Kids playground canceled at Denny Blaine Park 'nude beach'

As of Friday morning, the effort to preserve Seattle's nude-friendly beach has succeeded.

The city of Seattle's Parks and Recreation Department says it will not move forward with a proposed play park at Denny Blaine Park.

Hundreds of Denny Blaine beach-goers turned out in opposition to the playground proposal during a community meeting on Wednesday.

For decades, sunny Seattle days have filled Denny Blaine Park on Lake Washington with nude sun worshipers from the city's LGBTQ+ community. The terraced little jewel box of a park, designed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers at the turn of the 20th century, offers grassy and sandy swaths of shoreline surrounded by hedges — perfect for discreet nude sunbathing, swimming and picnicking.

For queer and trans Seattleites, it's been a safe and relatively secluded place to bare it all without harassment, or even passersby. So beachgoers were startled when a sign recently appeared at the park announcing the potential addition of a children's playground.

A private, anonymous donor had proposed the playground and offered to fund it.

Because nudity is legal in Seattle, the city can't do anything about who goes to the beach or what they wear — but a playground could have created a chilling effect on the park's culture, beachgoers said.

Hundreds of nude beach devotees filled a Parks and Recreation Department community meeting to protest the playground plan. Some said it was the kind of place that drew them to Seattle from intolerant parts of the country.