(ZeroHedge) The tiny vacation island of Nantucket, Massachusetts has become the first city in the state to approve topless beaches.
Seven months after voters approved a bylaw amendment which would allow all people, including women, to go topless while on the island’s beaches, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey made it official – a required step before the so-called “Gender Equity on Beaches” amendment could become law, Cape Cod Times reports.
On other nearby beaches, such as Cape Cod and the Islands region, nude sunbathing is informally accepted. There are also beaches where nude sunbathing is specifically prohibited – or that it is allowed beyond the first 1,500 feet of the beach entrance, such as with Lucy Vincent Beach on Martha’s Vineyard.
In a six-page determination issued on Tuesday, Healey noted, “the town has the authority to choose what activities it will allow on town beaches, and we must approve any bylaw reflecting such choice unless the bylaw poses a clear conflict with the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth.”
Based on this standard, she approved the bylaw, which will apply to all Nantucket beaches. The island has 10 public beaches, plus numerous private beaches that bring the total to 26. -Cape Cod Times
