JM --

I am amazed at how often people write posts about going here or there and wondering if thongs are legal.  Other times people have more generic questions like "can I be arrested for wearing a thong in this situation."  Many of these are quite interesting, and create a lot of posts.  Unfortunately, these type posts are scattered all over the place.  Some are listed under the location where they occur.  Others are in experiences or styles categories, or in the "Thongs in the News" area.  Often these topics wind up buried way down inside other threads and are hard to find unless you know about them.

As a thonger, I am not only interested in thongs and the law at places where I go, but also at places in general.  This would be a good way to see how certain areas accept (or reject) thongers, and sometimes when specific language or court cases are cited, the information about what challenges and/or legal defenses have worked elsewhere might be interesting if not valuable to someone trying to get more acceptance to thonging in places where they go -- or in the preparation of a legal defense.

Towards this end, I think an entirely new category "Thongs and the Law" would be helpful as well as interesting.  It would be a place where specific issues where people's rights to wear thongs are restricted could be found in one place.  In this case, the "Law" could refer to any actual law or any other rule set up by public or private places.  It could also be a place for discussions of the times when (unfortunately) people are arrested or taken into a court action due to swimwear issues.  I think any place where a person is required to "cover up" or ask to leave because they are wearing minimal swimwear should be included in this area -- for whatever reason.  Almost all such posts eventually wind up in a discussion of the legal merits or the persons legal rights.

This also would be a good place to include updates from various naturist organizations and to post important information when restrictions are coming to a head and might be imposed, or if any current restrictions are eased.  An example would be the on-again off-again attempts years ago by some Ohio legislature to ban thongs and/or topfree beach use.

There also are the issues of one law "trumping" another or where jurisdictional overlaps create conflict or at a minimum confusion for those who wear minimal swimwear or go topfree.  Examples would be in National Seashores where thongs are generally legal, even if the park is in an area where thongs are otherwise not accepted.  Another example is where thongs have been made illegal in public places in Greene County Ohio, even though they are (apparently) legal in every other county in the state, but not necessarily in every other city or municipality.  So here Ohio Law permits thongs, Greene County Law prohibits them, and if you are at a part of Cesaers Creek that is in Greene County, you supposedly again have the right to wear a thong because this is a state park.

It might also be a place where discussions on the lack of enforcement, or if over-the-top enforcement of the laws has become common -- even if the actual laws do not justify these types of actions.

Further discussions might include how thongs and other swimwear can be or are defined legally, where laws or rules are discriminatory (women can wear thongs, men can not) or (men can go topfree, woman can not), etc.  This might also be a good place for discussions by people who have in some way been engaged in debates about or legal hearings on law changes at any level to help others know what is going on, what arguments worked and which did not, etc.  

Obviously, posts must include the location (Country, State/Province/City) and  the type of post (Legal question, laws to change, local rules, etc.)

Traci