Minneapolis Park Board: No more citations for women going topless in the parks

November 20, 2020 at 9:24PM
Siblings Karen Lopez, below on phone, JD Rowland, 9, left, and Kiki Rowland, 11, right, took a break for ice cream at Lake Nokomis beach in summer 2019.
Siblings Karen Lopez, below on phone, JD Rowland, 9, left, and Kiki Rowland, 11, right, took a break for ice cream at Lake Nokomis beach in summer 2019. (Lisa Legge — Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted Wednesday to allow anyone to go topless in the city's parks without being ticketed.

Under city and state law, it's legal for anyone to be topless in public. But a Minneapolis park ordinance continued to make bared "female breasts" in city parks and parkways grounds for an indecent exposure citation.

That language has come under criticism.

The current ordinance says that no one 10 or older "shall intentionally expose his or her own genitals, pubic area, buttocks or female breast below the top of the areola, with less than a fully opaque covering, in or upon any park or parkway." Wednesday's vote repealed the part related to breasts.

about the writer

about the writer

David Chanen

Reporter

David Chanen is a reporter covering Hennepin County government and Prince's estate dealings. He previously covered crime, courts and spent two sessions at the Legislature.

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