Breastfeeding moms fight back!
A Michigan metro worker took the “no eating or drinking rule” rather seriously last week when she booted a mother and her newborn son from a Taylor, MI bus for breastfeeding.
Afykayn Moon, 32, says the driver ordered that she either cover up or get off the bus after she was spotted breastfeeding her infant child. State law, however, protects mothers against such discrimination as it explicitly states that “breastfeeding . . . does not under any circumstances constitute nudity.”The legislation, last updated in 1994, clearly states that such actions are legal in public places, “irrespective of whether or not the nipple is covered during or incidental to the feeding.”Moon argues that she wasn’t exposed anyway, and tells the Detroit Free Press that her son was bundled in a football wrap, so the driver “wasn’t seeing much.”The Associate Press also reports that security guards boarded the bus at the next stop and questioned Moon.The Michigan mishap isn’t the only time a tot has prompted put-downs from people in recent weeks. Earlier this month the Daily Mail reported on protests waged by self-proclaimed lacktivists, who are urging mothers made uncomfortable by feeding their children in public to embrace it. The Crunchy Moms of DeKalb, “an open minded community of naturally minded mothers,” picketed outside of an Illinois record shop after a woman was told she couldn’t breastfeed inside. A state law there says otherwise, too, so around 40 parents returned days later outside of the No Strings Attached music shop with balloons and poster board signs in protest, reminding passersbys of the state’s 2004 Right to Breastfeed Act.“It's a mixture of people who don't understand, who think of it as risqué, not realizing that it is a way to feed a baby and that it is very much protected by law, especially in Illinois,” spokeswoman Diana West told the Daily Mail. These lacktivists are urging mothers to know their rights before braving their babies to go hungry. SMART officials in Michigan say that they are reminding their hundreds of employees that breastfeeding is indeed allowed, while the driver from the Taylor incident is on paid leave as an investigation ensues.
