Activists and supporters of the GoTopless movement, alongside the Raëlian movement, are set to march through downtown Boston next week in a topless protest. The demonstration, scheduled for next Tuesday, challenges the Massachusetts law that discriminates against women by prohibiting them from going topless in public, a restriction not imposed on men. To pressure state lawmakers, protesters will gather at the iconic Boston Common before proceeding along parts of the Freedom Trail to the State House, as reported by Boston.com.
According to GoTopless.org, this protest is part of a broader initiative with marches also occurring in New Haven, CT, and Providence, RI. The events coincide with the 18th Annual GoTopless Day, highlighting an ongoing struggle for gender equality regarding toplessness. Kasyo Perrier, a GoTopless leader and Raëlian priest, criticized the New England states, including Massachusetts, for their “legal ambiguity” and “gender-based discrimination” in indecency laws, which leads to women facing charges like ‘disorderly conduct’ for the same behavior men freely engage in.
Co-organized by the Raëlians and the local organization Equalititty, the Boston protest is seen as a stand against what organizers call the “unconstitutional oppression perpetrated by our government upon its own citizens,” said Katrina Brees, founder of Equalititty. She likened the discrimination against the female breast to historical oppression faced in different contexts within the American landscape. Brees’s comments to Boston.com emphasized the severity of consequences women face for expressing a freedom that men enjoy without second thought…