Philadelphia's first Topless Gender Equality March

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- GoTopless, a women's rights organization, will hold its first civil rights march in Philadelphia, PA to claim women's constitutional right to go topless in public based on gender equality. The event marks the 19th annual GoTopless Day, held across the U.S. and internationally, guided by this principle:

"As long as men are allowed to be topless in public, women should have the same constitutional right. Or else, men should have to wear something to hide their chests." – Rael, founder of GoTopless and spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement.

Amid legal ambiguity, the state of Pennsylvania violates topless constitutional equality," says Kasyo Perrier, GoTopless leader and Raelian priest. "While men have enjoyed topless freedom since the 1930s, women still face vague charges like 'disorderly conduct,' forcing them to defend a constitutional right that men exercise freely and without consequence."

GoTopless denounces this gender-based discrimination and calls on Pennsylvania to update its indecency laws to reflect the gender equality precedent set in New York in 1992.

Other international events will take place in cities like Paris, Naha, Geneva, and Abidjan.

"Liberating women from guilt and shame over their nude chest, rooted in patriarchal Abrahamic religions, is a cultural revolution," says Perrier. "Before colonization, toplessness was the norm for thousands of years. The fight for topless equality in Western democracies is recent—barely 60 years old—19 of which have been led by GoTopless."

Like in Pennsylvania, most U.S. states lack statewide bans on female toplessness. Instead, local ordinances—often unconstitutional—are challenged, sometimes with wide impact. In 2019, activists Brit Hoagland and Samantha Six won a case in Fort Collins, CO, legalizing toplessness in all six states of the 10th Circuit," explains Perrier.

The movement aligns symbolically with Women's Equality Day on August 26, marking the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote—based on the same constitutional principles of gender equality. 

March starts at Love Park promptly at noon on Sat Aug 22 and returns to Love Park at 1PM for scheduled speeches. 

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SOURCE GoTopless