Ocean City Topless Ban Testimony Ends, Awaits Judge's Decision

OCEAN CITY, MD — Community standards dictate that Ocean City leaders were within their rights to ban topless women at the busy beach resort, testimony in a Baltimore federal court argued, and now a judge is weighing whether the ordinance banning bare-chested women should be struck down. Attorneys for a group of five women have sued to overturn the topless ban, which they called discriminatory. Court documents argue that the nudity statute "codifies longstanding discriminatory and sexist ideology in which women are viewed as inherently sexual objects."

City council members voted to ban topless women from public spaces in June 2017, which topless advocates vowed to challenge in court. In January 2018, the women filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to strike down the resort town's ordinance. A hearing on Dec. 7 focused on a motion to temporarily end the ban while the court reaches a final decision.

Ocean City's leaders pushed through the law as a way to ensure the Maryland seaside resort retains a family-friendly appearance. Elected officials in the beach mecca have the legal right to ban topless women from sunbathing on the town's beaches, the Maryland Attorney General's office said after the city council enacted the measure.

"This lawsuit is about confirming the legal right of women to be bare-chested in public in the same places that men are permitted to be bare-chested, for purposes other than breastfeeding," the complaint reads. (See the full text of the lawsuit at the bottom of this story.)

Chief Judge James Bredar said he will soon rule on how the case will proceed. Pretrial motions in the lawsuit must be filed by May 17, 2019, reports DelMarva Now. If the judge rules for either side by this date, it would end the fight over the topless ban. But if a ruling is not made, the lawsuit would continue to trial.

In court Friday, Mayor Rick Meehan testified that he and city council members felt they had to respond to the concerned calls and emails received following the topless appearances. Meehan said he believes the ordinance reflects the public’s sensibilities because of the public comments he received.

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Local authorities in June 2017 outlawed topless sunbathing after fears from some residents and tourists that topless women would flock to the sandy shores of Ocean City. Word that the town's beach patrol would disregard women who were sunbathing topless circulated across social media; local officials said lifeguards would focus on swimmers, while police handled complaints on too much exposed flesh.

"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," Devon M. Jacob, a national civil rights attorney who represents the women, told WBAL TV. "This is where it starts, or rather, frankly, this is where it's going to end."

Mayor Meehan told The Washington Post there is no constitutional right to public nudity in Ocean City. He said the town will pursue all available legal options to fight the lawsuit. "The Mayor and City Council firmly believe that Ocean City must continue to be a family resort that does not permit women to be topless on our beaches or in other public areas," Meehan told The Post.

The women suing Ocean City are Chelsea C. Eline of Salisbury, whom court papers said has used the alias Chelsea Covington, along with Megan A. Bryant of Lothian, Rose R. MacGregor of Salisbury, Christine E. Coleman of Long Island City, New York, and Angela A. Urban of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Eline and Jacob vowed last summer to sue to normalize female toplessness. She had asked Worcester County officials to weigh in on the laws regulating toplessness in Ocean City.

"The fact is if a male can walk outside with his chest bare without the world coming to an end, so can a female," Jacob told Fox Baltimore in 2017.

The attorney general's staff said previously that courts have upheld prohibiting women from exposing their breast in public while allowing men to do so under the same circumstances. So the city's ban does not violate the federal or sate Constitution.

The attorney general's letter cites multiple legal precedents where the constitutionality of indecency statutes applied to topless women, but not men, on the grounds that there are "real physical differences" between their bodies. And a federal court case says officials can uphold "the moral sensibilities of that substantial segment of society that still does not want to be exposed willy-nilly to public displays of various portions of their fellow citizens' anatomies that traditionally in this society have been regarded as erogenous zones," according to the legal opinion.

Mayor Rick Meehan said previously on Facebook, "We are pleased to see the Attorney General's Office has advised that prohibiting topless women sunbathing is not a violation of equal protection. We have a responsibility to protect the rights of thousands of families who visit our beach and Boardwalk each summer season, and the letter of advice agreed with our position."

Ocean City officials say the new ordinance prohibits offenses involving public nudity or those in a state of nudity. The law says "there is no constitutional right for an individual to appear in public nude or in a state of nudity. Whatever personal right one has to be nude or in a state of nudity that right becomes subject to government interest and regulation when one seeks to exercise it in public."

The topless ban also says "equal protection clause does not demand that things that are different in fact be treated the same in law, nor that a government pretend there are no physiological differences between men and women."

Start of Topless Controversy

A memo directing the beach patrol in Ocean City to disregard women who are sunbathing topless was shared across social media, with news that the popular resort town on Maryland's Eastern Shore is now a topless beach. Not so fast, city officials said on Facebook June 9.

"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," read the city's Facebook post.

The misunderstanding likely began when Ocean City Beach Patrol employees received a memo telling them not to approach women who sunbathe topless. In past years, patrol workers would tell women to cover up, but a policy that began May 20 said employees should instead document complaints of toplessness only, even if beach-goers ask that the sun-worshippers be ordered to dress. Police officers will still handle nudity complaints.

Capt. Butch Arbin told WBOC that legal uncertainty followed a request to allow topless sunbathing led to the policy change. Chelsea Covington is an advocate to normalize female toplessness, who has asked Worcester County State's Attorney Beau Oglesby to weigh in on the laws regulating toplessness in Ocean City. Oglesby, in turn, asked for an opinion from Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, but his office didn't weigh in until June 15.

"The woman has provided what she believes is legal justification for her to be allowed to sunbathe and walk about our beaches topless," Arbin wrote in a memo to the beach patrol, reports WBAL.

City officials were unhappy with the social media firestorm that erroneously labeled the town's beaches as topless.

"We want our lifeguards to have their eyes on the ocean, as the safety of our swimmers is their first priority," city officials said. "Our police department, on the other hand, will respond to calls from the Beach Patrol and complaints from our beach patrons, should any activity of toplessness occur."

Ocean City leaders received dozens of phone calls, read thousands of comments and answered numerous emails from residents and visitors expressing their concerns about the purported change at the beach. "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 in Ocean City," says the city on Facebook.

File photo of Ocean City beach courtesy of the town of Ocean City, Maryland