection of the sites. Continue reading →

On the CHS Calendar: 🍑Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest🍑

Posted on by
6

You will have no trouble figuring out what to wear to this protest. Join “community members who just want to preserve our historically queer nude beach” and “your nudist neighbors” for the 🍑Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest🍑 —

Protest to keep Denny-Blaine Park 100% clothing optional! Be nude in body or in spirit! There will be a potluck, art, music, and best of all, COMMUNITY!

The protest will be the latest actions in unclothed but civil disobedience as the Seattle Parks Department  responds to a court order by adding a restricted “nude zone” to the park popular with queer and nudist communities on the shores of Lake Washington east of Capitol Hill. The zone is hoped to address complaints of illegal sexual activity in the ongoing lawsuit brought by a group of neighbors and property owners over the popular nude beach.

CHS reported here on a weekend of nude puppet shows earlier in August as lovers of Denny Blaine have vowed to push back on the restrictions.

The Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest will take place on Labor Day from 3 to 6 PM. Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 70s with partly cloudy skies.

 

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤 

 
 

Denny Blaine Park’s new ‘nude zone’ is in effect (Though somebody tried to tear the nude zone fence down)

Posted on by
16

Seattle Parks quietly moved ahead this week with a plan to create a “nude zone” In Denny Blaine Park with new signs and fencing. Thursday night, somebody tried to rip that nude zone fence down.

Seattle Police were called to the park on the shores of Lake Washington just before 10 PM to a report from a nearby resident that someone was trying to rip down the just-installed fencing. Cops were looking for the suspect described as a male wearing a green shirt, black shorts, and a backpack last seen leaving the area on foot but it is not clear if they ever tracked the suspect down.

The surprisingly fast turnaround on the project to install the new signs and fencing happened quickly this week as the city responds to a court order to address sex and drug crime around the park reported by neighboring property and area residents while, city officials say, also attempting to respect the beach’s place in Seattle’s queer and nudist communities. Continue reading →

In court-embattled Denny Blaine Park, a show of defiance, nudity… and puppets

Posted on by
38

While the battle to keep Denny Blaine nude is playing out in court, members of the queer and nudist communities that love and utilize the park have continued to visit the popular beach this summer.

In a city where developers and wealthy NIMBYs seem to be nearly constantly scheming to carve up public space for private gain, revolutionary energy is also bubbling up at Denny Blaine in the form of puppets, nudity, and unapologetic queer defiance.

This weekend, guerrilla performances transformed the lakeside park into a stage for radical satire, bodily liberation, and a middle finger to privatization. The shows were part absurdist comedy, part scathing political critique, and directed their ire at figures like Stuart Sloan, the wealthy neighbor who has spent years trying to sanitize Denny Blaine, and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s laughably inept attempts to placate the NIMBYs.

One performance swung between nostalgia for freer times and biting commentary on whose bodies get to take up space. “These are my boobies!” declared an actor, fully nude except for a top hat. It was cheeky but the message hit home. Freedom has some rough edges — and the battle isn’t done. Continue reading →

City dusts off plan for nude zone in Denny Blaine in court battle to keep park open

Posted on by
12

The city’s Denny Blaine Park “nude zone” proposal

(Image: Denny Blaine Park for All)

The City of Seattle has dusted off its old proposal to create a nude zone at Denny Blaine Park as it filed a court-ordered “plan of abatement” for addressing complaints of illegal sexual activity in the ongoing lawsuit brought by a group of neighbors and property owners over the popular nude beach.

The plan filed Monday in King County Superior Court includes five elements including 1) “Limiting the portion of the Park that is clothing optional to the area of the Park least visible from residences” 2) “Establishing visual barriers to separate the clothing optional area of the Park” 3) “Installing clearly marked signage throughout the Park and at its entrances stating Park rules” and 4) “Implementing a substantial increase in staffing of Park Rangers and/or Seattle Parks and Recreation staff at the Park.”

As for 5), final element would focus on how best to police the new rules “using a progressive discretionary enforcement approach, which may include educating, warning, and citing individuals who do not comply with Park rules and, where necessary, requesting assistance from law enforcement to address criminal activity such as sexual criminal lewd conduct.” Continue reading →

Group proposes plan including park rangers and new signs to keep Denny Blaine open — and nude

Posted on by
11

The Friends of Denny Blaine community group is calling on the city to adopt its proposed “abatement plan” for meeting a court ordered-deadline to address complaints of nudity and sexual activity at the popular LGBTQ nude beach.

The proposal includes a plan that would add Seattle Park Rangers to Denny Blaine as well as new signage and a ban on “repeat offenders” who have violated public sex laws.

“The appearance of neglect, or the perception that Denny Blaine is a secret place far from the public eye, contributes to a handful of bad actors who behave as though the park exists in the City’s blind spot,” the group’s proposed plan reads. “Stating clearly that the City is aware of nudity and has expectations for how it can occur in the Park rejects those ideas, and deters the behavior that stems from them.” Continue reading →

Large police response as cops struggle with suspect in late night incident at Denny Blaine Park

Posted on by
3

A late Wednesday night fracas involving multiple police rushing to Denny Blaine Park had nothing to do with nude sunbathers.

The Seattle Police Department says a suspected tire slasher who was armed with a gun was injured when he fell from a wall during a struggle with officers around midnight at the park.

SPD reports it was called to the park at 200 E Lake Washington Blvd just after 11:30 PM where the caller said a man “accused him of speaking to his woman and pulled a gun on him.” The caller reported he, too, was armed.

As police arrived, they reported seeing the suspect slash the tire of an SUV and toss an item away as officers approached: Continue reading →

‘Plan of abatement’ — Judge orders city to address reported criminal activity he says makes nudity in Denny Blaine Park ‘a public nuisance’

Posted on by
15

(Image: Seattle Parks)

A King County judge won’t close Denny Blaine Park but he does want the city to come up with a “plan of abatement” to address complaints of drug use, masturbation, and sex at the popular nude beach on the shores of Lake Washington east of Capitol Hill.

Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung issued the order Monday in a hearing over a bid from the Denny Blaine for All neighbor group to immediately close the park to the public. The group has mounted an ongoing legal fight over the park that is being defended as an important gathering space by queer and nudist communities. Continue reading →