Residents Cannot Strip on Strip of Sand

A state judge has ruled that Provincetown, Cape Cod’s hip artist colony, must shut down its small nude beach, bringing an end to residents’ briefly held right to bare it all, the Boston Globe reported.

A Barnstable Superior Court judge found the town’s decision in April to make the strip of sand a “clothing optional” beach violated two old laws prohibiting nude swimming and indecent exposure.

The town official who sponsored the bylaw said the Board of Selectmen would meet to consider what to do next. “Nudity is about freedom,” Selectman David Atkinson said.