Common Courtesy, Common Sense
by Kate Kahn - 14th April 2008
Recently a Vermont Human Rights Commission found that an airline had discriminated against a woman by removing her form the flight because she wanted to breastfeed without covering up. The flight attendant asked her to cover herself but she refused.
Now, I'm absolutely in favor of a woman's right to breastfeed in public. Hec, I've even blogged here that I think we should have a federal law mandating that. So I think the Commission came down on the right side. Here's the issue: I don't think it should ever have gotten that far. I think there's a measure of common courtesy and common sense that breastfeeding women have to use. Just as we want others to respect our right to breastfeed in public, we need to respect their right that not everyone is comfortable watching it. No big deal, unless we make it one, which seems to be the case here.



