7.11.2014

Fight! For Our Right! To...Nurse In Public


Yesterday my mom and I had a long gChat about how Americans need to rise up and do something about the general low wages most people in this country get paid. We need to lose the "you're lucky to have a job at all" mentality that employers spoon feed us so CEOs can have ginormus paychecks while the middle class slowly melts away and demand a living wage for all. She seemed pretty confident that the turning point will be sooner than later and got all "revolucion!" on me. I took a more cynical view, maybe a lot more cynical.

I think my exact quote was, "The majority of people in this country aren't paying attention or they don't care. They just want to be left alone with their guns, Mountain Dew and diabetes."

Daaaam, right? Harsh words for my fellow countrymen. Well I mean it...sometimes.

I witnessed something last night that made me take heart. Moms, standing up for other moms and their choices.

A mom in the Mama's Hip Facebook Group, Lacy Phillips, stated it nicely:

First of all, here's what went down for those not in the know: A young lady was nursing her infant, under a nursing cover, on a bench at Kentucky Kingdom while her older children rode a ride nearby. A young male staff member stood looking at her for some time, walked away, but soon returned with a young female staff member who told her that she needed to relocate to the restrooms if she wanted to continue feeding.
Let's be clear, this is a direct violation of Kentucky state law which states that a woman may breastfeed her baby or express breast milk in any location, public or private, and that any and all interference is prohibited. No stipulations are made in the law that require nursing covers be used, and there is legal protection from indecency laws written into the language of the law.
Simply put, a woman has the right to breastfeed her child in any location in the state of Kentucky, and can do so in the manner she sees fit even it that means leaving her bare breast exposed. And no one can interfere with a woman exercising this right. Period.
Throughout the day, Kentucky Kingdom has been deleting comments from their Facebook page that ask for clarification regarding their policies on breastfeeding, informing the company of state laws, and criticizing their apparent ignorance of the issue and unfriendliness to the young woman asked to stop breastfeeding in the park.

From the moment the mother who had this experience posted on the Facebook group, which has over 2,200 members, many from Louisville and Southern, IN; moms started giving Kentucky Kingdom a piece of their minds via Facebook and Twitter. Clearly, much to the chagrin of Kentucky Kingdom since they deleted most of the largely polite comments. The office number of the President of the park was circulated around and voice mails, expressing disappointment at the policy, were encouraged. Within a couple of hours a nurse-in was organized, with an official Facebook invite and everything. The Louisville pro-breastfeeding community was on top of it! 

After a few false starts by their PR team that just incited the rightfully angry mamas, Ed Hart, the President, issued this statement this morning: 

And the crowd goes wild! The community posted their thanks and appreciation for this mea culpa from Mr. Hart and the nurse-in was canceled. 
Now, this community of mothers, with whom I'm friends with many, is not exactly the demographic I was snarking about in my comments to my mom. But it was a well timed reminder to me that we can change things if we all work together. And I'm so proud that this is a group of women who are bringing up the next generation. 
Okay, now let's take this motivation and go fix some more things! A living wage would be a good place to start. 

P.S. I would encourage anyone who is into supporting and normalizing breast feeding to attend this Live, Love, Latch event in August. 

Update: Nurse-in may or may not be canceled. It seems up in the air right now. 

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