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‘Free The Nipple’ Activist Rampages Through Berkeley City Council

Ian Miles Cheong Contributor
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A nude activist rampaged through Berkeley City Council chambers on Tuesday night following the death of a proposal that called on the legalization of public nudity, which is part of a nationwide “free the nipple” campaign that first began on Instagram.

Berkeley resident Gypsy Taub expressed her anger at the council by stripping naked and running across tables in the room. According to Berkeleyside, the proposal is not slated to return to the agenda.

Following the adjournment of the council meeting before midnight, Taub stripped naked and screamed, “Let’s get arrested, let’s get fucking native.” Her outburst was captured on camera (warning: NSFW).

Taub ran around the room calling members of the council “hypocrites,” oppressors,” and stated: “I don’t care who you are, my body belongs to me,” before launching into an expletive-laden diatribe about her right to public nudity.

Officials left the room as she continued to speak. “Your sex life is a joke because you never liberated yourself from body shame,” she yelled before hopping on the dais to bang the judge’s gavel repeatedly to denounce the City Council as “oppressors.”

After she calmed down, a police officer ordered her to leave the room, and she did so peacefully.

The item appeared on the city’s agenda through Councilman Kriss Worthington’s office to decriminalize “the Display of Public Nipples,” which, if passed, would have removed a line from Berkeley’s municipal code that prohibited the display of female breasts in public.

The policy was shot down by Councilwoman Sophie Hahn, who called its supporters “misguided” and told them to focus on much more important issues like female genital mutilation.

Many celebrities, including Miley Cyrus, Lena Dunham, and Cara Delevigne have expressed their support for the “free the nipple” cause nationwide.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.