Take it off (the docket)

Let's get all the "keeping abreast of the news" and "thanks for the mammary" jokes out of the way right now, please.  Because the fight in Ocean City, MD, our fabulous Atlantic getaway spot, over women going topless on the beach is still bubbling. Five women have filed a complaint in Federal Court against the town and its mayor and they seem to have a fair right to claim discrimination.

Last summer, OC passed emergency legislation to ban bare-chested women in public...but not men, and the women filing the complaint say it's a simple matter of equality.

The leader of the group is Chelsea Eline, who comes from the Eastern Shore and is what is called a "top freedom" advocate.  Her lawyer is Devon Jacob, and he told WBAL-TV, "Unfortunately, the town of Ocean City does not want to follow the law. And so, here we are. We're going to litigate it."

Last summer, Ms Eline said that she would be doffing her top in places where men were similarly unclad, and the beach town about lost their mind, hastily convening the town council to pass the rule forbidding women from being topless.

The mayor of Ocean City, Rick Meehan, said,"The town of Ocean City is not a topless beach and will not become a topless beach."

Except for men. No problem with all those barrel-chested men you always see on the beach with a grey thatch of chest foliage, in which nestles a Mr T starter set of gold doodads.  They need no shirt to go above their Speedo, no sir.

The women say this is sexist, that a law can't say one thing for one gender and another for the other.

"There are good men and women out there who are fighting for equality and you see it in the #MeToo movement, but you're seeing it here as well. This is where it starts, or rather, frankly, this is where it's going to end," Attorney Jacob says

For his part, Mayor Meehan says, "There is no constitutional right for an individual to appear in public nude or in a state of nudity. It does not implicate either the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the right to privacy, or a protected liberty interest. It lacks any communicated value that might call for First Amendment protection." 

Not being a lawyer, I can't tell you what 'communicated value' is, but I can surely tell you the difference between a man and a woman.  This is going to wind up in court, and I hope the women prevail in their fight not to wear shirts in a town whose tourism industry is largely based on selling t-shirts with profane mottoes.

And really. If they force a woman to wear a bikini top no larger than two fifty-cent pieces, does that make a dollar's worth of difference?