Nursing mothers and their supporters will be gathering on Tuesday, November 21st at 10am for nurse-ins at Delta airport counters across the country to protest Delta's having kicked a nursing mother off of a flight. Emily Gillette was flying with her husband and 22 month-old daughter on October 13th, 2006 out of Burlington, Vermont on a Delta/Freedom Air flight, when a flight attendant asked her to cover up with a blanket while she was nursing. Ms. Gillette declined and informed the flight attendant of her legal right to nurse her child. The flight attendant reportedly told Ms. Gillette that Ms. Gillette was offending her and subsequently a gate agent removed the family from the flight. Ms. Gillette and her family complied, and were rescheduled to a different flight the following day.

Ms. Gillette filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission regarding the incident. She says that a woman’s right to breastfeed wherever she is legally allowed to be is protected in Vermont under the Public Accommodations Act. Although Delta has issued a public apology, the Gillette family has still not received any personal apology. Just in time for the holidays, Delta announced that it has "disciplined" the offending flight attendant.

The goals of the participants in the nurse-in and their supporters include getting Delta/Freedom to apologize to the Gillette family and offer written proof that policy and training procedures have been changed; calling publicly for all airlines to revisit their policies about breastfeeding and transport of pumped breastmilk; calling for immediate passage of pending Federal legislation that offers civil rights protection for breastfeeding women in the workplace; and new legislation to protect, a nursing mother and child’s right to do so whenever and wherever they are legally allowed to be. They say that the issue of breastfeeding goes far beyond a woman’s right to nurse-- it also encompasses a basic human right for children, the right to eat and to receive comfort and nurturing at the breast. Read more

Lactivism yahoogroup | Lactivism.net | More info about breastfeeding from La Leche League | H.R. 2122 | World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action