Few people, in fact, have taken advantage of the law, based on Stover's anecdotal evidence as well as a recent weekday trip to a crowded Nantucket beach. Not to mention, some beachgoers don't seem to know the law exists.
"It's the freedom people were looking for," said Stover. "Not necessarily to go and do it, but to know that they could."
For the past three summers, anyone, regardless of gender, has been able to go topless at Nantucket beaches under the new bylaw, which passed in the winter of 2022 with an 87-vote margin and secured rights for women that have been afforded to men for decades.
At the time of the bylaw's passage, there was consternation, pushback, and fears of what the tony island would become. Stover, who considered her efforts a part of the movement for "topfreedom," didn't hear from some friends and loved ones. One friend told her they would "never speak to you again."
Nantucket, which has a number of public beaches , is the first town in Massachusetts specifically to address toplessness in its bylaws. On other beaches around the state, there are sections where nude sunbathing is informally accepted, such as Moshup Beach on Martha's Vineyard and Boy Beach in Provincetown. Nantucket even has an unofficial nude beach, an unmarked spot roughly between Miacomet Pond and the Surfside sewer beds.
The acceptance of laws like Nantucket's is a trend across the country, according to Erich Schuttauf, executive director and general counsel for the American Association of Nude Recreation, a national nudist organization.
Just three months ago, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that being topless didn't qualify as "lewd" behavior. Similar rulings have been upheld in Colorado and New York , he said.
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