Go Topless Day was August 25th. It is a protest of the fact that while men can go topless across the country, in most places women legally can not. We have been covering this event since the first one in 2008. This year marks their 11th annual protest.
They have events all over the country, but the Venice Beach event is the closest to us. At that first event they provided everyone with rubber nipples that looked both realistic and were technically street legal. They did not do that this year. Women wore pasties. Men could go topless, though.
This year it was held the day before Women’s Equality Day, celebrating Aug 26, 1920 when women earned their right to vote on the basis of Gender Equality. In 1971, the US Congress made August 26th “Women’s Equality Day.” That was apparently much easier to do than actually giving women full equality.
There were events all over the world. In the United States, the Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale events required women to cover up with at least pasties. The Denver, Asheville (NC), and New York City events did not, nor did the two events in Canada.
Los Angeles is one of the most anti-nudity cities in the country. Despite having more coastline than any other city or county, we have no legal nude beaches and there are no nudist clubs. In L.A., you better keep covered up unless you are making a movie. If it is a porn movie, though, we pretty much went from being the porn capital of the world to driving the porn industry out of the city.
There are a few cities that have top free rights. These include: Asheville, NC, Austin, TX, Boulder, CO, Columbus, OH, Eugene, OR, Honolulu, HI, Keene, NH, Key West, FL at Fantasy Fest, Madison, WI, New Orleans, LA at Mardi Gras, New York City, Portland, Or, Santa Fe, NM, South Miami Beach, FL (on the beach), and Washington, DC.
It was a smallish turnout, smaller than in year’s past. The protestors, mostly women, were very enthusiastic though. Many of them gave speeches. They are not wrong. Women should have the right to go topless as men do, and where they do have that right, society has not crumbled.
They do have videos of past events on the Go Topless web site, although, somewhat ironically, the nipples are blurred out. You can also learn more about the issue of top free rights on the site.
The story behind the event is interesting. It is organized by the Raelian Movement. They are a flying saucer cult, but instead of leading their followers off to meet their maker, they have causes that fight for women’s rights such as this event and a fight against female circumcision. They are essentially Intelligent Design advocates, but instead of God they give credit to alien visitors. That does not really solve the problem of First Cause, but is not really any more out there than the Creationists using the Intelligent Design umbrella.