SEATTLE — A police response earlier this week to a locally famous nude beach on the shores of Lake Washington has brought into sharp relief the ongoing tension between the park’s history as a safe place for people in the LGBTQ+ community and its wealthy neighbors frustrated by how it’s being used.

The response Sunday, coupled with a lawsuit filed against the city by nearby residents, has reignited a fight over the park’s future. In recent days, it has spilled into the ongoing mayor’s race, elicited a response from the district’s City Council member and forced the new chief of the Seattle Police Department, Shon Barnes, to apologize and “reevaluate” how police respond to the park.

What’s next for the park is unclear. Both sides in the fight agree public masturbation at the park is a problem, but they disagree on the extent of the issue and whether the police are the best solution. Talks over solutions have broken down.

Park advocates, who fear pressure from neighbors could spell the end of the park’s nude days, have taken a more forward posture, appearing recently at a Leschi community event to challenge Barnes.

Neighbors, meanwhile, have also stepped up their campaign of pushing the city to increase police enforcement at the park.

The city’s politicians struggle to walk the line between being the LGBTQ+ allies they say they are and the advocates for public safety policies they campaigned on. And now, with a lawsuit filed, they are hesitant to say anything, as the city’s lawyers advise against taking action that might interfere with the case.

The latest blowup began Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Police arrived at Denny Blaine Park for a “premise check” — meaning self-initiated, rather than a response to a call — according to police call records. Once there, they saw — as one might expect — naked people. Barnes acknowledged Wednesday the police response was part of a “directed patrol” of the park by the department amid complaints about indecent exposure.

Colleen Kimseylove is a co-founder of Friends of Denny Blaine Park, a group of park users who have become the official stewards of the park, and have a nearly $500,000 grant from the parks department to help improve it.

Kimseylove went to the park and asked the officers why they were there and was told it was to “arrest or trespass anyone who was naked.”

Washington law generally allows nudity, except that which is intended to “affront and alarm.” For decades, the park has been a place where people feel comfortable not wearing clothes. Nevertheless, the officers threatened to bar anyone from the park who didn’t put on clothes — and followed through when one person refused.

Kimseylove said the officers did not appear to understand the law.

The incident riled tensions among park loyalists, especially because of the context.

Nearby neighbors have been trying to change the park’s use for years, including by offering, in private conversations with Mayor Bruce Harrell, to pay for a playground there — making nudity a nonstarter.

The perception of wealthy residents flexing their influence over a space friendly to the LGBTQ+ community turned the park’s future into a broader fight over whose voices are most heard in Seattle City Hall and how Seattle’s police resources are used.

Residents, who formed their own coalition titled Denny Blaine Park for All, insist their issue is with illegal activity occurring at the park, particularly public masturbation. Police and court records show repeated instances of men sitting in their cars or at the park exposing themselves and masturbating, including four documented instances in one week last March.

“These concerns didn’t begin with the lawsuit,” said Lee Keller, spokesperson for Denny Blaine Park for All. “The community has raised them for years — met mostly with silence.”

Since the police response Sunday, the issue has spilled over into city politics.

Katie Wilson, who’s challenging Mayor Bruce Harrell this election, questioned how it came to be that police spend their limited hours patrolling Denny Blaine Park.

“What are our priorities?” she said on X. “Why are we sending police to harass harmless people hanging out at a queer nude beach?”

On Wednesday night, about 70 people packed the Grace United Methodist Church in Leschi to hear the Seattle police chief speak. The crowd was a mix of older Leschi residents and members of Seattle’s LGBTQ+ community.

Anger and impatience simmered before erupting 30 minutes into the meeting, with several audience members demanding he address the incident at Denny Blaine Park.

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