Today in Labor History July 7, 1992: The New York Court of Appeals ruled that women had the same right as men to go topless in public. Currently, only 33 states truly permit women to go topless (gotopless.org/topless-laws), with complete bans still in effect in Utah, Indiana and Tennessee, and ambiguous laws in several other states. “Free the Nipple” is a campaign that challenges the convention that only men are allowed to be topless in public, while it is considered indecent for women to do the same. The campaign was started by filmmaker Lina Esco, who created a documentary of herself walking through New York City topless in 2012.

While it is currently legal for anyone to go topless in Washington, D.C., it is apparently considered disrespectful to flash your nipples at President Biden, at least if you’re nonbinary. In 2023, trans activist Rosa Montoya was invited to participate at the White House Pride event and took off her top. She was subsequently banned from future White House events and eventually issued an apology for behaving in a way that was “unbecoming” of a White House guest, in spite of her behavior being perfectly legal. Perhaps if she was still a teenager Biden would have sniffed her hair?

Meanwhile, in the UK, where, in 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that trans women do not meet the “definition” of women, it is still illegal for women to go topless in public. So, trans activists have been demonstrating topless there, creating a paradox, not to mention a lot of confusion and frustration, for the police and politicians who, under the state’s new definition of gender, cannot arrest them, though they desperately want to.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #feminism #nipples #breasts #TransRightsAreHumanRights #lgbtq #biden #FreetheNipple #sexism #transphobia