Massachusetts State Senate Candidate Supports Women Going Topless At Beaches
By Tom Joyce | July 17, 2024, 14:02 EDT
Should women be allowed to go topless at beaches in Massachusetts?
At least one member of the Massachusetts legislature thinks so.
State Representative Dylan Fernandes (D-Falmouth) showed support for the idea when a municipality in his current district approved it. Fernandes is running for Massachusetts Senate in the Plymouth and Barnstable District to replace the incumbent, state Senator Susan Moran (D-Falmouth), who is not seeking re-election.
Fernandes voiced support for a Nantucket bylaw that allows women to go topless on beaches in Massachusetts after the municipal law unit in the office of then-Attorney General Maura Healey approved the proposal in December 2022.
“Nantucket beaches have been officially approved to allow both men AND women to go topless – a win for gender equity (& tan lines️),” Fernandes posted on the site formerly known as Twitter on December 6, 2022.
The approval from the state Attorney General’s office came seven months after Nantucket voters approved the bylaw at its 2022 Town Meeting, 327-242.
Currently, exposure of female breasts in certain circumstances constitutes Open and Gross Lewdness and Lascivious Behavior in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, according to Chapter 272 Section 16 of the state’s general laws; it carries a theoretical prison sentence of up to three years.
However, the office of the Attorney General said nothing in state law prevented Nantucket from passing this bylaw.
“We approve the Town’s vote authorizing any person to go topless on any public or private beach in Nantucket because we discern no conflict between the vote and the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth,” a determination released by Healey’s office at the time said. “The Town has the authority to choose what activities it will allow on town beaches, and we must approve any by-law reflecting such choice unless the by-law poses a clear conflict with the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth, which Article 71 does not.”
Under the Nantucket bylaw, women cannot go topless in public anywhere else on the island, including beach parking lots and concession areas near its beaches, as NewBostonPost previously reported.
The Plymouth and Barnstable District, which Fernandes is running to represent, includes Kingston, Pembroke, Plymouth, Plympton, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich, according to Senator Moran’s office.
Fernandes will face either state representative Matt Muratore (R-Plymouth) or Bourne School Committee member Kari Macrae, another Republican, in the general election, depending on who wins the GOP primary.
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