Breast-feeding mom demands apology for indecent exposure ticket

GJsentinel ^ | July 28, 2005 - 11:33 p.m

[Asphalt]

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Never mind officials voiding a $50 ticket for indecent exposure, or an explanation from county officials that a ranger who issued the citation to the breast-feeding mother was inexperienced.

Dorian Ryan said she wants an apology for what she called a "humiliating and degrading" experience.

"This isn't right. Women shouldn't be harassed for breast-feeding their children," Dorian Ryan said.

Colorado lawmakers agree. A law passed last year gives women the right to breast feed anywhere she's allowed to be in public.

Ryan, 43, was ticketed for indecent exposure July 14 when she breast fed her son at the Carter Lake swim beach in Larimer County. She was shielded from view by two umbrellas and a towel.

An inexperienced park ranger mistakenly issued the ticket, said Dan Rieves, manager of the Blue Mountain District, which oversees the beach. Park officials have voided the ticket.

Rieves, who has been in contact with Ryan, said a written apology would be sent Friday.

[raybbr]

It's ok as long as the breasts aren't being used for their God's intended purpose.

You know what bothers me the most about these threads? It is the idea that when my wife is covering herself and my son while breastfeeding in a restaurant there are so many people that look at this as a display of vulgarity. It is absolutely maddening to think that it's okay for me to watch these slobs chomp open-mouthed on their food but for them to see the beautiful sight of a mother feeding her son in the most natural of ways is somehow vulgar.

[hope]

I didn't expect an apology from the ignorant flight attendant who asked me to stop nursing my son in flight. I didn't apologize for what I said in return either. That being said. There are places you can go to breast feed without offending someone and then there are ways to discreetly do it if you cannot leave. Breast pumps don't work for everyone. I find that the anti breast feeding people are usually nags or the offspring of nags.

[Tax-chick]

Which of the above options do you think should be applied to the official in this case?

If this is the only dust-up of this kind the employee has been in, I think the supervisor should say, "Here's the law - see, you were wrong. Don't do anything like this again." And the employee says, "Yes, sir."

[Asphalt]

You livedin BA? Either I was not aware of this or had forgotten. I'd say it's a nice place, but it's not really anything special. I like bike riding and it's bad for that. I like friends, and I don't have any here. Not only that, but we are way out on the outskirts so we aren't close to anywhere. Just getting milk can take a half hour. Such is life

[Tax-chick]

We lived near 101st and Elm, right in the middle of things. From 1999 to 2003. It was nice, lots of friends in my church and nearby, and good parks. We really liked Haikey Creek Park after they put in the new playground in 2001.

[Mrs. Don-o]

OH, and breast feeding does NOT prevent pregnancy. It only LOWERS THE RISK FOR ABOUT SIX MONTHS, and there is no guarantee of even that.

True enough, friend, true enough, especially when the Mama is doing breast-feeding on a schedule instead of on-demand. The hormonal response requiem constant "nudging" from the frequent nuzzling of the baby, and the oxytocin response (which delays ovulation) is greatest at night; so breastfeeding "works" to space babies about 20 - 20 months apart when you feed on demand and sleep with the baby.

It's far more likely that you'll get pregnant in the first 6 months postpartum if you're not breast-feeding at all.

Anybody who wants to get wonderful, encouraging up-to-date information on this should get the books by Sheila Kippley and Martha Sears, featured here:

http://ccli.org/store/onlineshopping.php?criteria=category&f_cat=mothering&catpr=30&order_by=name

(Both are available used, cheap, on Amazon.)

[Cboldt]

Politicalmom: Which part of "She was shielded from view ..."

Houmatt: There is a time and place for it, and right out in front of everybody ...

Shielded from view, right out in front of everybody. Reminds me of a little ditty.

One bright day, in the middle of the night,
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back-to-back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other.
The deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came to save the two dead boys.

[Asphalt]

Ah. Right by the two dollar theater. Good area. Speaking of theaters, have you seen the new "Charlie and the chocolate factory"? Very good. Better than I expected.

[Tax-chick]

25 month spacing after both my little boys (assuming Baby Whosis arrives as planned in 2/06) ... although Der Prinz and I are getting older, too :-).

[Tax-chick]

Tiamat gave a review of it on UT. We'll get it as soon as it comes out on video, looks very interesting. We plan on going to "March of the Penguins" when it gets here - reminds me to pick up the local news tomorrow morning!

[Asphalt]

Guess I missed the review. I learned the trick of waiting a week after a movie comes out, then going to the two dollar theater and watching it during the day. It's cheap, you see it soon after it comes out, and the theater is empty

[Tax-chick]

We used to rent videos, but the public libraries here get the latest DVD's almost before the theaters do. Free!

[Thinkin' Gal]

But the mom in the article was shielded by 2 umbrellas and a towel. It sounds to me like she made a reasonable attempt at privacy.

The problem is a lack of plain old decency and respect for others, on both sides of the issue. If a mother is discreet, then others should be respectful and leave her be, even they are uncomfortable knowing breastfeeding is taking place 100% shielded from view. Babies need to eat so often that these women would hardly be able to leave the house otherwise. So therefore I can sympathize with them.

OTOH, there are those moms with an entitlement mentality, who think nothing of exposing themselves in any old public place. They lack any respect for others. They are about as obnoxious as the rainbow crowd who want to force their perversions into the public square. But making a distinction between the two (thus leaving one alone while ticketing another) would require law enforcement to discern between the normal people and the flashers. That would be about as unPC as profiling at airports. The easy way out is to ban public breastfeeding entirely. I just don't think that is right, because it is a disservice to the moms who aren't trying to bother anybody.

I'm not particularly comfortable with public breastfeeding, however... when these women make the effort to be respectful of others, then my personal comfort zone ranks far below 1) a baby needing a meal, and 2) a breastfeeding mom desiring to get out of the house. I therefore can respect them in turn and see no legitimate reason to be offended.

The exhibitionist self-centered women, OTOH, need to stay home since they can't comprehend that the world does not revolve around their inflated mammaries.

[HairOfTheDog]

You claim you aren't against breastfeeding, only some feared form of leftist boob Nazis (mythical because I bet you've never seen one, just heard about them, like bigfoot) yet you're complaining about breastfeeding on a thread that doesn't have a hint of the kind of activism you fear. It's not our fault if you were hard to understand.

I'll leave your point comparing breastfeeding to gay sexual tolerance, because I'm sure I'd just be reading you wrong again.

[beaver fever]

"Ryan was issued a $50 summons and complaint at Carter Lake in Larimer County for knowingly (exposing) one's genitals in a public place."

Breasts are genitals????????

[Ken H]

If this is the only dust-up of this kind the employee has been in, I think the supervisor should say, "Here's the law - see, you were wrong. Don't do anything like this again." And the employee says, "Yes, sir."

Excerpt from RMN story in post #22:

Ryan said that a week before she was ticketed, rangers approached her and asked her to stop breast-feeding or they would cite her for indecent exposure.

She said she placed a 4-foot-wide beach umbrella behind her, and another one above her. Wearing a man's sleeveless shirt over her swimsuit, she sat down to feed her child. Other families sat along the beach, and she thought she went unnoticed.

But rangers with binoculars were stationed on a cliff about 100 yards away, she said, and she was ticketed that day.

Instead of intervening, the supervisor, also a woman, warned Ryan that she would be booted from the beach if she was caught breast-feeding again, Tacy said. [end excerpt]

Looks like there was more than one official who was ignorant of the law, and acted accordingly on two separate occasions.

[tuffydoodle]

"It is absolutely maddening to think that it's okay for me to watch these slobs chomp open-mouthed on their food but for them to see the beautiful sight of a mother feeding her son in the most natural of ways is somehow vulgar."

There are people in this world that just need to stick their noses where they don't belong just so they can complain. Such as, "see that woman over there that's got her shoulder covered with a blanket? She's BREASTFEEDING! I'm soooo offended by what's going on under that blanket, I think I'll call the security guards to make her stop! So WHAT if that baby is hungry, I'm offended and that's all that matters!"

[Xenalyte]

See, now, that's the kind of in-your-face behavior for which I am roundly castigated when I criticize it.

[tuffydoodle]

"But rangers with binoculars were stationed on a cliff about 100 yards away, she said, and she was ticketed that day."

The stupidity of those rangers knows no bounds.

[Doe Eyes]

Breast feeding is natural and should be accepted as long as a reasonable amount of modesty is practiced.

So is a man urinating.

Are you comfortable with men urinating in public as long as they show a "reasonable amount of modesty"?