BOSTON — Charlie Yaker's enormous blue eyes rolled back in elation and a blissful, drunken-sailor expression settled on his face. The 6-month-old had just finished breast-feeding Tuesday morning near the Delta Air Lines ticket counter at Logan International Airport, unperturbed by the frenzy of holiday-season travelers.
"We're here to show people how natural and healthy breast-feeding is," said Charlie's mother, 28-year-old Alison Yaker of Braintree, Mass. "And to remind Delta Air Lines of that fact too."
The dozen or so lactating mothers and their babies who gathered at Terminal A were part of a national "nurse-in" staged at more than 30 airports. The mothers said they were outraged that Delta had ejected a woman from a flight in Vermont last month because she was breast-feeding her baby.
Emily Gillette, 27, was ordered off the plane Oct. 13 after a flight attendant -- saying, "You are offending me" -- handed her a blanket and told her to cover up while she was nursing her 1-year-old daughter. Gillette refused.
The flight attendant has been reprimanded, a Delta spokesperson said. "Delta fully supports a woman's right to breast-feed her baby on board our aircraft," Delta's Gina Laughlin said Tuesday. "Delta regrets that this incident happened and is disappointed with the flight attendant's decision to remove Ms. Gillette from Flight 6160."
Gillette has filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, which oversees discrimination allegations in that state. Her attorney, Elizabeth A. Boepple, said Tuesday that she had not ruled out the possibility of further legal action.
Indignation over Gillette's experience spread across websites frequented by breast-feeding advocates, known colloquially as "lactivists." All but 12 states have laws allowing women to nurse their children in public.
The breast-feeding supporters who converged on airports Tuesday urged passage of pending federal civil rights protection for breast-feeding. The activists also said airlines should adopt consistent policies to permit breast-feeding on planes.
"I think I'm the first one to get kicked off a plane. But I'm certainly not the first to be harassed," said Gillette, who joined a protest Tuesday at the Albuquerque airport, not far from her home in Espanola, N.M.
Gillette said she was overwhelmed by the show of solidarity. "I was hoping somebody else would be interested," she said. "But there was no way I was expecting this."
