Topless women win big as Colorado city drops ban

Fort Collins, Colorado has decided it Is not worth the money to fight because of its ordinance banning women from appearing topless in public.

It is a victory for "Free the Nipple," a global motion seeking equal treatment for women.

In February, as it was cold enough that few might like to go topless in the area north west of Denver, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge's judgment that the law amounted to unconstitutional discrimination. It was based on"negative stereotypes depicting women's breasts, but not men's breasts, as sex objects," the court reasoned.

The Ruling rejected the town's concern that hitting the ordinance would lead to women "parading in front of elementary schools or swimming topless in the public pool." The nearby communities of Boulder and Denver enable female toplessness, but there was not any signs of "any harmful fallout" in these cities, the court said.

Fort Collins decided this month to not appeal the decision, having spent over $300,000 protecting the law. And the city has formally removed law enforcement against its own people nudity statutes. The prohibition on public exposure of breasts by women and girls over 10 years old is now gone from the town code for the week.

With No guarantee of success from the Supreme Court, the city council reasoned "that the money was just better spent on other city priorities," explained Tyler Marr, a Fort Collins authorities spokesman. The decision not to fight the ban efficiently makes it legal for women to go topless in the six countries that collapse under the 10th Circuit: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

Most Other courts have rejected equal-protection struggles to bans on female toplessness, as the Tenth Circuit acknowledged on its February ruling, saying"ours is the minority viewpoint."

However, The judgment said the trend has been "requiring more⁠-- not less-- judicial scrutiny when asserted physical differences are raised to justify gender-based discrimination."

A challenge to a regional topless ban from New Hampshire is currently pending before the US Supreme Court, attracted on by three women who appeared topless in a Lakeside shore. The state supreme court acknowledged the legislation treats men and women differently. However, it stated public exposure of this Female breast "almost invariably conveys sexual overtones."