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Aug 26, 2013

Women strip for Go topless day

Women strip for Go topless day
Women strip for Go topless day. Times Square was full of bare-chested women today, as equality activists descended on the New York landmark to celebrate 'Go Topless Day.'

The annual event, which takes place in a range of cities around the U.S., was established in 2007 by Go Topless, an organization founded by a spiritual group called the Raelian Movement.

The day sees women walk together to challenge laws that allow only men to walk around shirtless.

'As long as men are allowed to be topless in public, women should have the same constitutional right,' Rael, founder of GoTopless.org and spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement, said.

'Or else, men should have to wear something to hide their chests.'

Rael, a former sports car journalist, founded his religion after he said he was visited by a space alien in a French volcano park who told him life on Earth was created by extraterrestrial scientists.

Go Topless Day is an annual event that falls at the Sunday closest to Women's Equality Day, which is August 26 each year.

On August 26, 1920, women earned their right to vote on the basis of gender equality.

In 1971, the U.S. Congress made Aug 26 into a nationally recognized date and named it 'Women's Equality Day.'

On it's website, Go Topless says it is only logical that Go Topless Day protests or celebrations, depending on the legal status of your city, would fall around Women's Equality Day since the right to go topless for women is based on gender equality as their right to vote once was.

In New York it is legal for women to go shirtless in public, as it is in Ohio, Texas and Colorado to name a few.

However, in states including Kansas, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia it is outlawed.