They're abusing the power given them under the "Patriot Act".
This woman was kicked off for breastfeeding.
Mums begin 'lactivism' after airline bans breastfeeding
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
November 23, 2006
IT'S ironic that since a lot of US airlines - airlines everywhere, actually - treat you like cattle that they also might get a bit squeamish over the thought of a dairy.
But last month a nursing mother was ejected from a plane about to take off in Vermont because she was trying to breastfeed her baby
The extraordinary tale has sparked a discrimination complaint from the mother, Emily Gillette, and a huge embarrassment for the airline, Delta. The brouhaha here has also sparked a form of protest being dubbed "lactivism".
Over the past week there's been rolling breastfeeding sit-ins where dozens of nursing mothers position themselves in front of the Delta airline counters in protest and, like maternal gunslingers, unleash their bosoms and latch on their babies.
Ms Gillette, her husband Brad, and their then 22-month-old daughter, River, were removed from an October flight from Burlington to New York after a flight attendant asked Ms Gillette to cover up while she was breastfeeding the girl.
Freedom Airlines was operating the flight on behalf of Delta Air Lines.
Ms Gillette, 27, filed a complaint against both airlines with the Vermont Human Rights Commission alleging that the airline violated a state law that allows women to breastfeed "in any place of public accommodation". Ms Gillette told USA Today she took a window seat in the second-last row and her husband took the aisle. She began nursing River, using one hand to hold her shirt closed. She told the newspaper: "I was not exposed."
But the flight attendant approached, tried to hand her a blanket and asked her to cover herself, she recalls. "You're offending me," Ms Gillette quotes the woman as saying.
"I'm not doing anything wrong and I will not cover up," Ms Gillette says she said in response.
Ms Gillette says the flight attendant walked away and a few minutes later, a ticket agent boarded and said the flight attendant had ordered them removed. The airline arranged for a hotel for the family for the night and a flight with a different airline the next morning.
"No woman should ever be ashamed of breastfeeding," Ms Gillette says. She wants "both airlines to create policies that protect a woman from being harassed for feeding her child on an airplane".
Freedom Airlines spokesman Paul Skellon says breastfeeding on a plane is OK if it's done in a "discreet way". Forty-three states in the US have instituted rights for women breastfeeding.
This reporter's wife was told last year to cease breastfeeding in a public hall of a federal office, despite laws saying it is legal to do so. Congress passed a right to breastfeed in 1999, which governs all federal buildings and parks.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 03,00.htmlNurse-In
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Mothers in airports across the country held a nurse-in Tuesday to support the cause of breastfeeding rights.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/loca ... ryid=69633Airline apologizes
"We concluded that the flight attendant in question acted contrary to the Company?s expectations," spokesman Paul Skellon wrote in an e-mail. "We believe our disciplinary action was appropriate and was taken after considering all of the facts leading to this incident."
Skellon also said that the captain of the flight apologized to the passenger and her family and "immediately requested that they be re-boarded for their flight," which the family refused.
Contacted Friday, Gillette said that is untrue. She said the airline "never offered" her to get back on the plane.
"I would have jumped at the opportunity," Gillette said.
Skellon said he initially misstated the company?s breast-feeding policy. In a Free Press story which ran on Tuesday, Skellon said, "A breast-feeding mother is perfectly acceptable on an aircraft, providing she is feeding the child in a discreet way."http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps ... /-1/NEWS05A humorous blog: My Tits and My Toddler Fly the UNfriendly Skies
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erin-kote ... 34643.htmlFor the second time in less than a week I will board a now infamous Delta partner flight and lift up my shirt. Some passengers will turn away in disgust. Some passengers will nod in approval. Some passengers will do a double take in the hopes of seeing some action. And while I breastfeed, some passengers will dare to tell my daughter to eat her meal in the toilet.
In the end, it's not the passengers I worry about- I can handle those of you sitting alongside me in coach. I'm wondering if the power hungry flight attendants will see my breasts as a threat to national security or a disruption to the carrier. Will I, or won't I, be allowed to feed my 19-month old on a plane? Just what exactly is Delta's position on public breastfeeding?
Delta, and its subsidiary Freedom, are backing off their "use your own discretion" policy after a mother did just that. Instead of quieting the storm they ended up with millions of pissed off nursing mothers (this one included). Those of us encouraged by massive government ad campaigns. Those of us encouraged by pediatricians, the World Health Organization, and every other sane person on the planet to breastfeed our children. Yet here we are, doing what is best, and because it gives someone the willies, we and our families are escorted off airplanes. Let us not forget you may be sitting next to
Barbara Walters, and she would rather you use a bottle.
Program parent, Barbara Wa-Wa, said the sight of a breastfeeding mom next to her on a flight "made her uncomfortable" which prompted a protest.
http://tinyurl.com/asu9n
Freedom Airlines has revised its initial stance on the boob that rocked an airline incident. I think they are apologizing, but I'm still not sure. When I fly tomorrow, do I have to use a blanket? You know, the ones they leave on the seats for you, used and smelly from the passenger before you. Do I have to make some sort of attempt to cover the top part of my tit? The bottom part? What about the side...can I show the side of my boob? What if my daughter falls asleep and unlatches from my nipple, and there is a half second before I can pull my shirt to cover? Will I get kicked off the plane? What if I open my bra and lift my shirt in anticipation of her feeding, yet she gets distracted by the wonderful smell of airplane snacks and leaves me hanging out? Will they make me parachute out over the next major city, or can I just leave my tits in the wind while I wait for her to turn back around? What if the one guy, three rows ahead on the right, gets all uppity about my nursing? Does he get to ask I be removed?
I'm curious as to why those of you squeamish types can't seem to handle a little boob. Is it because you want it to stay stuffed in a Victoria Secret bra instead of in a baby's mouth? Does it make you uncomfortable to see what God clearly intended as man's plaything and not a tool of nutrition used in such a vulgar manner?
Now that my daughter is verbal, she can publicly demand to nurse and lift my shirt.
I give it to her.
Tomorrow I will give it to her on two Delta flights.
Go ahead, cringe. No one can see you.
I know many of you are all pro-breastfeeding until the child can ask for it. Maybe it's the age of the children you see breastfeeding that bothers you. If the best you can come up with is "it makes me uncomfortable" sounds like YOUR problem, not mine.
So I'm just asking here, out loud-what is your problem? I'm doing what the WORLD agrees is FANTASTIC for my child.
Tell me.
Better yet...tell her.
...and it's a good thing I don't simultaneously pray and breastfeed. Then you know I'm getting kicked off for sure.