I think most nudists are afraid to chance coming out to family, friends and co-workers for fear of losing their jobs, family issues, etc. And even though they are family, or close friends, co-workers, etc, we can't ever know what their reaction will be until we make that decision to be open about it. I'm self employed in construction with my own small drywall and painting business and I figured if others found out about my nudist life it could hurt business. But, I slowed chanced mentioning it to more and more of them, and found, that hasn't been the case at all. In fact, it’s been mostly very positive.
With customers, I approach the subject with casual confidence and am not overbearing. I'll just casually mention it somehow such as mentioning how good it feels to be able to finally get out and get some sun without tan lines and then I get a feel for their reaction. Or I’ll get to talking about liking privacy and mention that we like to sun without swimsuits so privacy is a must for us. Numerous customers have actually allowed me to work naked on their jobs because of this, while the rest thought it was cool or they just ignored it. But it never seemed to hurt my chances of getting the job once, and I probably find a way to hint at it with about 70% of my customers. So the fear was mostly in my mind.
One year my wife worked for a large corporation and we hosted World Naked Gardening Day at our house. The media found out so we let them all know and were on TV 4 times and on the front page of the local paper. NOTHING happened at work besides a few innocent jokes. Several thought it was really cool. And even though we were all over the news for it, we had no major issues with the general public, although our HOA did have a long discussion with us, which resulted in them realizing we weren’t out to flash their kids or anything, so it blew over just fine.
I also started wearing kilts and going out in public with my toes painted years ago. I thought these too would cause my issues. Neither hurt me at all, so most fears are indeed in our mind, we just have to be willing to confront them, which I know not all are. And I think that's sad, and is one reason we have such a hard time gaining the understanding of society, and our legal rights to have places to go nude besides our house or resorts, for those of us inland.
Until we realize that coming out is usually not nearly as traumatic as we think it will be, our whole dream of being accepted by the public may never happen. Those of us who dream of gaining rights to exercise our lifestyle choice in portions of parks, our front yard, etc may never see that happen if more of us don’t stand up for our beliefs and come out to everyone. I know many of you will post reasons you can’t, but I believe that only about 10-20% of you who think that, would actually have any problems. But the choice is of course yours.
And like a friend of mine, Maurice W. Smith said on Facebook - ” It is that simple, it really is. It's when you attempt keeping secrets instead of just being completely honest and open that people can use things against us. If you're open and honest then all people can do is try to use things against us but if we are open books then much of the power has been removed from those that are out to hurt us. No more fear.”
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