BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Buffalo's World Naked Bike Ride has been canceled after online outcry including threats of violence against participants.
The annual event, now in its 11th year, is a protest against reliance on cars and the oil industry. Organizers say the nudity is intended to draw attention to the vulnerability of cyclists on Buffalo's roads.
When organizers posted details of this year's planned event on Facebook in early July, they did not expect the immediate online backlash, including public threats of violence.
I spoke with one organizer, who requested anonymity due to fears for his safety. He described some of the threats.
"People were saying that they were gonna seek us out and they were insinuating that they would hit us with cars," he said. "Talks of throwing projectiles. Bricks. Someone said they would throw D batteries."
7 News confirmed several of the threats of violence in Facebook comments.
The organizer said the threats made it impossible to move forward with the event since he could not guarantee the safety of participants.
"It's really frustrating, it's sad. It feels like our right to protest is being infringed upon," he said.
WATCH: Buffalo World Naked Bike Ride canceled after online outcry, threats
A prominent voice opposing the event is community activist and deacon Nate Boyd. Naked Bike Ride organizers confirmed to me Boyd was not among those who made threats of violence. Boyd condemns the threats.
"That is totally unnecessary and that is not what I'm advocating," Boyd said. "I'm just advocating that we be moral, that we bring morality back to America, that we make America moral again."
Boyd called the protest "ungodly," and is especially concerned that the protest will likely break indecent exposure laws.
"This is very profane. This is very lewd. This is indecent exposure at the highest level," Boyd said.
The organizer pushed back on Boyd's characterization of the event.
"Nudity is not inherently sexual," he said.
"It feels like the entire narrative of what the protest is lost in this insistence of the sexualization of people bodies, and it's sad," he said. "It's Puritan, and it's very regressive. I guess I thought I lived in a place that was more progressive than it actually is.
The organizer added that the possibility of future events is now uncertain.
