You must have left Vermont before you needed to know about the law relating to nudity there! It's pretty much the happy hunting ground for naturists, because there is no state-wide law against non-sexual nudity, only a few town bylaws. If you want some proof, read this:
http://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/police-chief-others-react-to-naked-man-in-downtown-burlingtonAsk the police chief:
"When I first came to Vermont I was informed early on nudity for the most part, is not a crime," stated Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo.Massachusetts isn't so favorable. The law is an old-fashioned one that simply says what the penalty is for "persons guilty of indecent exposure". It doesn't define "indecent" or "exposure", and in some states where they have laws against "lewd conduct" etc, the courts have held that non-sexual nudity isn't included (as in Florida and California). But as far as I'm aware, there's never been a case in Massachusetts where anyone we'd call a naturist was prosecuted for nudity. We're a liberal state, and a person might get away with it, but then again maybe not.
We are a long way from "somewhat formal"! We did try setting up a group on Yahoo so we wouldn't be constantly emailing each other using the "reply all" option, but nobody ended up using it. As I said, we've talked about a website, but so far it hasn't happened. When we're planning a trip that we'd be willing to share, we put messages (maybe) on some Facebook groups plus (maybe) here and that's about the limit of it.
Here's the law, as described by someone with a sense of humor:
http://www.mattcameronlaw.com/2008/12/an-idle-and-disorderly-statute-part-i/"Common railers and brawlers" were fun to think about, but they actually got removed recently. Good thing too: there are one or two people on this forum who might have been in trouble if they ever came to Massachusetts.
