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When I first arrived on St. John back in 1970, there was a community sense of morality that was very strong. Most people were regular church goers, children were respectful to their elders and crime was almost unknown.

It was also considered disrespectful to walk about town shirtless or in a bathing suit. I believe it was actually against the law, but notwithstanding, a man without a shirt or anyone man or woman walking about in a bathing suit would be told in no uncertain terms to cover up.

There was a place, however, where nudity was tolerated, and that was Salomon Beach. If you wanted to sunbathe or swim sans bathing suit on Salomon, you could.

After a while, however, the National Park Service began to enforce territorial anti-nudity laws at Salomon Beach. This led to court cases because there was some ambiguity about the laws. Public nudity is forbidden under Virgin Island law, but not under federal statutes and there was some question as to the ability of the National Park Service, a federal government organization, to enforce territorial laws on property that they claimed to be subject to federal laws. In the end the National Park won out, and little by little, nudity was discouraged by Park Rangers emerging from the bush and giving citations to naked sunbathers. Now, only longtime residents remember Salomon’s reputation as a clothing optional beach.

Meanwhile community moral standards have relaxed. You can see tourist ladies walking about town in bikinis and men going about shirtless without incurring the wrath of indignant locals or zealous policeman. And while there are no longer any clothing optional beaches on St. John, we now have nudity right in Cruz Bay where a strip club has opened at the old Mixology Warehouse location at the Lumberyard Shopping Complex.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 11:13 am and is filed under Life on St. John USVI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.