Lubbock Mom Shares Crazy Story About Being Harassed for Breastfeeding in Public

About a week ago, I told you guys about a mom who was nursing her baby while waiting to see the doctor at UMC. This woman was informed she was making other patients in the waiting room uncomfortable, so she needed to either cover up or go elsewhere to feed the baby.

We received a very kind email from a listener named Ashley who experienced a similar situation and wanted to thank us for taking a stance on the issue of breastfeeding in public.

We DJs express our personal opinions while on the air and when we write these blogs. Sometimes we get a lot of flak from people who don't agree with us. Other times we get told 'thank you!' for standing up for the rights of others in a public way. This is one the latter times.

Check out the email (below) we received regarding a listener's experience with a local retailer while she was breastfeeding.

So, I just wanted to take a minute and express my thanks to you guys at FMX who support a mothers right to nurse her child at all times. I've been a listener, concert goer and huge fan since I was just a little girl.
Let me tell y'all a story that relates to y'alls post tonight. My youngest daughter is almost three now and isn't nursing anymore. But when she was about a year old we were at Footlocker in the mall buying shoes for my oldest daughter. While her daddy was helping her pick some out and trying them on I sat down on one of the benches in there to nurse my sleepy baby. I've always been discrete but I never used a cover because its f**king hot in Texas lol, nobody wants their head under a blanket to eat. But I can say with 100% confidence I showed less skin while nursing uncovered than the ads with t*ts popping out in the very store I was sitting in.

 

So anyway, a manager approaches me and says someone complained and that I need to cover up or leave. I calmly told him I would not cover and that we would leave when we had the shoes (my husband was already in line paying by this point). The guy proceeded to call me an exhibitionist and demand that I leave or he would call the cops for public indecency.

 

I was mad as hell when he said that. I handed him a laminated card I carried with me that quotes the specific legislation protecting a mothers right to nurse in public and the legislation also states that a woman nursing can never be considered indecent exposure in the eyes of the law.

 

He threw the card down, tossed my diaper bag and purse out of the store and called the police. I sat my happy ass on that bench and waited for them to come. The cops were not happy at all about him calling them out for something that is not illegal or disruptive in anyway.

 

The younger of the two officers said he hopes no one ever has the gall to harass his wife, also a nursing mother, and then he wrote that a**hole a ticket for harassment and disturbing the peace and even asked me if I wanted to pursue battery charges since the guy grabbed my bags out of my hands. The company issued me a formal apology and the manager ended up fired.

 

But not all women know what I know about the law and jerks step all over them because of some sense of entitlement and "offense" they perceived from the most natural act of nurturing.

 

I often felt belittled and unsupported outside of my home, especially when I continued nursing my daughter until the WHO recommend age of 2 years.

 

It makes me so thrilled and proud to be y'alls fan when you step up and speak out in support of a group of women who often feel very alone in a society that tries to sexualize nursing and say its indecent while at the same time shoving advertisements with practically naked women in our faces and saying "oh those t*tties aren't offensive since there isn't a baby eating from them."

 

Thank you thank you thank you Wes Nessman, Driver, and everyone else. Not only did the shows y'all work so hard to put on for us get me through some horrible times when I had nothing to look forward to other than a badass show, and now I am grateful beyond belief to y'all for using your prominent position in the Lubbock community to support moms and babies who don't often have much support.
Rock on, I can't express my gratitude enough.

Apparently, I'm not alone in my feelings that state and local government are overstepping their bounds when it comes to allowing women to make decisions for themselves concerning their bodies.

With the UMC incident still fresh in our minds, let me remind you all that there seems to be a movement against the rights of women when it comes to their bodies.

If you have an opinion on these issues -- and if you have a mom, a sister, a girlfriend, a wife, daughter or granddaughter -- the outcome of this election and the potential for them to be impacted by new laws really does affects you too, so be sure to get out and vote next Tuesday, November 4.