Westword - GoTopless Day Returns to Denver Saturday

"We deserve to have the same rights and comforts as any man, because we are all human, and that's just that."

By Jack Spiegel

July 26, 2024

A decade-old tradition, DenverGoTopless Day, returns to Civic Center tomorrow, July 27. "Our goal was to open Denver's eyes to the fact that women are equals, in every way, and not sexual objects to be censored where men are not," the organizer of the first DenverGoTopless, in 2013, told Westword. "We deserve to have the same rights and comforts as any man, because we are all human, and that's just that."

While that first gathering boasted just twenty participants, the annual event has grown to attract over a thousand, who will rally in Civic Center Park, then parade through downtown at noon.

Public nudity is legal in Denver, with the exception of exposed genitals or buttocks. Breasts may be naked here. But other municipalities are not as enlightened. The Free the Nipple movement wound up taking Fort Collins to court over its topless ban, and an appeals court ruled in 2019 that the ban violated the 14th Amendment because it only pertained to women. Rather than appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court, Fort Collins simply rescinded the ban.

This year's parade organizers are encouraging other towns to drop any bans — and allow women to drop their tops.

DenverGoTopless Day starts at 10 a.m. Saturday in Civic Center Park; find more information on the Facebook event page.