Gadis Desa: Naked Activists Protest Gulf Spill at BP Headquarters (Photos)

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York

All photos via CODEPINK's Flickr page.

There are a lot of reasons to be mad as hell at BP right now -- the multimillion-gallon body of oil still covering a huge swath of the Gulf of Mexico is just one of them. Well, the women of the activist group CODEPINK have decided to protest the oil giant's actions in a particularly attention-grabbing manner: by getting naked. Here are some photos from the group's demonstration in Houston,, Texas at BP's headquarters. Be forewarned: some of the following images may be offensive to some, and may be NSFW.

In the words of CODEPINK co-founder Diane Wilson, the goal of the protest was to "Expose BP. Expose that Drill, Baby, Drill means Spill, Baby, Spill. After all, what's at stake is nothing less than our planet. And that's the naked truth."

I'm a little surprised they beat PETA to the punch on this one, but CODEPINK may be the first group to stage a naked protest against the oil spill. The campaign, called Expose the Naked Truth About BP's Oil Spill Catastrophe, took place last Monday.

Medea Benjamin has a full account of the day's protest at the Huffington Post Green. An excerpt from her story:

The action was superb. About 100 people showed up from all over Texas and six other states--including California. Some people wore pasties that said "No BP", some dressed as fishermen, oily birds and fish. Diane put on her white rubber fishing boots, smeared herself with oil and wore a sandwich board that read "Expose BP's Obscene Side."

Two imposter oil workers in BP uniforms doused the group with fake oil, causing the birds and fish to recoil and die on the sidewalk. The police and BP security stood by watching, as nice as could be. It was obvious that BP higher ups had the good sense to tell them that arresting protesters would not help their image.