USA, woman sues museum for preventing her from breastfeeding her daughter

Where is it that women have the right to breastfeed their babies? That’s the question a presenter for the Minneapolis (Minnesota, U.S.) television network Kare 11 asked after a visitor to the Walker Art Center, one of the most important museums in the city and the entire country, decided to sue the institution because it allegedly prevented her from feeding her baby. The woman, Megan Mzenga, told Kare 11 that she visited the museum with her family (ironically, on Family Day, last May 12), but according to her, she was “humiliated” (that’s the exact term) for trying to breastfeed her eight-month-old daughter while her husband and older, three-year-old son were doing activities elsewhere in the museum.

“My daughter was hungry and started complaining,” Mzenga recounted. “We were in a room with two big couches, so I decided to sit on one of the couches and started feeding her. At that point a male staff member came up to me and said ’you can’t do it here, I’ll get someone to take you to do it somewhere else.’” The woman stated that she felt embarrassed and thought she had been caught doing something wrong. So, at first, she agreed with the staff member, because, she said, “immediately I felt a little ashamed and thought what I was doing was wrong, plus I didn’t want to disturb, so I got up to leave, so when I got up I went to another staff member in the ticket office and asked what the museum’s policies were on breastfeeding. I was told that they didn’t think they had any, and they handed me a form to fill out.”

According to the museum’s regulations, no food or drink is allowed in the halls, but it also says that parents are free to refresh their children wherever they see fit. “I thought about it all weekend,” Mzenga added, “and I was angry that I didn’t defend myself at the time, and that I didn’t defend my daughter under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, under which it is illegal to deny someone a space in public because of their gender.”

According to the woman and her lawyer, the museum would have precisely violated this state law, which states that in Minnesota women have the right to feed their babies in public, and if this opportunity is not granted to them, it raises the profile of discrimination. “A part of my dignity as a mom, as a woman, as a mother who was breastfeeding was taken away,” she concluded. “And I don’t want that to happen to other mothers.” The museum does not comment, since according to its own policies it does not make statements about pending lawsuits, but at Kare 11 they reiterated that at the Walkers Art Center a person has full freedom to breastfeed where it best suits her.

USA, woman sues museum for preventing her from breastfeeding her daughter

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