Women March Topless In Los Angeles For Equal Rights
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) -- A group of about 50 women and men walked topless Sunday in the oceanside Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice to demand that females get the same legal right as males to walk bare-chested in public.
The protesters participated in the neighborhood's annual Go Topless march, one of several pro-topless marches held around the nation. The march in Venice was organized by gotopless.org, a group that calls for equal rights to go topless for women and men.
The marchers walked behind a giant inflatable pink breast that had the phrase "equal topless rights" written on it. One marcher carried a sign that said: "My Body Is Not A Crime."
"We're working toward freeing women's nipples and obtaining equal gender topless rights that are enforced worldwide," Beatrice Charles, a GoTopless spokeswoman who leads the organization's LA branch, tells the Los Angeles Times.
The protesters were countered at the start of the march by a group against allowing women to go topless in public that held up a giant inflatable Bible.
Last year, the Venice neighborhood community council passed by a 12-2 voter a resolution in favor of bringing topless sunbathing back to Venice Beach. Nude beaches are banned in Los Angeles County.
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