Complaints lead to "no sex" signs on Zeeland nude beach

The municipality of Veere installed eight signs informing visitors of the nude beach at Oranjezon that they are not allowed to have sex there. The municipality receives 25 to 30 complaints from locals per year, mayor Frederiek Schouwenaar told Omroep Zeeland.

“The problem has been going on for a long time,” Schouwenaar said about the nude beach. “You can recreate naked there. And you can also love each other, but if it becomes a sex meeting place, then I have a problem with that. These are undesirable situations that I find unsafe. Nothing has really gone wrong yet, but these people need to know that we don’t want that here.”

According to the mayor, people are increasingly making online sex dates at Oranjezon. “There they wait for each other, naked. Sometimes they don’t know exactly who they are meeting. So sometimes people who don’t belong to the date are also groped, so to speak. Or there are families with children, and they suddenly see a naked man looking for his sex date.”

Owners of the beach pavillions near Oranjezon are surprised by the sudden appearance of the signs. According to them, the problem is not that big at all. “It hasn’t been this quiet in 14 years,” Marco Wiechert of the Aloha Beach beach pavilion told the broadcaster. “Every now and again, something will happen, but it is nonsense to suggest that it is a kind of Sodom and Gomorrah. I think the complaints only come from one party, the SGP.” The SGP is a very Christian, very conservative party.

Adriaan den Hollander of Zeecafe Oostkapelle is also against the sign, especially because, according to him, the municipality didn’t even consult with the local businesses. He worries that the signs will create the idea that sex often happens on the beach, which will attract more sex tourists and frighten families away. Den Hollander spoke of “a blunder from the top shelf.”