July 14, 2008
 
Women Plan Demonstrations Demanding a Perceived Constitutional Right; Six Cities Hold Topless Rallies; Women’s to Protest at Democratic Convention on Equality Day
 
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Entertainment Editor
 
Huntington, WV (HNN) --- President Bush and the White House staff might take an added interest in the August 26 celebration of Women’s Equality Day. It marks the 72 anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote in nationwide elections.
 
However, on August 23, an organization known as Gotopless.org claims that women are discriminated against in the U.S. by suffering arrest for baring their bosoms in public. By contrast, dudes such as Matthew McConoughey can go shirtless whenever they desire. Likely, though, they would not be served inside a restaurant that proclaims , “no shirt, no shoes, no service.”
 
According to the web site, “Women who date to be topless in public in the U.S. are arrested, fined, humiliated , criminalized. On August 23, women will rally across the USA to protest this gross inequality in the law and will demand for the constitution to be amended to grant them the fundamental right to be topless wherever men are.
 
Currently the following rallies are slated:
 
WASHINGTON, DC: Lafayette Park, across from the White House
 
LOS ANGELES: Venice Beach
 
NEW YORK CITY: Central Park
 
HAWAII: Kona, Big Island
 
DENVER: (August 26) at the door steps of the Presidential Democratic Convention.
 
The website is enlisting other cities to sign up for the demonstrations.
 
Actually, several US and Canadian cities allow women to go without a shirt; however, few of them exercise the right. New York has a ruling from its high court that “one of the most important purposes to be served by the equal protection clause is to ensure that ‘public sensibilities’ grounded in the prejudice and unexamined stereotypes do not become enshrined as part of a policy of government.”
 
Ironically, the female rights movement began in Rochester, NY where Elizabeth Cady Stanton was ridiculed for wearing bloomers instead of a floor length skirt. In 1986, seven Rochester women held a topfree picnic resulting in the New York ruling that allows women to go topless in public.
 
Interesting, the District of Columbia, as of 1986, has a Court of Appeals ruling in place that “the D.C. nudity law does not apply to any body part but genitals.”
 
Interestingly, Moscow, Idaho also allows equal top freedom and in Maine state law does not criminalize female breasts.
 
In Florida, the Fifth District Court of Appeal in 2007 dismissed a woman’s plea to go topless at Daytona Beach. However, the court dismissed the case without an opinion, thus, presenting an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
 
For additional info: http://www.gotopless.org.