More Stone Soup

As I expected, Joan in the comic Stone Soup isn't taking any of that "you can't do that in here" crap. Hooray!

You can't do that in here

Looks like the comic strip Stone Soup is taking on the topic of nursing in public... let's see where it goes...

Applebee's accuses nursing mother of having "an agenda"

Recently I heard of yet another mother being harassed in a restaurant for breastfeeding. This time it's in Kentucky, and it's a major chain - Applebee's.

I have not spoken with Brooke Ryan directly, and I will not post her email without her permission. However, Kentucky.com is featuring Ms. Ryan's story, which you can read here.

Here are the facts - Kentucky passed a law in 2006 which protects a mother's right to breastfeed her baby. Applebee's violated this law.

But that's not bad enough, apparently. Mike Scanlon is the president of Thomas & King, which operates the Applebee's restaurants in central Kentucky, and here's what he had to say about the incident:

"It is perfectly legal to breast-feed in public and we support that," Scanlon said. "I'm not sure the manager said cover the baby's head, I think he said cover yourself modestly. This was by no means intended as interference, but a request to do it modestly, which I believe is an appropriate response."

Ok, I don't love that response - but WAIT! It gets better!

Scanlon suggested that Ryan had an "agenda."

"I note with interest that she had a copy of the statute with her," he said.

An agenda?!?

Last year in Kansas, the state's Department of Health and Environment handed out 40,000 laminated cards which explained the recently passed breastfeeding law. Does Mr. Scanlan think these women have an agenda as well? Is it an agenda if you want to simply be left alone so you can feed your baby?

The sad fact is that many nursing mothers do carry a copy of their state law with them, and this incident at Applebee's is a perfect illustration of why they do so.

Mr. Scanlan should be ashamed of himself.

Synchroized Breastfeeding

SouthCoastToday.com is running a nice article on a local group's participation in the international effort to break the Guinness World Record for breastfeeding synchronized breastfeeding. (Yes, there is a world record - last year, 3,541 mothers simultaneously breastfed their babies in the Phillipines.) The activity was organized as part of World Breastfeeding Week, and obviously it got some attention.

I was struck by one detail and how it was presented in the story:

"I'm really pro breast-feeding," [Angela] Aranjo said, adding that one time, she was politely 'kicked out of Wal-Mart for breast-feeding in public' after another customer complained.

"Politely" kicked out of Wal-Mart? I'd really love to hear the back story on this one.

Massachusetts remains one of the only states without legislation to protect a nursing mother's right to feed her baby in public places, and it is an embarrassment. Exactly what do our lawmakers need in order to stop dithering and start doing something?

Breastfeeding in mealtime, comfort (Central Kentucky News Journal)

I am responding to an article written by Linda Ireland titled "Debating the public and private domain."

Do you know this woman? Have you ever met her or her child? How do you know that she could have covered up? Perhaps, her experience with her baby tells her that her baby would simply have began crying or thrown the blanket off, making it futile. Are you aware that many babies like to look around or into the eyes of their mother while they eat, that they will not nurse if covered up? For some, the blanket is a distraction. Are you aware that nursing comforts a fussy child?

Should she, instead, have allowed her child to scream and cry during the entire flight, just to avoid flashing an unsuspecting passenger? Are you aware that nursing lessens the painful popping sensation of the ears during take off and landing, that a child who is sucking on something is less apt to holler as a result of the discomfort? Are you aware that prolonged pacifier and bottle use can cause dental problems and interfere with milk supply?


click to read more...

Nursing is normal and not something to hide (Central Kentucky News Journal)

Linda Ireland recently wrote an editorial responding to the New Mexico mother expulsion from a Freedom Airlines flight on Monday, Dec. 4.

As a nursing mother myself, I am offended and appalled that Ireland compared the act of breastfeeding to mouth-breathing and belching.

Nursing a child is normal and not something to be hidden in shame or done in the bathroom.

Ireland suggested that all nursing mothers carry blankets just in case someone around them gets offended. Well, here's a newsflash for you: someone will be offended whether we cover or not.


click to read more...

Airlines ask for dismissal of breast-feeding complaint (Times Argus)

SOUTH BURLINGTON — Two airlines named in a complaint by a woman who was kicked off a flight for breast-feeding have asked the Vermont Human Rights Commission to dismiss it.

Freedom Airlines and Delta Air Lines say women can nurse babies on their planes, but they say the complaint filed by Emily Gillette, 27, of Santa Fe, N.M., which argues that breast-feeding is a right protected by Vermont's Public Accommodations Law, should be dismissed.

"Freedom denies having discriminated against the charging party in any manner whatsoever and specifically denies that any violation of the Vermont Fair Housing and Accommodations Act ... has occurred," Freedom wrote in its response, which was provided by Gillette's attorney, Elizabeth Boepple of Manchester.



click to read more...

Breast Feeding In Public Called Into Question (TheDay.com)

Did you hear the one about the woman who got escorted off a plane because she was flashing her boob?
No, it's not a punch line to a really funny joke.

The woman, Emily Gillette, was nursing her 1-year-old daughter. A Delta Air Lines flight attendant offered Gillette a blanket and told her to cover up. When she refused, Gillette, along with her husband and baby, were escorted off the plane.

The result was a dozen or so “nurse-ins,” protests held last month at Delta Air Lines ticket counters at airports around the country.

There's a chance that my liberalist and feminist cards may get yanked for this one, but I agree with the airlines. Not in the fact that they had the family leave the airplane — although how else would they have resolved the situation? — but that the flight attendant offered a blanket.



click to read more...

Guest column: What’s next? Hugging your kids in public? (The Joplin Globe)

My niece Karen has new baby and is feeding her the old-fashioned way. While in the hospital, I observed her telling one of her male relatives to “turn around if you don’t want to see this,” meaning she was about to breastfeed, and the man had apparently expressed an aversion to witnessing it. I found this flat-out hilarious.

First of all, we live in a culture in which breasts are used to sell everything from light beer to luxury cars. You can find wet-T-shirt contests on basic cable; cleavage is considered suitable attire for cocktails, the office, and Sunday Mass; but let a breast be used for the one purpose for which it is clearly designed and some people, and some men in particular, find it downright obscene.



click to read more...

When it's feeding time, moms have rights, too (The Republican)

Here in Massachusetts, the cradle of liberty, there is no law guaranteeing mothers the right to nurse their babies in public.

The need for such a law was made obvious recently when Emily Gillette was ordered off a Freedom Airlines flight in Burlington, Vt., because she refused to cover her baby's head with a blanket while breast-feeding.

The incident sparked demonstrations at airports across the country, including Bradley International Airport, where one demonstrator, Susan Parker, the mother of a 10-month-old daughter, told the Associated Press, "It's a basic human thing that we are doing and we should be able to do it in public without being kicked off planes; without being told in sit in bathrooms. It's a human right."



click to read more...

Instant Messages (Chicago Sun-Times)

On Monday, Sun-Times columnist Laura Berman wrote about a "nurse-in" protest of Delta Air Lines after the carrier booted off a female passenger for breast-feeding; Berman urged social support for women who need to breast- feed in public. Readers responded:

click to read more...

Mama-rama: Breast-feeding is not offensive (The Hub)

Maybe you've heard about the woman who was kicked off a Delta Airlines flight for nursing her daughter a couple of weeks ago. According to 27-year-old Emily Gillette of Santa Fe, N.M., she was in a window seat in the second-to-last row with her husband between her and the aisle, and no part of her breast was showing. Unfortunately for Emily, a flight attendant took offense and asked her to cover up with a blanket. When Emily declined, she and her husband and daughter were asked to get off the plane.

Now, I'm sure I don't have to tell you -- again -- how I feel about people who are offended by public breast-feeding. Basically, it begins with "too" and ends with "bad," with a "damn" in the middle there. The idea that feeding a child could be considered obscene or indiscreet, while every day thousands of men get away with plumber's crack scot-free, is enough to raise my blood pressure to dangerous heights.



click to read more...

Breastfeeding Rally To Take Place At DFW Airport (Press Release)

Nursing mothers and their supporters will be gathering on Friday, December 1 at 10 AM, at the Delta ticket counter in Terminal E of DFW airport.

On November 21, mothers and other advocates took part in a nation-wide nurse-in at roughly 40 U.S. airports. Like all of the rallies across the country, the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Nurse-in supported the right to breastfeed in all public and private locations, anywhere a mother and child might be, regardless of any issues of discretion. There was no formal national organization sponsoring this event, but amazingly, hundreds of mothers and other supporters turned out nation-wide. Unlike the rest of the nation, however, the supporters at the DFW Airport rally were harassed, insulted, and threatened with possible arrest by members of the DFW police (Department of Public Safety officers), and then asked to leave.

Though the right to breastfeed already exists, many people are unaware of this right, or may choose to challenge this right, or otherwise intimidate and cause discomfort for nursing moms, posing a great threat to the continuation and exclusivity of breastfeeding relationships and compromising the health of mothers and children, and the economic well-being of the society.

The goals of this Friday’s nurse-in are:

• To insist that the DFW Airport Police (DPS) apologize to the attendees of the November 21st rally for the unacceptable comments and threats, and provide documentation that training is being implemented to educate all DPS officers about the laws concerning breastfeeding in the state of Texas (specifically Texas Health And Safety Code Chapter 165 Section 002, which states “A mother is entitled to breastfeed her child in any location in which the mother is authorized to be,” as well as the definitions of indecent exposure and disorderly conduct). The DPS should ensure that in the future, officers will protect, rather than endanger breastfeeding relationships, by refraining from engaging in harassment of nursing moms and their children. The police should not approach breastfeeding mothers, but rather the mothers should be left alone.
• To hold Delta accountable for the removal of Emily Gillette from one of their flights and to insist that training procedures will be put into place to ensure that all staff at Delta and its subsidiaries will uphold and support a child’s right to breastfeed.
• To call for airlines to revisit their breastfeeding and transport of pumped breast milk policies, to support traveling families and working mothers who must travel for business and be separated from their children. Current policies about liquid items, which restrict the amount of pumped breast milk allowed on board with mothers who do not have their babies with them, compromise the health of babies who depend on pumped milk, and force mothers to dump precious breast milk that they have pumped while they were separated from their children. This situation is especially harmful for babies whose mothers already have difficulty pumping enough to meet the child’s needs during times of separation.
• To call for immediate passage of pending federal legislation that offers civil rights protection for breastfeeding women in the workplace, and new federal legislation to protect the right to breastfeed whenever and wherever mothers and their children are allowed to be, regardless of whether any part of the mother’s breast might be exposed during or incidental to the feeding. This legislation will clarify rights that already exist, and nullify any business policies or laws throughout the country that are already in place or might come into existence, which would infringe on a mother and child’s constitutional right to breastfeed (For example, Tennessee law protects a mother’s right to breastfeed a child in public only as long as the child is younger than 13 months of age).


The issue of breastfeeding rights goes far beyond a woman’s right to nurse - it also encompasses a basic human right for children, the right to eat and to receive comfort and nurturing at the breast.

The Nurse-ins have been coordinated by volunteers.

Get past breast-feeding unease (DesMoines Register)

News that Delta kicked a family off a flight in October because the breast-feeding mother refused to cover her baby with a blanket is unfortunately not surprising.

Despite growing knowledge about the health benefits of breast-feeding - as if nourishment weren't enough - many people still feel uncomfortable about public breast-feeding.

Remember a few years ago in Iowa when a West Branch restaurant owner asked a nursing mother to cover up, go to the restroom or leave? She left.


click to read more...

Airlines gain extension in breast-feeding case (Burlington Free Press)

Delta Air Lines and Freedom Airlines have asked for an extension to answer the charge that they violated Vermont's Public Accommodations Law when a breast-feeding passenger was kicked off a flight in October, according to the attorney representing the woman.

The air carriers were supposed to respond to the Vermont Human Rights Commission by Monday, but instead were granted an extension and have until Dec. 14 to respond, according to Elizabeth Boepple, the attorney who is representing Emily Gillette of New Mexico.


click to read more...

A little common sense (The Mountain Press)

Public breastfeeding OK if it's done with some privacy, sensitivity

It's not so much that people are offended by the very act of breastfeeding in public. It's that a few mothers just don't know how to do it discreetly. Those who make a production out of it and seem to want to attract attention are making it difficult for those who respect privacy and realize the sensitive nature of such an act.

It's funny how things can get quickly out of hand. A woman was ordered off an airplane recently for breastfeeding her daughter openly. Now that's become a rallying point for women all over. Several airports, including the one in Nashville, saw protests by women who object to what the airplane personnel did.



click to read more...

Lawyer: Airline using 'avoidance tactics' (Bennington Banner)

MANCHESTER — Manchester lawyer Elizabeth Boepple, representing a woman who filed civil rights charges against Delta/Freedom airlines, issued a press release Monday morning intended to draw attention to what she calls "avoidance tactics" on the part of Delta and Freedom Airlines. Boepple is representing Emily Gillette, the mother booted off a the airplane in Burlington after a dispute involving the way she breastfed her child.

The statement, released by the Manchester firm of Witten, Woolmington, Campbell, and Boepple, announced that Delta and Freedom Airlines had failed to meet Monday's deadline to file an answer to Gillette's complaint that charges the airlines with violating her civil right to breastfeed her daughter. Gillette, a resident of Albuquerque, N.M., was asked to leave an Oct. 13 flight out of Burlington after she refused a Freedom Airlines flight attendant's demands to cover her 22-month-old daughter with a blanket while she breast-fed.



click to read more...

Keeping the Skies Safe from Nipples and Muslims (CounterPunch)

The unwarranted removal of passengers from a domestic air flight has triggered an investigation, a discrimination complaint and a national protest.

click to read more...

Delta Airlines Joins 21st Century (The Nation)

The Nation -- I'm happy to report some insta-progress on the Delta Air Lines breast-feeding scandal, which I've been chronicling hereat the Notion. For those who've been out of the loop: a mother (in crunchy Vermont!) was thrown off a plane for the dire national security breach of nursing her baby. A remarkable number of people -- over 20,000 -- signed a petition by MomsRising, an online mothers' political group (an excerpt from the founders' new book, by the way, recently appeared in the Nation). Countless numbers of people were inspired to call Delta about the incident, and many also participated in protests and "nurse-ins" at Delta terminals across the land. Last week Delta issued an apology, as well as chiding its subsidiary, Freedom Airlines, which operated the plane from which the lady was so rudely escorted. Here's Delta's morsel of holiday crow: "Delta Air Lines supports a mother's right to breastfeed her baby onboard our aircraft. We regret the decision to remove the passenger from Flight 6160 as it was not in keeping with Delta's high service standards, and we are coordinating with Freedom Airlines to ensure that they deliver the level of service we expect for all of our customers."

click to read more...

Time to support breast-feeding (Chicago Sun Times)

Breast is best, didn't you know? But don't show those precious breasts in public, or else.

It seems that women just can't win when it comes to their breasts. Last week, a nationwide "nurse-in" took place to protest a flight attendant who had a breast-feeding mom thrown off a plane for refusing to cover up. Emily Gillette was seated with her husband during a three-hour delay on a flight out of Burlington, Vt. When asked by a flight attendant to cover herself with a blanket while she breast-fed her daughter, Gillette refused. She and her family were escorted off the plane and rebooked on a different airline the next morning.

Women everywhere were outraged and a "nurse-in" in response took place last Tuesday. At 10 a.m., impassioned women gathered at Delta Airlines ticket counters across the country to show their support for Gillette and every woman's right to breast-feed her child.



click to read more...