Fort Collins Judge Throws Out Topless Ban

A Fort Collins judge has erased language barring women from going topless in public from the Fort Collins public nudity code.

Judge Gregory Philips said "We’re left, as the district court was, to suspect that the City’s professed interest in protecting children derives not from any morphological differences between men’s and women’s breasts but from negative stereotypes depicting women’s breasts, but not men’s breasts, as sex objects."

Technically the topless ban has been unenforceable since February 2017 when a judge ruled that it violated the 14th Amendment.

The city counsel decided to stop defending the ban in May after spending about $80,000 on their defense.

The Coloradoan is reporting that about eight people stepped up to defend the topless ban, encouraging the city counsel to keep the language. One resident saying he would feel sexually harassed if he saw a topless woman in public.

Source: The Coloradoan