On March 11, judges will hear testimony from Walters as well as Lt. Late last year the appellate court granted their wish. Since the dismissal gay rights groups have come forward with claims that the case raises serious questions about whether police enforce nudity laws, or any laws for that matter, differently for LGBTQ members. In March 2012, Walters sued the City of San Diego and the lieutenant in charge. The officers arrested him and took him to jail where he spent the night in his kilt.
Officers threatened to arrest him if he didn't put pants on or tie a T-shirt around his waist. Officers approached Walters inside a beer garden at the 2011 parade to inform him that his 12-inch-long and 8-inch-wide homemade leather kilt, which covered a thong, violated the city's public nudity policy. Do San Diego police officers interpret public nudity laws differently for a gay man at a Gay Pride event than, say, a woman in a g-string at the beach?Ī federal appellate court will consider that question on March 11 and decide whether to overturn a lower court's ruling that found Will Walters did not have enough evidence to challenge his arrest for wearing a leather kilt to the 2011 Gay Pride festival.
