The issue of beach nudity has once again cropped up in a regional newspaper, with the Bay of Plenty Times reporting Papamoa Beach residents are to meet the Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby tonight over nudists and “homosexual activity”. Resident Shaun Gallagher says the behaviour has become so offensive it has scared off residents. "As a result of what has been happening and the fact these people are appearing more and more bold and coming closer and closer to where we live on the beach ... there are older ladies who just don't go on the beach anymore," Gallagher has told the newspaper. "We feel what has happened here is totally inappropriate.” Mt Maunganui resident Wayne Jessop has commented with a complaint about ‘Homosexuals performing acts of fellatio and sodomy in the sand hills and the beach’. “This seems to be a big turn on for them, knowing that straight people (and children) might catch them in the act and be shocked.. That is the reason why I would like nudity banned,” he writes. Similar complaints have been made to Otaki’s Sergeant Noel Bigwood about nude men on the Kapiti Coast’s beaches, with one resident complaining to the Dominion Post "The gays stand up like meerkats. It is not like an ordinary nudist beach." Further south, Nelson’s Rabbit Island receives steady coverage over concerns about gay sex on the beach, while Auckland’s Ladies Bay is often at the centre of public complaints.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 26th April 2012 - 2:16pm