Gypsy Taub (born Oxana Chornenky) is a

Russian American Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to those that settled in the 19th-century Russian possessions in what is now Alaska. Russi ...

activist in the San Francisco public nudity movement.

Early life and education

Taub was raised in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and went by the nickname Olessia, which means "Forest Girl". Her father was a physicist and inventor, and her mother was a French teacher and fashion designer. Taub grew up with a brother and a sister. In the fall of 1988, when Taub was 19, she moved to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

to attend the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, and her family immigrated to Boston the following year. When she was 23, she attended the

City College of San Francisco City College of San Francisco (CCSF or City College) is a public community college in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded as a junior college in 1935, the college plays an important local role, enrolling as many as 1 in 35 San Franc ...

as a

pre-med Pre-medical (often referred to as pre-med) is an educational track that undergraduate students mostly in the United States pursue prior to becoming medical students. It involves activities that prepare a student for medical school, such as pre-med ...

student. She dropped out after 18 months.

Career

Initially when arriving in the United States, Taub worked as a stripper and nude model. In the late 1990s, she began filming

amateur pornography Amateur pornography is a category of pornography that features models, actors or non-professionals performing without pay, or actors for whom this material is not their only paid modeling work. Reality pornography is professionally made pornogra ...

and publishing the videos on her own adult website. In 1995, Taub changed her first name to Gypsy and became a

Deadhead A Deadhead or Dead head is a fan of the American rock band the Grateful Dead. The Deadhead subculture originated in the 1970s, when a number of fans began traveling to see the Grateful Dead in as many shows or festival venues as they could. As mo ...

. She began her activism shortly after her daughter was born in 2000. She is a 9/11 truther and began a

public access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specia ...

show called ''Uncensored 9/11'' to increase awareness of her beliefs about the September 11, 2001 attacks that 9/11 was an inside job, that it was orchestrated by the government. She hosted the show without clothes on. In 2008, she started a cable television show named ''My Naked Truth''. In 2012, San Francisco supervisor

Scott Wiener Scott Wiener (born May 11, 1970) is an American politician who has served in the California State Senate since 2016. A Democrat, he represents the 11th district, encompassing San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County. He is also the co-chair ...

proposed that any city resident older than five years could be fined $100 if they appeared in public naked. The proposed law also allowed for up to a year in jail on the third offense. Taub led a movement of activists who protested against the law. A public hearing on the proposed law was held at

San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, it is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epito ...

on November 5, 2012. Taub went to the hearing along with her three children. The overwhelming majority of the people at the hearing opposed Wiener's proposal. She wore a

shift dress A shift dress is a dress in which the cloth falls straight from the shoulders and has darts around the bust. It frequently features a high scoop or boat neck. The shift dress is often confused with the sheath dress, which is form-fitting and s ...

and no underwear. She then took off her dress and was escorted out of the hearing room and detained. She filed a class action lawsuit against the ban at the

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

. Five plaintiffs signed the suit and it was filed by Christina DiEdoardo three months before the nudity ban went into effect in February 2013. DiEdoardo stopped representing the lawsuit's plaintiffs since there were disagreements between the plaintiffs. Gill Sperlein served as Taub's second lawyer for the suit. He was previously a member of Wiener's campaign committee. DiEdoardo claimed that the police were discriminating in regards to who could be nude in the city, noting that they went for people who had little political influence. In the two years since the ban was put into effect, Taub was denied a permit ten times, once for a parade of fewer than 50 members despite there being no policy in San Francisco's police code defining a minimum number of people required to have a parade. A discrimination claim by Taub was settled for $20,000 by the city in June 2015, and in September, she was granted a restraining order against the police department to prevent them denying her a permit for a nude parade at Jane Warner Plaza that was held that month. In 2014, Taub posed for a photoshoot for a ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'' magazine story about San Francisco. It depicts her standing naked in line to ride a

Google Bus The San Francisco tech bus protests, also known as the Google bus protests, were a series of protests in the San Francisco Bay Area beginning in late 2013, when the use of shuttle buses employed by local area Technology company, tech companies ...

. Jessica Powell,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

's vice president for product and corporate communications, responded by saying there should be "no nudes on the bus. It might interfere with the Wi-Fi." In 2015, Taub was arrested for protesting San Francisco's no-nudity ordinance while nude. On September 13, 2017, Taub attended a

Berkeley City Council Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

meeting about a proposal by the

Topfreedom Topfreedom is a cultural movement, cultural and political movement seeking changes in laws to allow women to be toplessness, topless in public places where men are permitted to be barechested, as a form of gender equality. Specifically, the movem ...

Free the Nipple Free the Nipple is a topfreedom campaign created in 2012 during pre-production of a 2014 film of the same name. The campaign highlights the general convention of allowing men to appear topless in public while considering it sexual, suggestive, ...

" campaign to allow woman to go topless in public. Officials of the council postponed a decision, because one of them, Sophie Hahn, felt it was not an important issue for the city to address, and over concerns that men would have to cover up their nipples too. At the end of the meeting, Taub stripped off her clothes and criticized the council members.

Personal life

Taub attended a

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

Rainbow Gathering Rainbow Gatherings are temporary, loosely knit communities of people, who congregate in outdoor locales around the world for one or more weeks at a time with the stated intention of living a shared ideology of peace, harmony, freedom, and resp ...

, where she met Jaymz Smith, who was 20 at the time and came from

Jackson, Missouri Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, United States. It is a principal city of the Cape Girardeau-Jackson metropolitan area Area. The population of Jackson was 15,481 at the 2020 census. History In 1813, ...

. The two were engaged in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

and married via a nude wedding protest at

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

on December 19, 2013. ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine later listed the wedding as one of "The 17 Most Intriguing Weddings of All Time". Taub and Smith lived in a flat in Berkeley until splitting up in December 2015. Taub also had a sporadic relationship with David DePape, who was later charged in the

attack on Paul Pelosi On October 28, 2022, 42-year-old David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, the 52nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He beat Pelosi with a hammer during a home invasion of the couple's Pacific Heights ...

in 2022. DePape lived with Taub and Smith for some time, and he served as a father figure to Taub's three children. He was also a best man at Taub's wedding with Smith. Taub attended the first day of DePape's trial, along with her two adult children whom DePape helped raise. In 2019, Taub was arrested and charged for attempted child abduction, stalking, and child abuse relating to a 14-year-old boy who had been friends with her son. Despite court orders, Taub had sent numerous messages to the boy and attempted to have him run away from his mother, who was seeking a restraining order against Taub. In 2021, Taub was convicted on all charges relating to the case and sentenced to four years in state prison. Taub was paroled in April 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taub, Gypsy 1969 births 20th-century American women 21st-century American women 9/11 conspiracy theorists American amateur film directors American conspiracy theorists American female adult models American female erotic dancers American naturists American pornographers American pornographic film actresses Film directors from San Francisco Living people Activists from Moscow People from the San Francisco Bay Area Social nudity advocates Soviet emigrants to the United States