Nudity at Seattle Pride Sparks Outrage: 'Why Were They Not Arrested?'

Images of attendees said to be at Seattle's LGBTQ+ Pride parade have drawn outrage online after some appeared naked in public.

Pictures posted on social media, which Newsweek could not immediately verify, show people with rainbow flags riding bikes in the nude, and later standing on a street where children were walking past. The story was promptly picked up by several right-wing news outlets.

The safety and wellbeing of children has become a key arguing point for those opposed to greater LGBTQ+ inclusion, especially in school curricula. Some say LGBTQ+ ideology indoctrinates younger people into thinking they are in the wrong body or "grooms" them to be sexualized at a young age.

While several states have sought to limit LGBTQ+ content in the education system and ban children from attending drag shows, gay rights advocates argue that such claims and measures stigmatize young LGBTQ+ individuals, impacting their mental health.

Seattle's 49th annual LGBTQ+ Pride event took place on Sunday, beginning in the city's downtown district at 11 a.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) and finishing at 3 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) near the Space Needle north of Belltown.

According to its official website, the parade usually attracts around 300,000 people.

But images of the nude cyclists posted online by Libs of Tiktok, a conservative account known for anti-LGBTQ+ content, and right-wing news outlet Breitbart, among others, sparked a debate among social media users.

"I'm all for pride, but this is not that. Why were they not arrested?" William Scott Lowe tweeted. "Like I said, I believe in LGBTQ rights, but being naked in front of kids is a crime."

"I believe it is called indecent exposure," Chase Lanford wrote. "It is not an acceptable standard for anyone else, why should it be acceptable for him to do simply because he is homosexual?"

Local news channel KOMO reported that the Seattle Police Department had received no official complaints over the nudity and had made no arrests. A spokesperson for the force stressed to Newsweek that their role at the event had been to ensure safety and security, rather than regulate the behavior of attendees.

Other social media users raised the city's relaxed laws concerning public nudity.

"Seattle has no nudity laws," one Twitter user said. "Nudity happens at Pride, at solstice, at many of the parks and swimming holes, and is not out of the norm at some of the other large events. Been like that since I was a kid."

According to local NPR affiliate KUOW, it is legal to be nude anywhere within Seattle—though there are limits to this freedom, and nudists tend to congregate in known spots.

It reported that the city had outlawed public nudity in the 1980s, until a court case over two nudists who had been arrested led a judge to rule that the local law violated their First Amendment rights. The measure was repealed four years later.

Indecent exposure is still prohibited, however Seattle's municipal code stipulates that the prosecution must prove the person knew that their conduct was "likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm."

"If you live in Seattle and don't want your children exposed to the genitalia of adults, don't take them to the Pride parade. Simple," one Twitter user wrote. "If the law in your city allows public nudity, move."

Another wrote: "Straight people bike naked in Seattle and no one says a word until it happens at Pride."

Fewer than two weeks ago, naked people cycled through the city—many covered in body paint—as part of an annual summer solstice parade. Images of the parade from 2011 appear to show children watching.

A Seattle Police Department spokesperson said that "reasonable minds can easily differ as to whether general nudity in the context of a parade where such activity is often part and parcel of the parade's overall draw (as in, for example, the Fremont Solstice Parade with its long and well-publicized history of nude bicyclists) is 'obscene' or 'likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm' to the audience gathered."

They added: "The role of the Seattle Police Department at this particular event was to assure the safety and security of the overall event—not to regulate activities that are better left to parade organizers and the permit process."

Newsweek approached Seattle Pride via email for comment on Wednesday.

Update 06/28/23, 11:08 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from a Seattle Police Department spokesperson.