LAS VEGAS, Aug. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- GoTopless announced today that its August 26 protests will take place in 30 cities worldwide, a marked improvement over last year.
But as GoTopless enters its 5th year of protests demanding women's rights to go publicly topless, discrimination against bare-chested women continues worldwide.
"Despite our recent victory in Toronto, where our annual protest has just been officially welcomed after being forbidden last year, we still have much ground to cover before being granted our constitutional right to go bare-chested wherever men can," said GoTopless President Nadine Gary. "Even with laws ensuring gender equality, women are still being arrested for going topless. The governments of the United States, Israel, France, the United Kingdom and Australia all supposedly guarantee gender equal rights. But Gotopless women have been clearly told they're not free to go topless like men can, and that if they do, they will be fined and/or imprisoned."
Calling this discrepancy "a blatant double standard," Gary gave examples.
"In Tel Aviv, authorities told GoTopless leader Sharon Aziza this week that although Israeli law is vague about topless rights, female protesters must wear full bikini tops or face arrest," Gary said. "Well, what about the men? Israel passed a Gender Equal Rights law in 1951!"
She said female demonstrators in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, London, Paris, Puebla, Mexico; Cartagena, Colombia; and elsewhere face arrest if they fail to wear tops at the August 26 event.
"It's appalling that even female officials like the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, are supporting the men who oppose topless gender equality!" she said. "They got where they are through gender equality. How can they deny that hard-earned right to other women?"
Gary said that many people call the public exposure of female breasts "a degradation" or "a humiliation of the women body."
"Only a perverted mindset thinks that exposing a female breast is more humiliating than exposing a male breast," she said. "Female breasts are as beautiful as men's and they likewise come in all sizes. The only degradation that will be observed in the streets on August 26 is the degradation of male domination!"
GoTopless is determined to achieve topless equal rights worldwide.
"Gender equality is a basic human right!" Gary said.
SOURCE GoTopless
