Posted on 08/18/2010 7:32:36 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
A Manhattan mom is suing a midtown chocolate wonderland that she says barred her for breast-feeding her 5-month-old daughter, Jordan, at the cafe.
Julia Acevedo-Taylor's suit targets Lily O'Brien's Chocolate Cafe for her Aug. 17, 2009, expulsion from the W.40th St. sweets emporium, where she and a friend were nursing their "hungry and tired" babies.
"They were being as discreet as possible," said Adam Polo, a lawyer for Acevedo-Taylor. "It wasn't one of those things where they were wide open."
The Manhattan Supreme Court suit says a manager approached Acevedo-Taylor and friend Latasha Augustoplos and ordered the lactating ladies to "stop doing that."
When they politely declined, the suit says, they were told to "leave and never come back."
"She didn't stop because she knew she was within her rights to do this," said Polo, adding, "there was no nipple showing."
Acevedo-Taylor fled the store in tears, according to the suit, and was so traumatized she can no longer nurse in public.
Owner Cathal Queally disputed Acevedo-Taylor's account, saying the store's general manager asked one of them if they could cover up only after two other customers complained.
"Nobody was ever asked to leave," he said.
Visitors to the cafe are greeted by a small pink sign that reads "breast-feeding welcome here" and "beautiful breast-feeding."
"I'm all for breast-feeding," Queally said.
Lily O'Brien's isn't the first business snared in a breast-feeding brouhaha. The Toys "R" Us in Times Square faced protests in 2006 after a woman got a hard time for nursing her infant.
Women at the cafe came down on both sides of the blowup over breast-feeding.
"There's a time and place to whip our your boob," said Sheri Lowe, 31, a Brooklyn teacher. "If you're at a strip club, do it."
Montana mom Claire Baiz, 53, said she breast-fed her kids until they were 2: "I'm a big advocate for breast-feeding - that's what these are for," she said, pointing to her chest.
Think so, huh?
As I’ve said before, in almost 15 years of nursing babies (up to age 2), I’ve never had a complaint made, never had anyone staring rudely, never heard a comment from anyone older than 3. (”What’s the baby doing?” “Eating. Go slide now.” “Okay.”)
I must just be very special ;-).
She was kind of hippie white girl with small boobs.
I agree.
There was this one woman I saw do it in the airport, I am not a perv, I don’t find anything sexual about it, but on this woman I had to do a double-take.
Why is nature/ nudity so offensive in the U.S.?
Not that I am for resorting to the customs of other countries, but da**.
Can we grow up already? If you don’t like it, don’t look.
Does anyone get bent out of shape to see a dog feeding her young or two cats getting it on in front of someone’s house?
In the America we live in today, the homeowner would get sued
for traumatizing young children if such a thing was witnessed by a family on an evening stroll.
Let’s all grow up and deal with the fact that nature is nature and cannot be changed.
I am sure that eventually, the muslims will straighten out Sweden and us.
So, in your viewpoint, someone could deny entrance to a person because of any characteristic/quality or behvaior that they, the owner, does not “like” or agree with?
As free citizens we do not check our natural rights at the door, especially in a private setting.
This frivolity of saying a private person can deny someone entrance/continued presence becasue of a reasonable behavior is ridiculous and most leftist in nature.
We are not talking about ones private residence, but rather a “open for business” situation here.
Now, if Mommy was swinging her breasts around (like she was a pole-dancer) and being most indiscrete, then I agree, but carefuly feeding a child-rather heart-warming to this grandad.
Maybe it should be like in the movie “Me, Myself and Irene”
A woman my mother invited over to our house had her 3 year old climb up on her lap, unbutton her shirt and help himself in front of our whole family.
The woman acted like it was nothing.
I don’t think she ever came back to visit.
I breastfed and no one knew. I always found a room where the baby and I could be alone. I liked it that way.
“She was kind of hippie white girl with small boobs.
Don’t know about the small boobs bit (btw what’s wrong with small boobs?) but I don’t think she’s a white girl based upon that inserted hispanic hypenated name. That’s a protected class, don’t you see?
They might have been profiling her. Sounds like Holder should step in and sue here. <s
The mother is protected by New York law. She may have overreacted completely, but the shop owner had no right to ask her to leave because she was breastfeeding.
N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 79-e (1994) permits a mother to breastfeed her child in any public or private location. (SB 3999)
And I realize I just misread something in the original story when I was replying to your post. I see that she was not asked to leave, but I meant to reply to your statement “Management has the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, or no reason at all, and to ask any person to leave at any time.”
Just about any restaurant I know prominently displays a sign..”No Shirt, No Shoes...No service” I would say having your boobs out to feed the kid is no different than me showing up shirtless. Note both our our kids were breast fed and my wife did not ever go to a restaurant to suckle them. Breast milk can also be collected and bottle fed should feeding be necessary in a public place.
I have news for Sheri Lowe, she had better stay away from Congress Ave in Austin this Sunday. The local news is reporting that some group called "Gotopless.org" is marching up from 6th Street to the Capitol building. This is also happening in several other cities.
This is really, really funny...
Owner Cathal Queally disputed Acevedo-Taylor’s account, saying the store’s general manager asked one of them if they could cover up only after two other customers complained.
“Nobody was ever asked to leave,” he said.
Agreed. There is nothing wrong with breastfeeding in public. When a baby has to be fed every two hours sometimes you can’t be at home.
I was nursing my daughter under a nursing cover at a restaurant when a man asked me to take it to the bathroom. I asked him if he would enjoy eating his dinner in the bathroom.
I can understand being uncomforable actually seeing a woman’s breast in public but being uncomfortable just KNOWING what I was doing under the nursing cover is just ridiculous.
Had a similar situation with one of my nephews who had just stopped breast feeding at about two years. He was sitting on the couch with me, reading a book and he looks at me and says, “Show me your milks!”
*SNORT* The little pisher!
Visitors to the cafe are greeted by a small pink sign that reads "breast-feeding welcome here" and "beautiful breast-feeding."
Given the presence of the sign, the "two other complaining customers" deserve to be tied to a bumper and dragged to the opposite coast. Nothing extreme, mind you.
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