Historically, women have sometimes been arrested or charged with public indecency, disturbing the peace, or lewd behavior for baring their breasts in public, even in jurisdictions where there was no law explicitly prohibiting doing so. In
New York State, female
toplessness was made legal around 1990, and when a woman was arrested there in 2005 for appearing topless in public, a court ruled in her favor and she later received US$29,000 in damages. In 2012, filmmaker
Lina Esco created a documentary of herself running through the streets of New York topless. As the documentary was being made, she posted teaser clips with the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. In 2013,
Facebook removed these clips from its website for violating its guidelines. In 2014, several celebrities such as
Miley Cyrus,
Lena Dunham,
Chelsea Handler,
Rihanna and
Chrissy Teigen posted photos on social media to show their support of Esco's initiative. In 2015, the campaign received attention in
Iceland after a teenage student activist posted a photo of herself topless and was harassed for doing so. In support of the student and the initiative,
Björt Ólafsdóttir, a
Member of Parliament, posted a topless photo of herself in solidarity. In 2016, two protesters, Tiernan Hebron and UCSD graduate student Anni Ma were arrested for indecent exposure outside of a campaign appearance for Senator
Bernie Sanders on 23 March. They appeared
topless except for pieces of tape over their nipples, and had the words "Free the Nipple", "Equality", and "Feel the Bern" written on their chests.
Los Angeles Police officers asked them to cover their breasts, and the two women refused and were arrested. They were held for 25 hours in jail but were not charged with any crime. After being released, Ma filed a federal lawsuit against the
Los Angeles Police Department. Ma said that her action was not lewd because mammary glands are not sexual organs, but rather have the purpose of
breastfeeding children, and said she believed she did not at any point show her "genitals" or "private parts". Her attorney claims she was never "nude" and that California's indecent exposure law applies only to genitals, not breasts. Her lawsuit also alleged that her constitutional rights had been violated, that she had been subject to unlawful gender discrimination, and that federal civil rights laws had been violated. She was topless at a Bernie Sanders campaign rally, 19 March 2016, in
Phoenix, Arizona, and she was led to the back of the venue without incident. On 23 January 2016, Anni Ma, as a
FEMEN activist, Carly Mitchell, Chelsea Ducote and Marston protested at a "Walk For Life" event at the
San Francisco City Hall and the
Civic Center. 2017 and 2018. The Free the Nipple Brighton group is headed up by Bee Nicholls and Mickey F, both of Brighton. There was also a Free the Nipple event in 2017, held in
Charleston, West Virginia. and one was held in
Hull, England, on 26 August 2017. The date is celebrated as
Women's Equality Day and
Go Topless Day, being the anniversary of the
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 which gave US women the right to vote. == Court cases ==