# In 1990, Sarasota Waged War on Thongs, Leading to Outrage, Protests and National Media Attention

**URL:** https://www.thongforum.com/t/in-1990-sarasota-waged-war-on-thongs-leading-to-outrage-protests-and-national-media-attention/21
**Category:** News
**Tags:** 2023
**Created:** [August 27, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://www.thongforum.com/t/in-1990-sarasota-waged-war-on-thongs-leading-to-outrage-protests-and-national-media-attention/21 "2024-08-27T19:49:00Z")
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### Author: ![Sam](https://www.thongforum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Sam](https://www.thongforum.com/u/Sam)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://www.thongforum.com/t/in-1990-sarasota-waged-war-on-thongs-leading-to-outrage-protests-and-national-media-attention/21/1 "2024-08-27T19:49:00Z")

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> It all began on May 17, 1990. Germany was in the process of being reunified. The United States had recently invaded Panama. Nelson Mandela had just been released from a South African prison. And a conflict over revealing bathing suits on Sarasota’s public beaches was about to heat up.
> 
> Todd Keefe, then 27 years old, was arrested on May 17 on North Lido Beach, along with three other men and one woman. Their crime? Wearing a thong bathing suit bottom.
> 
> Although public nudity had not been allowed on City of Sarasota beaches for decades, in 1985, the City Commission made it official, by approving a definition of “naked” that persists to this day. The city defines being “naked” as being “insufficiently clothed,” which means that a person has not covered, “with a fully opaque covering,” one’s genitals or pubic area, “the areola of the female breast” or one’s “anal cleft.”
> 
> That meant you weren’t supposed to wear a thong on a city beach. At the time, however, Sarasota police spokesman Russ Nugent admitted that although such bathing suits had been technically illegal for years, the law had not been enforced.
> 
> …

[https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/fashion-and-shopping/2023/09/sarasota-thongs](https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/fashion-and-shopping/2023/09/sarasota-thongs)