Gotopless.org would like to pay a special tribute to NYC Photographer, Jordan Matter www.jordanmatter.com Many of the pictures of our site are his creation and we thank him for letting us display them. Jordan has taken thousands of pictures of topless women of all shapes and ages in NYC public places thus helping the public realize that a topless woman is a natural site. Artists like Jordan are crucial in healing and educating our American society bruised in many ways by its repressive, puritanical past. 

The following information is provided by www.legalfreedom.com



In 1986 a woman represented herself in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and won a court victory stating that the D.C. nudity law did not apply to any body part but genitals. Since then the District of Columbia has been legally female topfree.



In 1992 New York's highest state court ruled that women could be topfree in public. Since 1992 women in the highly populous State of New York have enjoyed the right to bare their chests whenever men could do so. As one New York Justice wrote in his concurring opinion, "One of the most important purposes to be served by the equal protection clause is to ensure that 'public sensibilities' grounded in prejudice and unexamined sterotypes do not become enshrined as part of the official policy of government."

In a curious loop of history, the female rights movement in the United States began in Rochester, New York, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as a principle pioneer. In her time Elizabeth Cady Stanton was ridiculed for wearing bloomers instead of a floor-length skirt. In 1986 seven Rochester women held topfree picnics, resulting in New York's highest court ruling female topfreedom legal in 1992 (see above). Now Cathy Stanton, the 63-year old great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, is a plaintiff in the Florida suit.



In 1995, 5 women went topless in the Columbus, OH Gay Pride parade, were arrested and later released. The charges were dropped one month later. Indeed, in the Ohio Law statute, breasts are not considered "private parts". Therefore, women exposing their breasts in public is not considered indecent exposure. In 1998, 3 of the women who had been arrested 3 years earlier, sued the city of Columbus for false arrest and won their case . They were paid $15,000 in total for damages. Since then, the police force is being educated not to arrest top free women but warns that if the site of a top free woman causes disturbance, they have the right to ask the topless woman to leave. Note that not all the cities in Ohio seem to honor this statute.

Below are 2 articles. One recounts the 1995 event in Columbus, OH. The other addresses the positive outcome on top free women's rights.



Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)

June 26, 2005 Sunday, Home Final Edition

TO SOME, GOING TOPLESS IS A MATTER OF PRIDE BY Alice Cervantes

Ten years ago, as the 90-degree heat hung heavy on the backs of festivalgoers in Goodale Park, a lesbian punk band took the stage and somebody whispered in Monica Carroll's ear: "Hey, let's take our shirts off."

The gay-pride parade marched past, and Carroll and her college-age friends, who called themselves the Lesbian Avengers, stood watching.

Previously, at an Ohio State University graduation, the Avengers had brandished a banner that read "Dykes with degrees are hot." At the Statehouse, they had protested a Ku Klux Klan rally. Staging "actions" was their thing. But on this day, they were just feeling hot, and not at all bothered. So they took off their tops and joined the march, keeping them off all the way Downtown to the parade's end in Bicentennial Park. "It was the perfect setting to do it because, during the march, it's a really safe feeling. You can pretty much do whatever you want and be whoever you are," Carroll said.

Spectators cheered. Police got nervous. One of the daring women started arguing with a police officer who threatened to arrest her. By then, the women had put their shirts back on. But they decided to remove them again as a show of solidarity. Five of the women were handcuffed, charged with public indecency and jailed.

A month later, charges were dropped at the request of the city prosecutor. The breast arrests were Columbus' Stonewall Riot: a moment where gays boldly

challenged the cultural norm and won. It has been considered legal for women to go topless in the city ever since. "While most women I know would not like to take their tops off in public, they also prefer to have the same freedoms as men," said James McNamara, a lawyer who represented "the topless five." "At the time, there was a lot of (legal) precedent saying that, in spite of traditional modesty levels, that's just not fair to the females." Not that many exercise the right.

"It's not something we see a lot of," said Columbus police spokeswoman Sherry Mercurio. The State Highway Patrol, which monitors protests and marches at the Statehouse, also hasn't seen many topless women, said spokeswoman Sgt. Stephanie Norman.

Although the patrol wouldn't, and hasn't, cited any women for going topless since the parade arrests, Norman cautioned women to be careful if they do.

"If it causes a disturbance, if it's causing a large group to form, or if people are getting out of hand because of it, we do have the right to ask

people to leave," she said. Several women marched topless during the pride parade yesterday. There were no problems.

Carroll now is a librarian, and the Lesbian Avengers have disbanded and scattered. She doesn't go topless as a practice -- she wouldn't garden

topless, for example -- but has walked around without a shirt or bra at other gay-pride parades since the one a decade ago. She says going topless

is freeing -- a " 'You go girl' kind of feeling."



Wednesday, July 8, 1998

THEY ARE PUBLIC PARTS

Better to be safe than sorry. At least that's what Columbus police officers are being told. They've been instructed not to arrest anyone for exposing breasts in public. Hamilton County courts have ruled that ''breasts are not private parts,'' as far as the state's public-indecency laws are concerned.

Franklin County courts have yet to consider the issue. But this year, the city settled a lawsuit with three women who were arrested for doing that very thing at the 1996 Gay Pride parade. The cost - $5,000 per woman. ''So we're training officers that breasts are not private parts, and if people want to strut around with their bosoms out, so be it,'' said Kelly Castle, legal adviser to the Police Division. Apparently, the word has gotten out. There were more than 65 women last month at this year's parade who went topless - and not a single arrest.





In 1996 the Province of Ontario, Canada's most populous provice, became legally topfree due to a criminal court challenge by Gwen Jacob. Because the highest court in Ontario was interpreting a Canadian federal law, this case has set an important precedent for all of the other provinces in Canada. Attempts to change the law to re-criminalize women have not been supported by Canadian voters.





As a result of the Gwen Jacob victory, women throughout other provinces in Canada have challenged local and federal laws seeking to criminalize the female breast. A Canadian professor has organized the Topfree Equal Rights Association (T.E.R.A.) to help these cases and to educate the world about topfree rights in Canada. Tune in and see what's happening up north!





In 1998 in Moscow Idaho, charges of indecent exposure were dismissed against three women who were arrested for baring their breasts in Moscow, Idaho. On a hot summer day in 1998, 8 young adults were walking down the streets of Moscow, Idaho, without shirts. 3 of them were women. Your guess which 3 got arrested. They were charged with indecent exposure.

The judge's comments about his ruling are notable. He stated (this is not verbatim) that: (1) the existing local ordinance dealing with indecency was too vague, (2) that there was a state law banning the public exposure of genitals, but chests are not genitals, and (3) even if they were, he could not enforce such a law because it would be blatantly discriminatory.

Please refer to the court case description: http://slingshot.tao.ca/displaybi.php?0064017

Sounding a familiar theme of political challenge through civil disobedience, one of the defendants, Natalie Shapiro, stated, "We need to challenge unjust laws by peacefully breaking them. That generates attention and controversy and makes people think about why those laws exist in the first place." Although the City Council proposed a new ordinance to criminalize female breasts, the female Council members opposing the new ordinance outnumbered the male Council members in favor. Thus Moscow, Idaho remains legally topfree for women.





In 1998 a Maine woman who had been mowing her lawn without a shirt for three summers faced the threat of police action when a neighbor complained. However, Maine state law does not criminalize female breasts. When the neighbor put a law on the ballot to criminalize topfree women, town voters rejected it. Moreover, the citizens bought thousands of "Topfree Lawnmower's Assocation" t-shirts to show their support.

 

On Feb 25, 1985, in North Lido Beach,  Sarasota FL,  Genie O'Brien was arrested while challenging a new anti topless and anti nudity ordinance. Initially her legal challenge was successful in court and the ordinance was struck down for being overly vague. So the beach remained topless until the end of 1986 when the City of Sarasota passed an ordinance with wording that had already been upheld by the Florida Supreme Court..

Gotopless.org and Raelian Movement would like to send their support and congratulations to Dr. Diana Blaine following the “earth shattering” news that this USC professor posted topless pictures of her, on her website.

“So what does it matter that she is a USC college professor? She is a woman who loves and respects herself. She has had the courage to liberate herself from the pressures and taboos of a society that equates nudity with shame.
Where do these taboos come from? When a woman is taught from birth that she has only one asset, her looks, she will then naturally compare herself to the image of the “perfect woman” on TV, billboards and magazines, then it is no wonder that her self image will be one of dislike – even contempt for herself. Then when a college professor comes along who is comfortable with her own body, the public can have only one reaction – one of shock and contempt…and maybe for some women a bit of jealousy that this woman has freed herself from the rules of a male dominated society..

The US claims to be the “enlightened and liberated” country unlike any other in the world when, in fact, this is not the case at all. All throughout Europe one would see topless women on every beach, many TV commercials, magazines and billboards. In the end, the US is a society only slightly more advanced than the countries where women are forced to wear a burka – in order that no other man will be tempted by them. What better way to keep one’s property?!

Men would benefit from more femininity, refinement, gentleness. It is men who centuries ago made women “property” to be bought and sold. Western religion has kept women as second class citizens who were only granted the right to vote in recent history. We are only slightly ahead of the times when a dowry was expected to be given to a husband for “taking the woman off the father’s hands”. Are we more free than 5,000 years ago? Barely! But we are not yet free, as there is no such thing as “partly free”.

The Raelian Movement, the atheistic religion which perfectly merges science and spirituality, itself has women priests who themselves have posed for Playboy. The love of one’s body is absolutely necessary in order to love oneself. The mind and body are one, indivisible. The Awakening Seminars taught by The Prophet Rael have helped thousands of people to start this process of realization and these people are living examples of happiness thanks to self love – self love being the first necessary step for truly loving others.