In the summer of 1986 seven Rochester woman attracted national attention when they were arrested for taking off their tops and baring their breasts at a picnic in Cobbs Hill Park. Their purpose was to challenge a New York law that allowed men but not women to go top free, arguing that the law was discriminatory. In the subsequent trial the judge ignored their claim of discrimination and instead ruled that their protest was an act of free of speech. He failed to address the law’s inequality. The women persisted with their challenge and at a larger picnic in 1989 ten women were arrested for being topless. This time they argued on the grounds of unequal treatment, which failed, and they were convicted. Their aim all along had been to challenge the law’s constitutionality in a higher court through an appeal, which their conviction allowed them to do. Their appeal was upheld, and their convictions overturned, although the law was never repealed. This talk will tell the full story.
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