Maryland confident it can impose topless laws

Maryland’s top lawyer on Thursday waded into the controversy over topless sunbathing at the beach, telling state and local officials they are likely on solid legal ground if they want to ban women from baring their breasts in public.

The office of Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said “prohibiting women from exposing their breast in public while allowing men to do so under the same circumstances does not violate the federal or state Constitution.”

The brief opinion comes less than a week after Ocean City Council held an emergency meeting to pass a public nudity ban. The family-friendly beach has never been a destination for topless sunbathing. But the popular vacation spot was thrust into a debate about gender equity after a local female resident lobbied officials to go shirtless.

Chelsea Covington, a self-described “topfreedom” advocate, had argued for “equality under the law” in a legal brief submitted to state and city officials that said if men can go barechested in public, women can, too. She argued that allowing women to be barebreasted in public is not indecent or lewd.

Last August, Worcester County State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby asked the attorney general’s office for guidance on the state’s indecent exposure laws and how the rules would apply to women who want to go topless in public.

Ocean City officials said they were “delighted” by the legal advice from the Maryland attorney general’s office that will have statewide implications.

“We have a responsibility to protect the rights of thousands of families who visit our beach and Boardwalk each summer season, and the letter of advice agreed with our position,” Mayor Rick Meehan said.

Maryland law is not entirely clear when it comes to the question of whether women are expressly prohibited from bearing their breasts in public, saying “a person convicted of indecent exposure is guilty of a misdemeanour and is subject to imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or a fine not exceeding $1,000 or both.”

No Maryland appellate court has addressed the specific issue of toplessness.

State and local indecent exposure laws, however, do not apply to breastfeeding women, who have a right to do so in public.

While Ocean City officials waited for word from the attorney general’s office this month, they directed the beach patrol not to confront bare-chested women or ask them to cover up. Beach patrol employees were told to document complaints about topless bathers by filling out “minor incident” forms, but were specifically told not to “approach the topless woman, even if requested to do so by the complainant or other beach patrons.”

In response to public concern, however, Ocean City officials decided to act first last Saturday to make clear the local beach was not going topless. In the emergency meeting, the city council approved an ordinance that makes public nudity a municipal infraction punishable by a fine of $1,000 and once again enforceable by the local beach patrol.

WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES.