Go Topless Day

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.

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.

Of course, in New York it is legal--in 1992 the NY State Appeals Court ruled that women have the right to go topless, just like men.

The Empire State ladies were merely marching in support of the women who get fined, humiliated and arrested around the nation. Some of the picket signs read: Shame is Lethal, Go Top Free & Be Healthy, Breasts Are No Longer Indecent in NY, and of course the 'ol standy, Free Your Breasts, Free Your Mind.

As the founder of GoTopless.org, Rael, put it: as long as men can be topless, constitutionally women should have the same right, or men should also be forced to wear something hiding their chest.

2012 marks GoTopless' fifth anniversary and this year GoTopless day will fall exactly on Women's Equality Day, Aug 26.

Topless rallies will take place in countries around the world. In the US, the main topless rally will take place in Washington DC in front of the White House.

What happens during a Gotopless rally? During the protests, women will have the choice of going fully topless or wear red tape or something else to hide their (infamous!) nipples. They are also completely welcome to come and support this cause while being fully dressed if they prefer. To show their support, men are encouraged to wear a bikini top since we are standing up for topless constitutional equality. Either we can all be topless or no one can. Bikinis will be available on location. The march will end with a speech and entertainment. In cities where it is already legal to go topless, men's bikini top won't be necessary since equality is already in place.

Update: Free Your Boobs, Free Your Mind

27th August 2012.See article from newstrackindia.com

Scores of scantily clad women popped their boobs out and paraded shirtless through midtown on Sunday to celebrate the 5th annual Go Topless Day in New York.

The gesture was to mark their inalienable legal right to doff shirts and bras in public to flash breasts.

Everyone has nipples, the New York Daily News quoted Dylan Hall, a topless 19-year-old School of Visual Arts student, as saying.

Men take their shirts off all the time. Women have the same rights, too, she said.

Hall joined about 70 other bare-chested women who paraded shirtless from Bryant Park to Times Square holding signs that read Free Your Boobs. Free Your Mind.