Allen Baylis, Surf City Lawyer, is Source on Stories About Red-Light Cameras, Nudity and Raëlians

By Matt Coker Wed., Jul. 27 2011 at 1:29 PM

Huntington Beach attorney Allen Baylis is making the media rounds this week thanks to two issues he regularly fights in court: government use of red-light cameras and government bans on public nudity.

As Orange and Westminster this week consider joining Anaheim in banning red-light cameras, Baylis is a go-to source because he's successfully won acquittals for defendants who have been ticketed through the technology. A "naturist" (as displayed here), Baylis is also chiming in on reports that state park rangers are crossing a jurisdiction to inform nudists on a Camp Pendleton beach that they're trespassing on.

But Baylis' most unusual defense of the week involves the Raëlian cult.

Raëlians-at-Love-Hug-Festival_Seoul-South-Korea_Kmarina86-wiki-commons.jpg

Photo by Kmarina86/Wikipedia Commons

Raëlians frolic at the 2007 Love Hug Festival in Seoul, South Korea.

As Simone Wilson reports for our big sistah paper LA Weekly, the group behind the fourth annual Go Topless Day scheduled Aug. 21 at the Venice Beach Boardwalk is the same cult that "believed some French dude in the 1970s when he said aliens, who control humans via remote computers, had instructed him to start a religion."

Photo by Tim Melideo/OC Weekly

Allen Baylis takes a stand sitting nude at San Onofre.

Among the things that have come out of the mouth of the almighty Raël, as Frenchie Claude Vorilho is known, is: "As long as men are allowed to be topless in public, women should have the same constitutional right. Or else, men should have to wear something to hide their chests."

His followers have gone on to participate in demonstrations advocating nudity and/or topless women around the world, prompting some to fear the cult just uses advocacy as a recruitment tool.

Skeptical of the Raëlians or not, Baylis tells Wilson he's behind (bare or not) challenging the Los Angeles city ordinance that bans toplessness, maintaining it's "treading on thin ice, constitutionally."

For more on the latest locally with red-light cameras, check out my colleague Michelle Woo's recent post.

Here's a 2008 story I did on Allen Baylis and what would ultimately become his losing battle to allow nude sunbathing in a hidden cove at San Onofre State Beach.

The Orange County Register has more on Baylis and the Camp Pendleton flap.

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gotopless.org

As the president of Gotopless.org and a female Raelian priest, I thought it necessary to correct several statements and innuendoes, some quite defamatory which your colleague, Simone Wilson made in her article published Tuesday July 26, 2011 in the LA weekly. (please note that a copy of this letter was sent to the editor of the LA Weekly and of the OC Weekly since you picked up her story). Though the letter was addressed to Ms. Wilson, its content very much applies to your article as well. While you had a couple of the facts right, the light in which you presented them was obviously purposely negative. Most errors could have been easily avoided had you taken only a couple of minutes and interviewed a Gotopless spokesperson for your article. Let us be very clear about the purpose of Gotopless.org. It is indeed an activist group that stands up for a woman's issue: women's constitutional right to go topless in public in the name of gender equality. It's not about "tee hee, we're topless...giggle..." It's quite the opposite because its goal is to specifically remove that Puritanical, even juvenile attitude when it comes to women's breasts. Your "well! I've seen it all now" undertone only goes to show that you are missing the entire point - precisely that the woman's breast is seen as something sexual because of sexual repression in society. Sexual repression leads to unhealthy and especially unhappy people. Look at the countries with the most sexual repression. They are the most violent countries on Earth. This needs to be recognized and few people want to face that. Would you not agree that violence is infinitely worse than getting hung up on "boobies"? You are also correct that Spiritual leader Rael founded Gotopless.org. Raelians do explain that life on Earth was created by people from another planet, the Elohim, thanks to genetic engineering and that they created humans in their image (breasts and genitals included). The Raelian message is that the human body is literally a masterpiece from Elohim and that any feeling of shame and guilt about it must be lifted along with the inhumane and unconstitutional laws (hence Gotopless.org) that perpetuate those feelings detrimental to our personal health and the general well being of our society. Furthermore, the Raelian Movement is not out to recruit members with Gotopless.org. Nor are we are out to recruit members by building the hospital in Africa where women can receive, free of charge, the minor surgery which repairs the clitoris of women who have been victims of the horrible practice of Female Genital Mutilation. Nor are we looking to recruit members by setting up NOPEDO to force the world to finally discuss the terrible crimes of pedophilia so rampant in the Catholic Church as well as many other religions which teach people to repress their sexuality, thus leading to perverse behavior in taking advantage of the world's most innocent, children. The continuous undertone of your article may get a few more readers but at the end of the day, how will you have helped this world to heal? THIS is our motive, Simone. It must be further noted that your article includes defamatory remarks such as "strange-ish", "cult", "freaks" when referring to our minority atheistic religion and its members. Your way of addressing spiritual leader Rael is also most disrespectful and we demand a public written apology for this as Raelism deserves the same respect as any main stream religious group - even more, because our philosophy, very similar to Buddhism, teaches complete nonviolence and embracing of each other's differences. Finally, you criticized Gotopless women for not challenging unconstitutional topless laws openly enough and quoted Mr. Morton about us wishing to remain on safe ground during our protest. Understand that the reason we don't protest where it is illegal is because we are here to change laws, not break them. Do you break laws in order to change them? Also, had you taken the time to interview us, we could have told you that we have indeed, been seeking the representation of an attorney (expressly in the nudist community) who could represent our women challengers pro bono because as you may know, the legal battle to overturn even the most unconstitutional law can be lengthy and therefore costly in our country. There are several more things you missed. Should you like to ask, we would be happy to provide you with answers.Sincerely, Nadine GaryPresident, Gotopless.orginfo@gotopless.org-- Please don't forget to sign the petition and to pass it on to your friends! http://www.thepetitionsite.com... "If slavery was America's original sin, Puritanism was its original curse." Ted Rall

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