The Finger Lakes Times (New York) reports that on May 31 women in Penn Yann, Rochester and other New York area held topless picnics to highlight a 1992 New York state Supreme Court ruling that overturned a law preventing women in public places from going topless. According to the Finger Lakes Times,
[Cecille] Carpenter and four other women bared their chests under a pavilion Saturday afternoon at Pine Hills Park in what they said was a publicity-seeking effort to let people know women can legally take their shirts off in the same places where men can.
Apparently there is actually an international group, the Canadian-based Topfree Equal Rights Association, dedicated to,
. . . foster[ing] the understanding that there is nothing inherently shameful or sinful in allowing women the same rights and freedoms that have been available to men for many years.
Not surprisingly, the president of TERA is a man. But hey, this is a protest movement even I can get behind (or in front of as the case may be).
Source:
Topless picnic draws stares in Penn Yan. Kevin DeValk, Finger Lakes Times, June 1, 2003.