Promoting / Enhancing Diversity

If you check out most nudist / naturist publications and social media you'd probably think the entire community is only cis gender, straight, Caucasians based on the images used.

In fact, a few months ago I had a "discussion" with representatives of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) regarding their "#IAmTheFaceOfNaturism" campaign post on Twitter. SURPRISE, it was all Caucasian photos!!!! When I pointed this out they indicated they had tweeted a (i.e.; ONE) request for BIPOC (black, Indigenous and people of color) users to submit photos. When I asked if they made any further effort to make sure BIPOC members were in the campaign before publishing they pointed out that the Black Naturists Association (BNA) is an AANR affiliate club. (This appears to be their go to response whenever the topic of "diversity" comes up.) The "discussion" went nowhere from there.

With all due respect, the BNA is more of a travel group that organizes trips to various clothing optional sites rather than a "club" in a specific area like other AANR affiliate organizations. (And unless you knew it was organized out of Delaware you'd be hard pressed to find its listing of affiliate organizations on AANR's site.) Similarly there is the "Afro Nudist" organized on MeetUp as "a place for men of color to explore fitness, healthy living and mindful connections with others in the buff." The group is in Los Angeles, CA. To the best of my knowledge, there are no other BIPOC nudist / naturist organizations.

It's not for the lack of trying. In addition to True Nudists, I'm on Twitter, MeWe, Reddit, Instagram and a few other social media sites always open to connect with other BIPOC (as well as LGBT+) nudists / naturists. I even make weekly #FF (Follow Friday) Twitter posts including some of the accounts I follow in an effort to bridge further connections with similar users. And while I do have a fair amount of mutual BIPOC and gay nudist followers (mostly on Twitter), we're connected but not necessarily connecting or engaging. True Nudists has the most forums for naturists of these demographics, but still we don't seem to be connecting or engaging much less promoting or enhancing the representation of diversity of the nudist / naturist community.

Is there any more that we can / should be doing? Are there users who're interested in more than collecting social media followers? Are there other diverse organizations beyond travel clubs and single site groups? Most important, are there any users interested in promoting and enhancing the diversity of organizations like AANR?

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