Sunday was National Go Topless Day and a sizeable group of women gathered outside City Hall with their shirts off to raise awareness of breast cancer. A sizeable group of men gathered around them, but their motives were more questionable. The event took advantage of the fact that Santa Cruz is one of the few cities in the United States where women are allowed to go topless in public.
Sunday was National Go Topless Day and a sizeable group of women gathered outside City Hall with their shirts off to raise awareness of breast cancer. A sizeable group of men gathered around them, but their motives were more questionable. The event took advantage of the fact that Santa Cruz is one of the few cities in the United States where women are allowed to go topless in public.
Under the motto of “Free Your Breasts. Free Your Mind,” National Go Topless Day was first conceived by Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon, a former racecar driver and journalist, who claims to have had an encounter with a UFO in 1973. He has since changed his name to Raël and is considered by his followers to be a prophet and messiah. In addition to promoting women’s toplessness, Raelians (as Rael’s followers are known) also support the creation of embassies for extra terrestrials on Earth. They are also staunch advocates of human cloning, believing that human beings were first cloned by aliens about 25,000 years ago. Suddenly topless advocacy seems one of their more mainstream beliefs.
The Raelian beliefs were not a highlight of Sunday’s gathering in front of City Hall. Most women were there to advocate for women’s rights and to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. Revenues from flowers such as “naked ladies” (belladonna lilies Amarylli) that were sold there were donated to WomenCARE, a group that supports women with all types of cancer. Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel and GoTopless.org.
