Posted on 11/15/2006 6:38:55 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
Nursing mom says plane kicked her off
Wed Nov 15, 1:22 PM ET
BURLINGTON, Vt. - A woman who claims she was kicked off an airplane because she was breast-feeding her baby has filed a complaint against two airlines, her attorney said.
Emily Gillette, 27, of Santa Fe, N.M., filed the complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission late last week against Delta Air Lines and Freedom Airlines, said her attorney, Elizabeth Boepple. Freedom was operating the Delta flight between Burlington and New York City.
Gillette said she was discreetly breast-feeding her 22-month-old daughter on Oct. 13 as their flight prepared to leave Burlington International Airport. She said she was seated by the window in the next-to-last row, her husband was seated between her and the aisle and no part of her breast was showing.
A flight attendant tried to hand her a blanket and told her to cover up, Gillette said. She declined, telling the flight attendant she had a legal right to breast-feed her baby.
Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached and said the flight attendant had asked that the family be removed from the flight, Gillette said. She said she didn't want to make a scene and complied.
"It embarrassed me. That was my first reaction, which is a weird reaction for doing something so good for a child," Gillette said Monday.
A Freedom spokesman said Gillette was asked to leave the flight after she declined the blanket.
"A breast-feeding mother is perfectly acceptable on an aircraft, providing she is feeding the child in a discreet way," that doesn't bother others, said Paul Skellon, spokesman for Phoenix-based Freedom. "She was asked to use a blanket just to provide a little more discretion, she was given a blanket, and she refused to use it, and that's all I know."
A complaint against two airlines was filed with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, although Executive Director Robert Appel said he was barred by state law from confirming the complaint. He said state law allows a mother to breast-feed in public.
The Vermont Human Rights Commission investigates complaints and determines whether discrimination may have occurred. The parties to a complaint are given six months to reach a settlement. If none is reached, the commission then decides whether to go to court. A complainant can file a separate suit in state court at any time.
Once the spokesman admitted that the purpose for insisting that she use the airline's communal blanket to cover her child's head in order for her to be *a little more discreet*, the lawyer in me rang loudly that she has a winning case.
Ring-a-ding-ding
Or my child is just smart and an independant problem solver. She also lifts my shirt to point to my belly button, is that sick as well? How about the fact that she lifts my pants to show me my ankle, yes, she knows what an ankle is. She trys to open the fridge to show me where the juice is, and she opens the cupboard to show me where the crackers are. How many of these are sick to you?
Hon, you nurse away!
Have oral sex too!
Remember, oral SEX is not "sex" according to ole Bill.
Legal right to breast-feed? What amendment does that one fall under?
"By two years of age they have teeth, they can chew, they can eat human food..."
Try and explain THAT to Miss Empty Head ... .
To grab a phrase from a few years back ... Babe, just let it all hang out.
I repeat, your child sounds like she's the boss.
You're = your.
As evidenced in this thread, there are people who are offended by nursing mom's regardless of the circumstances.
It's not nursing moms. It's nursing moms who for whatever psychological reason feel like they've got to inflict their motherhood by breastfeeding their children in public when it is seldom necessary to do so. So, why are they doing it? It's some form of exhibitionism on their part, some kind of look at me, I'm a mom in case you didn't notice, it's an in your face, 60's feminazi indoctrinated kind of thing to do, and you don't even realize you are infected psychologically by it. No point in discussing this with brainwashed souls who haven't a clue that they are.
I'm not being defensive, I just don't get why you think it is "sick." It's a body part to her, not a sexual object. I see no difference between being able to point out juice that she wants to drink and point out milk that she wants to drink. Do I like her attempting to pull up my shirt, no. Do I prevent her from doing it, yes. But it's not sick.
Thanks for your advice on when to wean, it's a process that's in the works. I appreciate your concern.
LOL!
"60's feminazi indoctrinated kind of thing to do"
Funny, the only people to ever harass either me or my friends about nursing were angry feminazis, who then thought it their right to ask how many more children we were planning on having and why.
I see society's attack on nursing an attack on motherhood and womenhood. Just one of the many facets of the attack. I don't nurse to be in your face, and I do make every attempt to cover up or be as private as possible (Nordstroms women's lounges are some of the best places to nurse) I don't know a single mother who does it for any other reason than it is what is best for her child. It would be nice if all people would be as discreet as possible, but that doesn't always happen. I'm not going to harp on them for that, but understand that as a mother, sometimes you have to prioritize.
So I will continue, should I be blessed with more children, to nurse but to do so as discreetly as possible. I hope that you can look at young mothers nursing not as activists trying to make some sort of exhibitionist political statement, but as women sacrificing their time and energy and bodies in order to do what's best for their children.
The decision belongs to the mom and kid, not to anyone else that has some irrational urge to interfere. They're not out there to inflict there momahood. They're out there doing something else, then it's time to eat. The idea that anyone else has the right to decide what, when and how to feed their babies is ridiculous.
Personally, I'd rather ignore someone breast feeding a baby than have said baby scream and fuss the entire flight because it is hungry.
Shame, shame, shame on any of nursing mom who dares to do anything other than lock herself away deep within the bowels of her home. Nursing is shameful because it's tatamount to flaunting one's sexuality.
All of the paintings of the Virgin Mary nursing her son should be burned or locked away in a dark vault never to see the light of day. Shameful, exhibitionistic, in your face, feminazism.
Shameful indeed.
"All of the paintings of the Virgin Mary nursing her son should be burned or locked away in a dark vault never to see the light of day. Shameful indeed."
You probably like all of Michaelangelo's nudes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel too, because they are "sacred". Funny how one of the then-Popes had the private parts covered up on the paintings. Ask this Pope, BXVI, what he thinks of women breastfeeding their children in public. My guess is he is on my side, not yours, and would find it offensive because it is not modest.
Those pics you put up thinking they are a plus argument for your side. Do they portray the Madonna breast feeding on the public thoroughfare in Bethlehem, or, bringing the pics up to date as to when they were painted, at the main market in Rome? Or do they portray the Madonna in a private place? You tell me. I see silk drapes behind her; that's not out on a bus somewhere, now is it? The issue, seeing as it seems to have to be hammered home here for the somewhat dense, is not breastfeeding a baby, it's flaunting it in the public forum. Funny how women didn't seem to find the need to do so in the 50's, but since the 60's, somehow now find it fine and acceptable. Brainwashing by feminazis turned the trick.
The idea that anyone else has the right to decide what, when and how to feed their babies is ridiculous.
Not to those that have to watch you do it. Since when is a slurping, sucking sound, on often unattractive breasts (all breasts are not made alike) such a wonderful sight, pray tell?
A nursing toddler will sometimes try to take advantage every time the Mommy sits down. That is probably what happened. Baby was bored waiting, saw the Num-nums, and wanted to nurse. Mom then had to decide whether to disrupt the plane with a crying toddler or just quietly give in. She is within her legal rights. It is not illegal to nurse an older baby. I agree with the mom here, though she should have had her actual BREAST covered. If her actual breast was exposed, she should have taken the blanket. If the intent of the flight attendant was to hide the fact that she was breastfeeding, and not just exposed skin, than the airline is wrong.
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