[ Updated Aug 18, 2021: DenverGoTopless Day 2021 Cancellation ]

Thanks everyone for your patience while we've navigated 2020 challenges and fallout. Though we long for a return to "normal", we remain pro-mask & pro-vaxx, preferring an abundance of caution for social safety's sake. Many of you have been waiting to hear if DGT August 2021 will be taking place and, given the pandemic, the answer has, unfortunately, changed to No.

* Due to Covid19, we were unable to secure a permit for a full-scale 2021 parade. With the risks posed by Covid, there was a possibility a parade, with potentially hundreds of participants walking shoulder-to-shoulder and bunched up at intersections and breathing each others' air, could be unsafe. We preferred not to take the risk. 💛

* For a while this year, masks, social distancing, and increased herd immunity through vaccinations looked to increase safety for smaller gatherings, so for 2021 GoTopless Day we were going to adjust accordingly, encouraging an informal, socially-distanced gathering this year, avoiding dense crowds and packed sidewalks.

* Unfortunately, anti-mask, anti-vax propaganda has led many to forego basic senses of compassion and social responsibility, and opened the door to millions of avoidable infections. Not enough of us listened to experts begging us to take the pandemic seriously and warning us how every host is an opportunity for virus mutation, so here we are with the Delta variant, a form far more infectious than the original.

* A vaccine is not a cure, yet available vaccines have proven effective at drastically reducing severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths within the vaccinated population. In unvaccinated populations, however, the virus is still packing patients into hospitals and killing thousands per week. Because of the higher infectiousness of the Delta variant, even vaccinated individuals have a risk of passing the virus on to others.

* DenverGoTopless Day isn’t merely a parade and group photo. There’s fellowship, hugs, and participants posing with each other for selfies and pic requests. Travelers visit gas stations and restaurants. Bystanders often join the festivities. All of these activities increase risk of viral transmission.

* We at DenverGoTopless are unwilling to place selfishness over social safety —even one death traced to our event would be too many— no matter how popular a rallying cry “Fuck Your Feelings” has become in America nowadays. DenverGoTopless is about social justice, which we as individuals and as a nation can never attain if we’re willfully blinding ourselves to others’ pain.

* Hopefully by next year America will have come to its senses.