2015.10.20 The Denver Post
The Fort Collins City Council Tuesday night rejected the idea of allowing women to go topless, but unanimously approved on first reading an option to tweak the current law to allow breastfeeding and clarify how it applies to children under 10.
The option also defines the breast as beginning at the top of the nipple.
A long line of speakers, limited to two minutes each, addressed the council, and the wide majority voiced concerns about changing the status quo by passing the ordinance.
Many speakers, mostly Fort Collins residents, told the council that allowing women to go topless would erode the “family atmosphere” of their city. Some told the council they would avoid the Old Town section and take their business elsewhere.
About a half-dozen speakers did support the proposal. They urged passage of the measure as a way to demonstrate women’s equality with men, who are allowed to be topless in public.
Supporters said passage would be a step forward; opponents argued passage would be a step back.
Fort Collins resident Brittiany Hoagland, a self-proclaimed novice activist, said before the meeting that she thought her ordinance proposal would be a quick and easy fix to an issue she felt was contributing to gender inequality in her community.
“Boy, was I wrong,” Hoagland said.
Hoagland’s interest in feminism got her wondering what issues of women’s oppression she could tackle in her own backyard. When she found a Fort Collins ordinance that prohibited women from going topless in public, Hoagland brought it to the attention of her city councilman, Gerry Horak, in February, with the hope of changing the language so that both men and women were free to show their chests in the city. Hoagland said that legislating women’s bodies contributed to their unfair sexualization.
The City Council was receptive at first, Hoagland said, but then began ignoring her requests to enact change.
“It was because I was ignored for many, many months after I first touched base that I ended up hosting a protest and bringing this to the community, myself,” she said.
After a few protests that garnered attention, Hoagland said she has talked with City Council advisory boards and added her input to the two options the council crafted for Tuesday’s meeting.
“As city staff, we drafted some ordinances,” said David Young, city of Fort Collins spokesman. “The first one is, essentially, keeping the ordinance as is, with a few exceptions like specifying that women were allowed to breastfeed in public. The second one would permit toplessness for everyone in public.”
Both updated options continue to prohibit any nudity from the waist down by any person over the age of 10 and provide exceptions for medical emergencies, performance venues and changing areas, Young said.
During the meeting, which is a first reading of the proposal and will have to be followed by a second reading in November that will make the vote official, council members will have to select either the first option or the second.
If the council votes on option one, Hoagland said she will be “infuriated.”
“Allowing only breastfeeding mothers to go topless will prevent Fort Collins from getting sued for breaking federal protection, but it will not grant women the power equality they need to avoid informal harrassment,” Hoagland said.
City Councilman and former Fort Collins Mayor Ray Martinez is against the ordinance update and said he does not think option two will pass.
“We’re a family-oriented community, and I’ve got hundreds of e-mails in favor of opposing it,” Martinez said. “I have not received one e-mail for the public nudity ordinance.”
