Boobs On Bikes Tomorrow (If you are in New Zealand)

[Cachondo]

New Zealand’s Parade Of Porn Stars, Gets Legal Green Light



Auckland, New Zealand -- Boobs on Bikes, a regular - and nearly annual - event in New Zealand - featuring semi-nude porn stars that parade down the street on motorcycles, cars, and yes.... even tanks.... gets the green light after legal challenges against it fail.

The parade, which is set to take place on Auckland's Queen Street tomorrow, has thwarted an attempted by Auckland's City Council to block the event.

The parade first brought discourse in 2006, when parade organizer Steve Crow was granted permission by the City Council to have the parade. Opposition to the parade mounted when the parade was held in Christchurch, New Zealand without City Council approval.

This year, when the Auckland City Council denied Crow's request to hold the event, he announced he'd go ahead with it anyway - prompting council members to seek a court ordered injunction to stop it.

Auckland District Court judge Nicola Mathers rejected the City Council's argument that topless women parading down the street violated a newly amended bylaw banning offensive public events.

The judge stated that although some councilors may deem the parade to be offensive, she did not agree - even if it was tacky. The fact that 80,000 people attended the previous event meant a significant number of people did not agree with the critic's views.

She also stated that her decision was based on law instead of morals - a sticking point that has divided the New Zealand public.

Although the event is still unapproved and therefor technically not legal, Auckland authorities say the parade is not an arrest worthy offense and is leaving it up the City Council themselves to enforce - a hint of sarcasm that authorities have grown weary of being put in the middle of the dispute.

[Cachondo]

OFFICES in New Zealand's largest city emptied and an estimated 100,000 workers lined Auckland's main street today to enjoy the annual "Boobs on Bikes" parade.

Around one hundred porn stars and drag queens cruised through the bustling business district on motorbikes, while the male-dominated crowd jostled to get photographs.

Bureaucrats in Auckland had tried to ban the parade, which went ahead at the eleventh hour after a female judge ruled it was not legally offensive.

The parade was part of an "Erotica Expo" organised by Steve Crow, a self-styled "porn king" who had threatened to stage the event with or without a council permit.

The street took on a carnival atmosphere, with the only tension during the hour-long parade coming when eggs thrown at Crow narrowly missed a policeman.

"I'm glad to see people are exercising their freedom of expression," said Crow, who led the parade in a shiny black convertible.

I told the girls beforehand to keep the jiggling to a minimum and not to do anything that would be deemed offensive," he said.

Police struggled to contain the crowd, who were at times lined six deep, jostling to photograph the bare-breasted women on mobile phones and cameras.

Virtually every possible viewing space was taken up, with construction workers watching from building sites and office workers leaning out of windows.

Around 50 women led a protest march against pornography in front of the parade but did little to dampen the crowd's spirits.

"Never seen anything like it. I liked the boobs but there wasn't enough of them," said a tradesman who had taken the day off work specially for the parade.

A Canadian tourist who wished to remain anonymous said she was taking photos to show back home because "no one would believe me."

Judge Nicola Mathers of the Auckland District Court said Tuesday the bylaw the council introduced to stop the parade was questionable.

"It is not offensive per se for women to be topless. It may be distasteful to some, but in my view the council reference to offensive cannot reasonably apply in these circumstances," she said.