 August
26 sees the 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.
Women who dare 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.
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.
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.
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.
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National
Go Topless Day was held over the weekend, and protesters were out in
full force in and around Central Park to fight for their rights to be
topless in public. 
