Palm Springs Nudist Resort Defends ‘No Children’ Policy

The co-owner of a Palm Springs nudist resort today defended the facility’s policy banning children, saying it is not discriminatory — despite claims to the contrary by an anonymous group of detractors.

Desert Sun Resort owners John and Elizabeth Young, who live in Orange County, filed a lawsuit March 16 in Orange County Superior Court against 500 unnamed defendants, asking a judge to rule that the clothing-optional resort’s policy against children does not violate state law.

According to Elizabeth Young, the lawsuit was filed in response to a letter she received Feb. 17 from Palm Springs attorney David Baron. The letter, written on behalf of “certain individuals,” threatened legal action against the resort “for maintaining and enforcing a No Children Allowed Policy and a Couples-Only Day Pass Policy,” according to the Youngs’ lawsuit.

“They threatened they had clients who wanted to sue us,” Elizabeth Young told City News Service.

Baron could not be immediately reached for comment.

Young said her attorneys asked Baron to identify the “certain individuals” who were threatening legal action, but the request went unanswered. With the letter alleging that the resort was opening itself to “ongoing and mounting statutory damages,” the Youngs opted to go to court to have a judge review the no-children policy.

California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination by businesses based on age, ancestry, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.

Elizabeth Young said the resort, which she and her husband bought in 2008, did not previously have any prohibitions against children. But the Youngs changed the policy last year, saying they wanted to protect children.

“We changed the rule last year after seeing all the news stories … of child porn,” she said.

She said the resort, which has 32 hotel rooms and 59 condominiums on six acres, gets more than 10,000 visitors a year from around the world, and 40 percent of them are first-time visitors. She said she cannot guarantee that every guest has good intentions toward children.

The resort prohibits public sexual behavior and the use of cameras, but “violations do occur,” Young said.

“(We) do not want to be responsible, legally or morally, for pictures taken at the resort that could be posted on websites that exploit pictures of nudist children in order to serve pedophiles,” according to a statement issued by the Youngs.

The Youngs cited recent examples, such as a guest at a nudist camp in Texas who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for filming children, an officer of a nudist club in Canada who was sentenced to five years in prison for child pornography and a couple from England who were sentenced to 12 years in prison for setting up an online nudist forum as cover for a pedophile ring.

Guests at Desert Sun Resort are required to be nude in the resort’s three pools, two spas and pool decks. They can be nude anywhere else at the resort, including the tennis court, gym, firepit areas, cafe and nightclub.

According to the Youngs’ statement, if the resort is forced to abandon its no-kids policy, “it would be an open question whether other clothing- optional resorts, swinger resorts and gay resorts with less strict policies on sexual conduct could also be forced to allow children.”

Elizabeth Young told City News Service she and her husband believe they are “on the right side of the law.”

“I will close the resort before I put one child in harm,” she said.