Results tagged “rights”

Um, sorry guys, we forgot to give you a heads about the whole "National Go-Topless Day" event in Central Park yesterday. The Daily News called it the "breast day ever" (har har), reporting back that "dozens of semi-nude women gave the city a Double-D eyeful when they bared their boobs in Central Park and then marched through the streets" as Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman" blasted from speakers. One onlooker told the paper, "This is unbelievable—and super. I'm going to tell my wife to join in." The prudes guarded their eyes, and spewed terms like "extreme liberalism," while others hooted and hollered in solidarity. Currently New York is the only state where women can go topless legally (since a 1992 ruling), so really, Go-Topless Day can be every day. Here are plenty of photos from last year's march.

The big bad Big Box IKEA is the latest to ostracize breastfeeding moms from their establishment. One Brooklyn mom tells her recent story of being banished to the bathroom when she tried to feed her 6 1/2 month old something other than Swedish meatballs at the store:

On Wednesday I was in IKEA Red Hook in the middle of breastfeeding, fully covered, when I was told I had to stop doing "that" and go to the nearby family bathroom. The IKEA employee and security guards were extremely rude to us. I was hustled off to the bathroom and then had to wait because someone else was using it. I was humiliated, my daughter was upset from being interrupted in the middle of her feed. When eventually I gave up and headed for the car to finish feeding, the security guards who had seen the entire event insisted on checking my receipts. I'm putting together a formal complaint to IKEA. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

This from an establishment selling reindeer meat during the holiday season. For the record, public breastfeeding is legal anytime and anywhere (here's a handy card to carry around from the NYCLU). We reached out to IKEA for a comment on this incident, but have yet to hear back. In March the Brooklyn Library made a public apology after one of their security guards scolded a woman for feeding her child in their branch.

Sure, World Breastfeeding Week isn't until August, but the lactivists can celebrate a small victory today. The NY Post reports that "the Brooklyn Public Library was forced to apologize to a new mother after a security guard scolded her on two occasions for breast-feeding her daughter in a children's book area." The female security guard was allegedly unaware that New York law dictates that women have the right to breast-feed at any time, in any location. The mom, Danielle Glanvill, said the guard "was uncomfortable with the flesh of my breast being exposed and told me what I was doing was 'inappropriate in front of the children'," and walked away when she tried to explain the law. After contacting the New York Civil Liberties Union, the guard was transferred to a different branch, memos were hung up, the library apologized, and the breast-feeding continues amongst the books in Brooklyn.

When giving his Best Actor acceptance speech, Sean Penn said, "For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support." LAist has photographs of the protesters, who are from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas; one said, "I'm picketing the Oscars because the entertainment industry in this country is just ...one of the institutions, that you're using to promote sin and filth and rebellion against the commandments and standards of God." And Penn later said backstage, "I think that these are largely taught limitations and ignorances. It's very sad in a way, because it's a demonstration of such emotional cowardice to be so afraid to be extending the same rights to a fellow man as you would want for yourself."