We are asking Councilmembers and Seattle Parks and Recreation to not move forward with the plan to construct a children's play area at Denny Blaine Park, and instead consider alternative options that keep Denny Blaine Park intact and better serve Seattle and its residents. 

Updates: 
 1. We have gotten a letter from an Endowed Chair in Pediatric Outcomes Research and Professor at the University of Washington, Frederick P. Rivara, stating that Denny Blaine Beach poses a risk for children swimming, due to a lack of line of sight of the shoreline from the area where people are able to sit at the park. View that letter here.

 2. We now have an Instagram. Please follow and share our posts on social media to spread awareness! 

 3. We have caught positive media attention!! The Stranger, Capitol Hill Seattle, KOMO, KIRO 7, KING5, and other news outlets have featured our petition and members of our community who do not want a playground at Denny Blaine and believe a playground would be better suited elsewhere! Thank you. 

As queer and trans individuals, we find solace and acceptance at Denny Blaine Park, a nude beach in Seattle. This place allows us to feel confident in our bodies and express our identities freely in a world that often seeks to suppress them. Unfortunately, safe havens like this are becoming increasingly scarce due to actions like those proposed by Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Seattle Parks and Recreation plans to construct a children's play area at Denny Blaine Park - one of the few nude beaches in Seattle, utilized primarily by members of the queer community. This move is not only unnecessary given the abundance of other green spaces suitable for such facilities but also represents an act of gentrification that threatens our community. While being nude is legal in Seattle, any accusation of discomfort can turn something legal into indecent exposure. Having a nude space has required a culture of consent, respect, liberation, and normalization that has been curated at Denny Blaine. Putting a playground at this site puts queer community members at risk of being accused of “indecent exposure” and effectively removes the clothing-optional aspect of this park, which has been so important to a feeling of liberation and freedom for trans and queer community members. 

Seattle Parks and Recreation's proposal is part of an alarming trend towards sanitizing queer spaces. It reflects a broader societal issue where marginalized communities are pushed aside for mainstream interests. This plan for Denny Blaine would be devastating for us who have nowhere else to go to engage in a unique space such as this. 

We urge you to consider the impact this project will have on our community before moving forward with it. Let us preserve Denny Blaine Park as it is – a place where everyone can be themselves without judgment or fear. There are multiple other options for parks that could be suitable for a children's play area near Denny Blaine: 

We urge Parks and Recreation to consider parks nearby such as: 

• Lakeview Park (850ft from Denny Blaine, with very large flat open areas and located closer to area schools and more centrally within the neighborhood)
• Viretta Park (500ft from Denny Blaine)
• William Grose Park (0.8 mi) – more centrally-located in Denny-Blaine neighborhood, is 4 blocks away from the 8 line
• Alvin Larkins Park (0.7 mi) – much larger, with far more space for a play area, is directly next to the 2 bus route

Please sign this petition if you believe in protecting inclusive spaces like Denny Blaine Park from unnecessary development projects that threaten their existence.