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MARYLAND

'Ocean City is not a topless beach and will not become a topless beach,' town says

Ryan Marshall
The Daily Times
People line the beaches in Ocean City, Md., during Memorial Day weekend 2016.

Ocean City officials issued a statement Friday after the town was flooded with phone calls asking why it endorsed being a "topless beach."

The town points to misinformation in some media reports and social media postings that recently went viral. 

The question began last summer when the beach patrol was contacted by an Eastern Shore resident, Chelsea Covington, who believed it was her legal right to bare her chest on the Ocean City beach.

"The Mayor and City Council are unanimously opposed to women being topless on our beach or in any public area in Ocean City," Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said in the released statement. "While we respect Ms. Covington’s desire to express what rights she believes she may have, Ocean City is a family resort and we intend to do whatever is within our ability to also protect the rights of those families that visit us each year."

Friday night, the town announced a special session at noon Saturday, June 10, to discuss an amendment to the town code on "offenses involving public nudity or state of nudity."

Background: OC Beach Patrol issues orders on response to female toplessness 

The issue over toplessness was previously sent to Worcester County State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby, who then sent a request for an opinion from the Maryland Attorney General.

With no official word at the start of the tourism season, the beach patrol issued a memo on Tuesday, June 6, to instruct lifeguards on how to deal with a potential complaint.

Town spokeswoman Jessica Waters said the "intent of the policy that is being reported on was strictly for our Beach Patrol employees. Lifeguards in Ocean City are expected to have their eyes on the ocean, as the safety of our swimmers is their first priority."

Instead, the town's police department would respond to calls of complaints. 

“We’re just anxiously awaiting that opinion to see what the decision is,” Waters said on Thursday. “We certainly respect Ms. Covington and her constitutional rights, but we have millions of people visiting Ocean City and we have to keep them in mind as well.

“That puts us in a very uneasy position,” she said.