HAMPTON — A week after a small group of women went topless at Hampton Beach to support the movement Free the Nipple, one legislator is vowing to find a way for towns to prohibit public toplessness for women.

State Sen. Nancy Stiles, R-Hampton, said if she cannot find a way for municipalities to prohibit women going topless this summer, she will file legislation next year to make it so in 2016. She said she is working in collaboration with state Rep. Fred Rice, R-Hampton.

Free the Nipple is a movement to de-sexualize the female nipple. The movement first gained traction in 2014 with the premier of a globally supported film with the same name. It is billed as an equality movement to empower women and fight oppression.

Free the Nipple’s New Hampshire organizers, Heidi Lilley, 54, of Gilford, and Kia Sinclair, 23, of Danbury, went topless Aug. 3 at Hampton Beach in the area behind the Seashell Stage with two women supporters. The duo is planning to lead a bigger sit-in demonstration Aug. 23.

When officials learned the week before that state law prohibits exposure of genitals but not women’s breasts, some were furious. Hampton Beach Village District Marketing Director John Kane said Hampton Beach is a “family resort,” and that Free the Nipple demonstrators should find another location “if they want to prove something.”

Stiles is a proponent of freedom of speech and expression, she said, but believes families have a right to avoid what might offend them.

“I think there is a time and a place for everything,” Stiles said. “Families, we want them to feel they are comfortable.”

Stiles said she’s filed a request for information at the New Hampshire Senate Research Office regarding what is possible under current statutes, as well as what other states are doing to prevent toplessness. She’s hoping there is a way for towns to enact an ordinance similar to the one in Laconia, which fines women $250 for removing their tops the first time, $500 for a second and $1,000 for a third.

Last week, Hampton Town Manager Fred Welch said ordinances are technically unenforceable if they contradict state law, as New Hampshire is not a home rule state.

Stiles suggested maybe a section of Hampton Beach should be reserved for toplessness, possibly during specific hours.

“We have a nudist colony in Lee. Maybe there’s a section of the beach that needs to be declared a nudist beach,” Stiles said.

Stiles said any legislation she’ll pass would allow towns to govern their own rules for female toplessness, rather than a state law that prohibited it all together.

“It’s a fine line between an individual’s right and what is allowed under law,” Stiles said. “I would try to file something that would give towns permission to do what they needed to do. I wouldn’t set anything in stone. I would give permission to municipalities.”