why must everything be ad absurdum?

[some_stars]

...I think the breastfeeding/infant discussion is completely ridiculous, though. YOU CAN'T BRING YOUR BABIES EVERYWHERE. Just wait a year or two, for fuck's sake. I mean, choosing to breastfeed only and without pumping is an awesome choice, but it's a CHOICE that you make that has CONSEQUENCES. You can't bring your baby to a fucking bar, either.

clarification: I am 1000% in favor of breastfeeding in public and I think it should be allowed in every place babies are allowed. I just don't think everywhere in the entire world needs to allow babies.

Comments

[thingswithwings]

actually I'm pretty sure it's US law that a breastfeeding child cannot be banned from any place the mother has access to - including bars. It may be that bar owners are not aware of this and would (illegally) prevent you from entering anyway, but, there it is.

[giandujakiss]

No, that's not accurate - see discussion here. There's no real U.S. law on these issues - it's a question of laws by state. The law under consideration here is just Illinois's law, and apparently the scope of that law ambiguous.

[thingswithwings]

oh, my apologies! I obviously should've checked what I'd heard before repeating it.

[some_stars]

Okay, you may well be able to bring your child to a bar, but I'm going to be on the side of the people complaining about it. Some places should be childfree--and I say this as someone who hates the "childfree" movement and all it stands for, and a firm supporter of breastfeeding everywhere that babies are allowed to be.

[laurajv]

Dude, I'm breastfeeding and I'm cool with there being places babies aren't allowed to be.

Whether or not you & I agree on what those places should be is open to debate, but then, I don't agree with all my local friends who are subject to the exact same laws I am on that, either.

Where I am, any public or private place where mother and child are legally permitted, breastfeeding must also be permitted. There are places from which children are legally barred, and therefore even nursing babies cannot go there. These places include some, but not all, bars -- if the bar gets a certain amount of its revenue from food, it must ban smoking and allow children, but if it is under that amount it can allow smoking and ban children. Other places simply opt to discourage children, but do not/are not legally allowed to bar them. As long as these are places that do not qualify as "public accommodation", I do not much care, although it decreases the likelihood of me going to them. I suppose one of the open questions is that, with something like a con, is a "no babies" policy legally enforceable under local law, or is it merely a discouragement?

In the specific case of VVC, Illinois law appears to only cover the authorization of the *mother* to be there: http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Health/BreastfeedingLaws/tabid/14389/Default.aspx#i

which might mean that VVC cannot legally bar breastfeeding children, though I don't see any reason it could not discourage them/make rules about what to do if the child is disruptive.

(I am in PA, and as I mentioned, the law says both mother AND child must be authorized to be in the location, which means that cons in PA can probably have no-child policies that include breastfeeding infants. Anthrocon attendees are perhaps breathing a sigh of relief.)

[tavella]

I would be very surprised if the courts ruled other than the law did not apply, because the mother was not authorized to be in the space with a child, in the case of places that banned children. Nothing about the law suggests that it is creating a separate authorization to bring the child into a no-child space.

[tavella]

Mind you, if they let the mother and child in the door, and then suddenly remembered that oh, yeah, they are a no-child space when she tries to breastfeed, then they'd be screwed. But "I'm sorry, ma'am, children are not allowed in this bar" is the sound of the management not authorizing the person to be in their space.

[laurajv]

Excuse me? Was there something I said that made you feel you needed to be rude to me?