FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Officials in this city of 150,000 residents are considering changes to their ordinance on public nudity that would permit women to go topless in public.

The proposal is in response to requests from residents who say the current ordinance discriminates against women. City law does not prohibit men from appearing in public without shirts.

At one point in August when the temperature was about 20 degrees warmer than Tuesday’s 66-degree high, Brittiany Hoagland, 24, stood on a busy street corner in Fort Collins, about 65 miles north of Denver, wearing a bikini and a placard across her chest: “Illegal to remove.”

For her it’s simple: Colorado’s Constitution prohibits denying equal rights on account of sex. If men may go bare chested in public legally, so should women.