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Mom told not to breastfeed at water park perfectly explains why the decision was ridiculous

"Imagine all the bodily fluids being excreted into the water but they’re worried about breastmilk"

via Mothering Touch/Flickr and DaveBurke.com/Flickr

A mother breastfeeding and a lazy river

There are a lot of reasons why waterparks aren't the most sanitary places in the world. In the water lurks a mysterious combination of chlorine, sweat, pee, saliva and whatever grime the people brought into the park from the outside. So, it’s strange that Rigby's Water World in Georgia asked mother Tiffany Francis to stop breastfeeding her baby in the lazy river “as a courtesy to other people."

Francis shared her story on Facebook, where the post received 848 shares and over 1,000 comments.

“My son is 11 months old, and when it was getting to be his nap time, like I do every visit, I got in the lazy river to nurse him to sleep,” she wrote in the vial post. “He likes motion to sleep, he sleeps well in the car or swing, so he will also sleep in the lazy river.”

A park employee informed Francis that she couldn’t breastfeed in the lazy river, and then a manager came by to confirm the rules and said they were posted outside. “Of course there was nothing stating anything about children, except for babies needed to wear swim diapers (which he was),” Francis continued in her post.

A manager told Francis that "as a courtesy to other people," she can't feed her son in the lazy river because "no food or drinks" are allowed in the water. "So my boobs aren't allowed in the water?" she retorted.

Francis made a great point about why the park shouldn’t have been concerned about breast milk potentially leaking into the water.

“Imagine all the bodily fluids being excreted into the water, but they’re worried about breastmilk when the baby was latched, my breast was out of the water, and the milk was only going into baby’s mouth,” she wrote. “But really it wasn’t even about him eating in the water it was about it making other guests uncomfortable.”

She then contrasted her behavior with other bathers.

“Also in the lazy river, I saw several other mothers with their kids asleep in their laps, the kids heads on their mom's chests. My situation looked just like theirs, my breast wasn’t exposed. My sons face was covering everything,” Francis continued. “So without looking extra hard you’d think he was just asleep on my chest. But somehow I made people uncomfortable by doing the most natural thing I could do for my child, while just trying to let him nap. Mind you, this was also at a water park where most people are wearing very little clothing but my son and I were offensive.”

Francis asked for her season pass to be refunded, but they said no. She left the park in tears.

The post received a flurry of angry mothers, many of whom wrote messages to the water park through Facebook. Many pointed to the law that says moms are free to breastfeed just about anywhere in Georgia.

According to Georgia Code 31-1-9, "The breastfeeding of a baby is an important and basic act of nurture which should be encouraged in the interests of maternal and child health. A mother may breastfeed her baby in any location where the mother and baby are otherwise authorized to be."

Steve Brown, Rigby’s vice president, spoke with aquatic professionals and decided to reverse the park's stance on breastfeeding in the lazy river, issuing a statement:

"After reviewing other cases on this subject and conducting a survey among other aquatic professionals. There were some good arguments for and some good arguments against allowing it. However, going forward, I will not prevent breastfeeding mothers from nursing their child in the pools at Rigby’s Water World. Even though it could be considered by many to not be the best practice, mothers have the right to breastfeed their child wherever they chose. It has always been common practice on the pool deck, but now it is allowed in the pool if a mother chooses. I would like to apologize to Tiffany for asking her to not breastfeed in the pool and, by that, not creating the best experience for her today. I will send a memo to our team to let them know the change to this policy. I would like to thank those of you who conducted yourselves in a positive way to shed light on the subject.”

In the end, Francis just wants moms to feel at ease feeding their babies wherever they go.

"No one else is told to eat under a cover or go to the bathroom to eat or to go eat in their car, but babies aren't allowed to eat in public? People are just so oh a breast! Oh my goodness! Because people have sexualized it and it's gross! I just want other moms to feel comfortable feeding in public whether in the water or anywhere else. It's okay and you can do it!” Francis told WGXA.

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It appears that voters in John Lewis's home county tipped Georgia for Joe Biden

John Lewis/Twitter, Aaron Vallely/Twitter

In one of the most unexpected turns of the 2020 election, Georgia has become a battleground state. It was speculated from pre-election polling to be a close race there, but of course we're all well aware that polls can be wrong. However, the previously reliably red state flipped blue overnight as votes in several Democrat-leaning counties were tallied, including Clayton county—home to the late senator and civil rights icon John Lewis.

Lewis was one of the "big six" leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In his 20s, he organized sit-ins, marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr., and was arrested at least 40 times in the battle for racial equality. State troopers and "deputized" white men beat him so badly they fractured his skull during the march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965.

That march was for voting rights, a cause close to Lewis's heart his entire career. His early activism was instrumental in getting the Voting Rights Act passed, and he spent the rest of his long and storied life defending the right for all Americans of all races to have their voices heard at the ballot box.

Lewis, who passed away in July of this year, in the midst of the largest racial justice movement since the civil rights era, left an essay to be published after his death. In it, he reiterated the need for Americans to exercise and protect their right to vote:

"Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it."

As we witness a sitting president attempt to delegitimize our election and actively seek, with claims of fraud and illegality, to toss out votes being counted in areas with heavy Black populations, we're watching that warning play out right in front of us.

So it's incredibly fitting that the votes pushing Georgia toward Joe Biden and away from Donald Trump are the votes from the county Lewis called home. He worked hard to enfranchise voters there. He paved the way for Stacey Abrams to do the same. He spent his life fighting for just this moment, where the voices of people whose votes have been suppressed in dozens of ways throughout U.S. history make themselves heard loud and clear.

People are taking to social media to give a well-deserved nod to Lewis.


If this cartoon doesn't get you, oof.

And let's not forget this bit of poetic justice.


The race in Georgia is close, and there are still outstanding ballots to be counted. It may or may not end up making the difference in the election, especially as Biden's lead in Pennsylvania continues to grow. But if Biden does end up winning Georgia, he will be the first Democratic presidential candidate to take the state since 1992. And it will be a victory directly due to the tireless efforts of Mr. John Lewis and the votes of those he helped bring to the polls.

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Georgia has suddenly become a battleground state—largely thanks to Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams/Twitter

Four years ago, no one would have expected that Georgia would be a battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.

Well, not no one. Stacey Abrams not only saw it coming, she played a big role in making it happen.

The former member of the Georgia state legislature became the first Black American woman to run for governor of a state under a major party in 2018. She lost to Republican Brian Kemp by just 1.5% in a hotly contested election. Kemp, who was Georgia's Secretary of State at the time, has been accused of engaging in voter suppression, making it harder for minorities in the state exercise their right to vote. Abrams refused to officially concede the election, claiming that Kemp had a conflict of interest as the person in charge of his own election.

After the gubernatorial race came to close, Abrams took the issue of voter suppression on with gusto. She had already spent years advocating for voter rights as a lawyer and lawmaker and continued the effort by founding an organization called Fair Fight that focuses on funding and training people to protect the vote in 20 battleground states, with a special emphasis on her home state of Georgia.

One of the main strategies Abrams has engaged in is getting enough voters registered and motivated to turn out on election days any voter suppression tactics that might be employed would be unsuccessful due to sheer numbers.

"Our goal through Fair Fight and Fair Fight 2020 is to ensure that people know about the obstacles that are being placed in their way, but (are encouraged to) vote in even larger numbers to overwhelm the intention of the system," Abrams told USA TODAY.

According to USA Today, Democrats had seen potential in Georgia's changing demographics. The city of Atlanta, in particular, has drawn a more educated workforce from around the country, which also includes potentially younger Asian, Black and Latino voters. Other counties that were once Republican strongholds have also become more diverse, opening the door to Democrats, who tend to draw more non-white support than Republicans.

Abrams' focus on getting those voters registered and ready to show up at the polls has paid off. A reliably red state for decades, Georgia is now in play. But it's not just as simple as getting people to the polls. Abrams has a deep pool of historical knowledge and a keen understanding of the systems in place that make it harder for people to exercise their civic duty.

In an interview with Ezra Klein at Vox, Abrams explained that there is no Constitutional right to vote.

"The reality is that the right to vote does not exist as an affirmative opportunity," she said. "What does exist in the Constitution is the delegation of authority for the administration of elections to states, which sounds very benign until you realize that for most of American history, voter suppression has been almost entirely the construct of states.

What the Voting Rights Act did in 1965 was shatter the impermeable nature of states to say who could and could not vote. The Voting Rights Act said you could not use race — and, by 1975, that you could not use language — as a way to preclude access to the right to vote. It said that states could not take proactive steps to block the right to vote through poll taxes, literacy tests, closing of polling places — any action that would interfere with the right of people of color, or people who spoke English as a second language, to vote. In states that had a long and storied history of blocking the right to vote, no new voting laws could be countenanced without having the Department of Justice approve."

The Voting Rights Act helped get the U.S. to a place where we elected our first Black president in 2008 and again in 2012. Then, in 2013, it was gutted by a Supreme Court case that essentially removed the rule that states had to get their voter rules approved by the federal government.

"That was essentially a get out of jail free card for states that wanted to discriminate; what was different this time is that it was no longer relegated to those states that participated in voter suppression through Jim Crow," said Abrams.

"You had a proliferation across the country of voter suppression techniques that had been prohibited clearly by the Voting Rights Act. That's why you saw the rapid shutdown of polling places. That's why you saw the expansion of restrictive voter ID laws. That's why in 2020, we are seeing so many cases that essentially challenge state laws designed to restrict who has access to the right to vote."

Thanks to Abrams' efforts—among others—to ensure that more Americans have their voices heard at the ballot box, Georgia may end up turning blue. In the very least, it's now a solid purple, which is a huge accomplishment for those who have worked so hard to enfranchise voters.


Thank you, Stacey Abrams, and all the other warriors fighting for voter protection, for carrying America to the finish line of this hard-fought race.

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The entire justice system in this city is run by black women.

The city of South Fulton is making headlines for its justice system run entirely by black women.

Even those facing punitive justice are celebrating what's happening. One Georgia man got a parking ticket, and he brought his daughter to court so she could see the women running it.

"He had heard about us in some kind of way, and he wanted his daughter to see this combination of black women handling business," public defender Vivica Powell said about the experience. "He had a ticket and I wondered why he had his little girl with him. Most of the time, people do not bring school-aged children to court. He told me ... this is why he brought her."

Powell is one of the eight black women who make up South Fulton's justice system — from Chief Judge Tiffany Carter Sellers down to Court Clerks Tiffany Kinslow and Kerry Stephens.

They were all hired after South Fulton officially became a chartered city in May 2017. A photo of the women went viral on social media in June 2018 and has become a larger story about black, female empowerment.

"I didn't notice until [City Solicitor LaDawn Jones] said something … she walked in and said 'Oh my God! Look at all this black girl magic,'"  Stephens said.

[rebelmouse-image 19397321 dam="1" original_size="562x280" caption="Photo by Reginald Duncan/The Atlanta Voice." expand=1]Photo by Reginald Duncan/The Atlanta Voice.

These women leading their local justice system is both a moment to celebrate and a powerful statement about representation.

South Fulton is about 90% African-American, so it makes sense that it would largely be represented by black people. But that kind of representation is unusual in the U.S., where women of color account for 20% of the U.S. population but only 8% of our state judges. Meanwhile, 57% of state judges are white men despite them making up only 30% of the population.

That's what makes South Fulton so unique: Its governing body reflects its people.

"I think all of us are genuinely invested," Sellers said. "I know several of us live in the community, have gone to school, or have been reared in the community, and so there is this personal attachment to the community that I'm not certain exists in other places."

Having leadership that accurately reflects a community's demographics is a huge step in moving toward more equitable justice. People of the same race (and other identities), upbringing, or socio-economic status in positions of power bring with them an understanding of what it's like to exist in a community.

That knowledge is essential in governing with purpose — and South Fulton is setting the example for one way many U.S. communities could improve justice systems.

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