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.
The primary function of my privates is to remove bodily waste, but I cant walk around with em' hangin out.
Given the description of the situation, can you explain to me how this woman was flaunting nursing her child.
And, your comment that the two pictures were in the privacy of a home are WRONG. One shows Mary in what appears to be a fairly open public place.
And finally, if people wouldn't take offense at a nursing child, then there wouldn't even be this discussion. Why is it so offensive, because someone wants it to be so. Reminds me of the dad finding his daughter being exposed to saying the pledge of allegience offensive. Or people offended if you say Merry Christmas.
Did you not look at the second painting? The Virgin Mary is depicted out in the open with trees and sky.
By the way, I was born in 1952 and I was nursed. My Mother didn't hide away. Your argument about the 60's is fallacious.
I wonder why you're so ashamed of breastfeeding that you consider it to be flaunting even when done discretely.
I don't consider the nudes to be sacred, I just don't find anything about them shameful just as I don't find a child nursing shameful.
Babies put a smile on my face. I'm not likely to notice, or care about ma. Otherwise, the whole thing would be about as noticable to me as the color, texture and pattern of the floor covering. Now if an adult's doing the slurping and sucking sounds, I'll notice. Unless it's really too loud and their splattering all over too, I'll ignore it.
BTW, I'm a guy. My problem would be trying to keep the grankids from bouncing their empties off the other passengers heads.
"My problem would be trying to keep the grankids from bouncing their empties off the other passengers heads."
LOL!
"Unless it's really too loud and their splattering all over too, I'll ignore it."
You have a very high tolerance level I must say.
That would be amendment number 2.
Did you not look at the second painting? The Virgin Mary is depicted out in the open with trees and sky.
Yeah, did you see all the crowds swirling about in that open sky and on those hills? Hmmmmm? Bet the trees were watching though. And you don't fool me for one minute. You brought in the "religious" chip to try to bolster your argument. As I said before, ask Pope BXVI if he wants to see you nursing a child at a Vatican audience in Rome. Wanna bet what he's say?
I think anyone who gives a virgin birth can breastfeed anywhere they want.
The woman in the second row of a place where my band played tossed one out and hooked a baby to it. Thought the banjo player was gonna fall off the stage.
I think anyone who gives a virgin birth can breastfeed anywhere they want.
Oh geez, can it. Now you are really misusing the Virgin Mary to make your own point. Leave the Blessed Virgin out of it, all of you. Are you saying all moms think they are the equivalent of the Virgin Mary? Your bringing religion into this argument to make a point for flaunting your motherhood in public makes me sick. And how egocentric if that is what some moms think. And you better believe no priest nor pastor would want to see women nursing their children in the middle of their Sunday church services. Good grief. Try it one Sunday. Go and sit in a pew and start nursing your baby and see what kinds of looks you get from others who see you doing it. Ask them if they like it. Ask them if they think you have chosen an inappropriate place to breast feed. The women who are spouting off on the appropriateness of breast-feeding in public are about as conservative as Hillary Clinton.
I was making a point similar to yours, but you fail to understand that. Point being, it really is irrelevant to bring in a virgin mother suckling the son of God in a renaissance painting as an example of the appropriateness of breastfeeding a 2 year old non-savior on an airplane. I guess whatever wit there was in my post went way past you, for which I apologize immensely.
I guess whatever wit there was in my post went way past you, for which I apologize immensely.
Hmmmm, I missed the "wit" part. I'll work on finding it, I know it's there because you say it is. LOL! It not only went way past me, it never registered at all. I read your comment again. Maybe if I read it once more I'll get it. No apology needed but nice of you to offer.
"I think anyone who gives a virgin birth can breastfeed anywhere they want."
Ok, I read it a third time, and I think the humor of it is starting to dawn on me here. It was really oblique, so I had to dig for it, but, by George, I think I've got it! Next time make your wit a little more shallow and I'll catch on faster. LOL!
How many children have you nursed? I have nursed 9.
Baloney. That child is NOT a baby, she is a toddler and there is no reason on earth she should still be drinking formula.
Actually I didn't bring religion into the mix. I used pictures painted in the 1500-1600's to refute your argument that breastfeeding was some 1960's feminism bull.
Your contention my Pastor would have a problem with a mother breastfeeding during service is erroneous. He'd rather have the family present and the child quieted by nursing than to have the service disrupted by a screaming child or the family not attend.
Why don't you ask the Pope? Better yet, why don't you check to see whether there are any pictures in the Vatican of the Madonna nursing Christ. You might be very surprised.
It would still have been red. Red going down - red coming back up ...
That did it for me, too. People who name their child "River" can be presumed to be unreasonable in any situation, (she says with extreme prejudice :-). Why not just say, "Thanks for the blanket, hon," and get on with it? Instead, she had to make a scene.
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