Logic would suggest that a person should be able to do as they please in their own home and on their own property as long as the activity contemplated is neither patently unlawful and poses no potential for harm to another. One then might naturally assume he or she has the right to be nude within the confines of his or her own home or property without fear of prosecution for a criminal offense.
Unfortunately, due to current Texas law and the conservative local commonly accepted standards of decency that prevail in Dallas, local nudists must understand that nudity even at home is subject to some real restrictions. Since many in the community regard the exposure of a naked body as inherently sexual, they object to viewing any exposure of a naked human body on moral, religious or decency grounds and take offense to any display of nudity regardless of the context.
Public nudity in Dallas defined
While Texas law generally defines a public place as “any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, highways, and the common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transport facilities, and shops” (Texas Penal Code § 1.07(a)(40): Definitions), for the purposes of “public nudity” the definition is expanded to include displays of nudity that can “be seen from a public place.” Thus, while nudity in the privacy of a person's home or private grounds is not public nudity per se, by statute, if a person that is nude in the privacy of their own home or backyard is visible to someone from a public vantage point who finds nudity offensive and that person makes a complaint, it could constitute a violation of one of the two laws that prohibit and criminalize public nudity.
Key aspects of local nudity laws
The two laws in Texas that prohibit public nudity and apply to mere nudity are “Indecent Exposure” and “Disorderly Conduct: Public Nudity.” Of those, the one under which the home nudist faces the greatest risk of being charged and prosecuted is the less serious disorderly conduct version which is a Class C misdemeanor punishable only by a fine. While both laws contain the same definition of prohibited conduct (exposure of the genitals or anus) and the same culpability standard, recklessness, the more serious indecent exposure law has the additional element that the act of mere nudity was done with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person meaning there must be some lewd (sexual) act done in concert with the display of nudity.
Taking the culpability standard into consideration
Texas Penal Code § 6.03(c) states that “A person acts recklessly, or is reckless, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct or the result of his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that its disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor's standpoint.”
Thus, a home nudist whether choosing to be nude inside the privacy of his or her own home or outdoors on his or her own property need only to exercise the care that an ordinary person would be expected to exercise while nude to preclude them from being observed from a public vantage point by another who might be offended or alarmed by the sight of the naked human body.
To preclude a finding of recklessness, indoors home nudists need only use common sense and avoid standing in an open exterior doorway or in front of windows with curtains and or blinds opened exposing them to the view of passersby or neighbors. Nudity outdoors on one’s own property should be confined to areas where reasonable precautions to ensure privacy like fences or other effective screening devices have been erected. It seems most doubtful that a person who had to go to some effort to view a nudist inside their home or inside an adequately privacy fenced backyard by peering in a window or over a fence could claim an offense on which a complaint could be based.
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