21-Aug-2013,
in Press Releases

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Sixth US GoTopless Day protests to claim women’s equal topless rights

Sixth International GoTopless Day protests to claim women’s equal topless rights

“Gender topless discrimination still abounds worldwide,” said Nadine Gary, president of GoTopless, a women’s organization fighting for equal topless rights on the basis of gender equality under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. “Women must have the same legal right to go without a top that men do!”

She said GoTopless will hold its 6th annual topless civil rights demonstrations on August 25. “We’ll be out in force this year, with events in about 30 U.S. cities,” Gary said.

Gotopless was launched by international spiritual leader Rael in 2007 after topless activist Phoenix Feeley won a lawsuit against New York City and was awarded $29,000 in damages.

“New York law allows female toplessless, so after the police wrongfully arrested her for going topless, Phoenix sued and won,” Gary explained, adding that on the issue of public toplessness, the mindset of both the public and the authorities has lagged behind legislative remedies.

“In 1992, the New York Supreme Court applied the constitutional principle of gender equality and ruled in favor of women’s topless rights. Yet in New Jersey, as in most U.S. states and many other countries, this kind of gender discrimination is still rampant.
Just 2 weeks ago, Phoenix Feeley spent 9 days in a New Jersey jail for refusing to pay fines assessed for going topless at the beach. That’s ironic, because back in 1935, on an Atlantic City beach in the same state, 42 men who dared to go topless were fined $82 each for indecent exposure. The very next year, topless restrictions in New Jersey were lifted for men. The time for women to have the same right is long overdue. As Rael puts it, as long as men are allowed to be topless in public, either women should have the same constitutional right or men should also have to wear something to cover their chests!”

What could spur change?

“We need an influential woman to exercise her topless right in public!" Gary exclaimed. “Lady Gaga will be in Brooklyn for the Video Music Awards on GoTopless Day. If she were to go topless there, it would empower other women to ‘free their breasts and free their minds,’ as our GoTopless motto says.”

For participating cities and events, see the “Boob Map” at: [link]
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21-Aug-2013,
in Press Releases

Tags: None

Sixth International GoTopless Day protests to claim women’s equal topless rights

“Around the world, gender topless discrimination still abounds,” said Nadine Gary, president of GoTopless, a women’s organization fighting for equal topless rights on the basis of gender equality.

She said the organization will hold topless civil rights demonstrations worldwide on August 25, marking the sixth straight year it has done so.

“We’ll be seen in greater numbers this year, with events in close to 40 cities around the world,” Gary said. “Women must have the same legal right to go without a top that men do!”

She said Gotopless was launched by international spiritual leader Rael in 2007 after topless activist Phoenix Feeley won a lawsuit against New York City and was awarded $29,000 in damages.

“New York law allows female toplessless, so after the police wrongfully arrested her for going topless, Phoenix sued and won,” Gary explained, "The NY Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gender topless equality in 1992 and GoTopless wants to see topless gender equality effectively expand around the world because currently topless equal rights violation are rampant.

She pointed out that in Montreal just a few weeks ago, police officers ordered Rebecca Ann Clark to put her top back on at a Quebec Beach but not her boyfriend.

And during this summer’s heat wave in Europe, police reminded Parisians and visitors that it’s illegal for women to go topless in city parks or at Paris-Plage on the bank of the Seine,” Gary said. And in Britain, Scotland Yard issued a statement that women going topless would be tolerated in public ‘unless someone complains.’ Which of course could be any time. Even in Auckland, New Zealand, where it’s already legal for women to go topless, the organizers of “Boobs on Bike” were taken to court in an attempt to stop their annual Bikers’ Topless Parade. In all these places, men can bare their torsos without a thought.”

"Indecency cannot, under any circumstances, override topless gender equality laws! Women's legs were once deemed indecent in public, so was women voting! But gender equality has always had the word." Gary added.

What could spur change?

“We need an influential woman to exercise her topless right in public!" Gary exclaimed. “Lady Gaga will be in Brooklyn for the Video Music Awards on GoTopless Day. If she were to go topless there, it would empower other women to ‘free their breasts and free their minds,’ as our GoTopless motto says.”

For participating cities and events, see the “Boob Map” at: [link]
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15-Aug-2013,
in Misc

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Gotopless activist Phoenix Feeley released early from jail after 9-day hunger strike

LAS VEGAS, Aug 15 – GoTopless activist Phoenix Feeley, who began serving a jail sentence August 5 at New Jersey’s Monmouth County Jail after refusing to pay fines for going topless at Spring Lake Beach, ended her nine-day protest hunger strike yesterday when she was released early by the jail warden.

“Phoenix refused to pay fines for going topless and then launched a hunger strike while incarcerated to protest New Jersey’s gender-discriminatory topless laws,” a spokesperson for GoTopless said this morning. “She stood up for her constitutional rights and wouldn’t back down. And after a long, nine-day ordeal, she won!”

GoTopless also released the following statement made by Feeley after her release:

“I didn't shed a single tear in their cage and they couldn't break me. Not even the guard’s violent threats could stop me, and that’s because of everyone who loves and believes in me. I spent nine days naked and on a hunger strike while confined to a filthy cell in lockdown. There was 24-hour video surveillance. I wasn’t allowed visitors, mail, phone calls, or anything other than a couple of blankets and a tiny window to the outside world. The warden let me out early, and I’m happy it’s over.”

Feeley added that she is thankful for “the enormous show of support and expressions of love” she received from GoTopless members and others sympathetic to her cause through her 9 days of standing up for women's equal topless rights.

“I wouldn’t have been able to live through it without their love,” she said. “To the anonymous donor who offered to pay my fines, to the strangers who sent me mail, to my friends who sent their support, and to the protestors who set off fireworks in front of the jail Saturday, which was my only entertainment while I was in there, thank you!”

Feeley will be honored as guest speaker for the GoTopless Day event in New York City on August 25. The date for the event was chosen to honor Women’s Equality Day.
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