June 10, 2017
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Ocean City, Maryland officials went as far as to pass an emergency ban this week on topless sunbathing for women amid press and social media speculation over whether the resort would start allowing it on its beaches.
Officials in Ocean City, Maryland took a hard line on topless sunbathing this week, saying Friday that the resort will not allow toplessness on its beaches, despite social media rumblings that suggested the opposite.
They took it a step further on Saturday, passing an emergency ordinance that bans women from bathing on its beaches without a top.
"This ordinance provides clarity as to the position of (Ocean City), that we will not allow women to be topless on our beach or on any public property within city limits," Mayor Rick Meehan wrote in a Facebook post that shared the town's announcement of the ordinance.
Officials said in a statement that the town had been flooded with phone calls from residents, asking why their town was becoming a "topless beach."
Comments this week from the head of Ocean City's beach patrol, who instructed his lifeguards to document when women sunbathed topless, but not approach them, led some on social media to believe toplessless would be allowed for women.
Quite the contrary, officials said Friday on Facebook.
"Despite what is being circulated on social media, the Town of Ocean City is not a topless beach and will not become a topless beach," the post read. "The intent of the policy that is being reported on was strictly for our employees. We want our lifeguards to have their eyes o the ocean, as the safety of our swimmers is their first priority."
The town said its police department would respond to complaints from the beach patrol over topless women on the beach.
"We have received dozens of phone calls, read thousands of comments and answered numerous emails from our residents and visitors expressing their concerns," officials said. "We assure you we share those concerns and intend to do whatever is necessary to prevent this from happening on our beach, or in any public area of Ocean City."
It is legal for both men and women to be topless, under state law, which states that laws cannot give preferential treatment on the basis of sex or gender.
The issue also surfaced last year when Chelsea Covington, a "topfreedom" advocate, submitted a request to the Ocean City Police Department about going topless on its beach. Her inquiry was forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General, where it is still under consideration.
"My mission is to normalize female (bare chests) akin to how male (bare chests) are basically completely unnoteworthy," Covington said at the time in a Delmarva.com report.
Ocean City officials suggested in a press release that Covington's request spurred the ordinance approved unanimously by its council on Saturday. The release stated that Covington believes it is her constitutional right under equal protection to be bare-chested in public.
Ocean City officials disagree, they said.
