West Virginia is one of only three U.S. states (along with Nebraska and Idaho) that has no law whatsoever protecting breastfeeding. So I was glad to read that this month not one but two bills were introduced in the West Virginia Senate concerning breastfeeding.
Unfortunately, one of the bills could result in a law that helps breastfeeding mothers and the other … well, not so much.
West Virginia Senate Bill Number 80 adds "currently breast feeding mother" to the list of people disqualified from jury duty. If I had my choice I would add breastfeeding mothers to those who can be exempt if they choose and who are given accommodations if they wish (as people with physical disabilities are under current West Virginia law) but if this bill results in getting breastfeeding women out of having to serve on juries when their babies need them or they need to empty their engorged breasts, this is a good thing.
Senate Bill Number 82, a public breastfeeding bill, needs some work. The bill has a "note" attached to it that is not actually part of the law. It states:
The purpose of this bill is to declare a child's right to nurse and making a statement by the Legislature that nursing in a public place is socially acceptable.
I know this looks good (other than the awkward wording and visceral response I have to a statement that nursing in public is "socially acceptable" – just makes me want to scream "I don't give a damn if it is socially acceptable!"). Breastfeeding advocates love the idea of a child having a right to nurse. I love it too but it is problematic. Why? Because adults have protected civil rights in the U.S. and children, generally speaking, do not. So the U.S. legal system as it is renders the note empty.
But remember, this is not actually part of what the law would say if it passes. What the law would say is:
ARTICLE 1. STATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM.
ยง16-1-19. Child's right to nurse; location where permitted; right protected.
(a) The Legislature finds that breast feeding is an important, basic act of nurturing that is protected in the interests of maternal and child health.
(b) A mother may breast feed a child in any location, public or private, where the mother and child are otherwise authorized to be.
Again, looks good right? But if you have read my other writing on the practical impact of public breastfeeding law, you will know what is wrong with this bill. If a store owner tells a woman she must leave because he doesn't allow breastfeeding in his store or says only women who cover up can breastfeed, what can the mother legally do? Nothing. This bill contains no mechanism to enforce any "right," either of a child or of the mother. And, repeat after me, "a right without a remedy is no right at all."
So what can you do if you are in West Virginia? Have a look at this interview with state Senator Dan Foster, one of the sponsors of both of these bills. He gets it. He understands the importance of breastfeeding, both the health benefits and the economic benefits to the state.
According to this report, Foster anticipates having more difficulty getting the public breastfeeding bill passed than the bill disqualifying breastfeeding women from jury duty. The news report also erroneously states that women would be given a choice of pump accommodations on jury duty. That is actually not in the bill and should be.
So if you are in West Virginia, contact state Senator Dan Foster and tell him what you think of these bills. Let him know similar public breastfeeding laws in other states leave women unprotected because they have no enforcement mechanism. If he says he doesn't think he can get such a bill passed, pledge your support for a strong law protecting a civil right to breastfeed in public. Tell him you are willing to make phone calls to other state Senators and help him get a strong bill passed.
We own a hobby farm. On the five acres surrounding our home we raise small live stock birds, turkeys, chickens (primarily for eggs), ducks. What do we feed them? We buy feed at the local feed store and we avoid the food that contains antibiotics and chemical additives. In warm weather our animals free range and eat the plants and bugs they find on our land.
We also own and lease our other approximately 120 acres of farm land to a tenant farmer. This year we planted non-genetically modified soy beans. These beans bring a higher price per bushel and can be sold to foreign markets because they are NGMO (non-genetically modified organism) crops. What does the rest of the world know that seems to be escaping the USDA? The rest of the world does not want genetically modified food crops in their food stuffs. Science has mixed reviews on what these modified crops do to our health over time, not to mention that the modifications that science labs create would probably never occur in nature. How would soy, for instance, be crossed with cauliflower. Guess what? Soy is crossed with cauliflower so it can be sprayed with Monsanto's Roundup. If you eat commercially grown soy and you have a food allergy to cauliflower how will that impact your health? How does this impact the nutritional quality of the food?
So for my way of thinking these foods (often referred to as Frankenstein foods) are unproven for long term safety in our bodies. Currently there is no required consumer labeling of these items. When you buy foods you don't know if the corn in that taco your eating is GMO or not, but it probably is. How does this impact the organic food industry? Organics are a thriving and rapidly growing business in the US. This is one sector of the economy that appears to be doing well.
Alfalfa is often used as a cover crop for wintering fields to prevent erosion. It is also food stuff for animals. What happens when genetically modified alfalfa enters the food chain? How long will it take before non-modified alfalfa is wiped out? When GMO crops are planted they cross pollinate with non-GMO crops and change them to GMO crops. Once introduced there is no way to control the spread of the GMO crop on surrounding fields, plants and animals. Migrating birds eat these crops and can transport these seeds far and wide. Alfalfa is eaten by cattle so the milk they produce will have been touched by the GMO alfalfa. The droppings they leave will be altered. These dropping will be used as fertilizer on fields that are planted.
Our children will eat the cheese and the milk, and the meats from these animals. They will consume the vegetables from the fields; the same fields that have been covered by the alfalfa over the winter. Later the manure from the animals feed the GMO alfalfa will be tilled into that soil.
Family Farmers in this country are being wiped out by large corporations like Monsanto. The growing organic food and farming industry and the public's desire for clean non-GMO foods are at risk if this GMO Alfalfa is allowed to be put into the food chain.
On our family farm, we grow free range birds for eggs and meat; we grow what we like to think of as an organic garden on the land surrounding our home. We try to buy local and organic when we can. We only have a small family farm, like the rest we could not begin to make enough to support ourselves so we lease out our larger plot of land and let it be farmed by another. We were delighted when we heard that our tenant farmer had planted non-GMO soy beans. There is little to no profit in farming these days and it is more a commitment to the land than a conscious choice. The little good we can do can be quickly wiped out by rain, or lack of it or a big company or even maybe the USDA. Already many countries will not accept our grain shipments because they are GMO grains. The European Union refuses GMO imports. Our soy beans were sold to Japan who wants non-GMO beans. And they can bring on average of a dollar more per bushel. The impact is global.
For more information on the impact of, and fight against, genetically modified crops, see:
Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women is a collection of love stories. Most beautiful, some sad, they are in many ways like any love stories – except before the authors found love with women, they had lived with (and often loved) men.
In the inspired introduction, editors Candace Walsh and Laura Andre talk about what makes the women in this collection different from those in the few previous works by women who found female partners later in life. Unlike the women in From Wedded Wife to Lesbian Life: Stories of Transformation, and many of my clients at the time I read that book, women who love women are now less likely to lose their children in custody battles, lose their jobs and lose the support of their communities. But sadly some of this loss still occurs and it is in this book. Amanda V. Mead in her essay "This Love is Messy" did lose her public school teaching job in one of the many states that offers no protection from sexual orientation discrimination. A few others lost friends and family. But, more often than not, as Erin Mantz wrote in "Undoing Everything":
And then it happened: nothing. At least, not to my face. Not yet.
Falling in love with a woman at thirty-nine may have turned my life upside down, but the friends and family all around me are still standing.
There is another difference between Dear John, I Love Jane and other "coming out" stories: many of the women were truly happy in their relationships with men. While there is certainly a good bit of reflection about early attraction to women that the authors suppressed or ignored, few of the authors lived actively closeted lives. They may have taken some time to find what they wanted in their lives, but by and large, when they found it, they pursued it. And some, like Veronica Masen in "Watershed," stay with their male mates – not as sexual partners but as parenting partners making a happy family though mom is a lesbian.
This is not a collection only to be read by women who are questioning their sexuality or who have been in relationships with both men and women. These stories are about the journeys of women you know. They are about finding out who you really are in the face of culture and family telling you who you are supposed to be. They are about searching for happiness. They are about being honest with yourself and the people you love. These stories are universal. And they are well-written, filled with experiences that are familiar and positive.
"The Right Fit" by Kami Day is haunting. Raised in a strict and insular Mormon family, Day believed what she was taught about the spiritual necessity of marrying the man who was her destiny. When sex was painful and unpleasant, she and her husband ultimately went to a psychiatrist who taught them about sexuality. While this helped Day find sexual pleasure, her relationship with her husband did not improve. Year after year, child after child, Day endured years of obligatory unpleasant sex in a loveless marriage. One would think this was a very sad story, and to me it is. But in Day's extraordinary essay one sees that in her own assessment of her life, finding your great love when you are forty-four is as wonderful as life can be. She had left a long marriage and the church in which she and her family had lived for generations. But her essay resonates with joy and contentment.
In "Running From the Paper Eye,"Susan White lyrically presents scenes from her life: her mother's rift with her own lesbian sister blamed on the death of an Easter chick; White's toddler self-perception she was a boy as her mother jammed her little body into dresses; the perceptive aunt who questions her decision to marry. In introducing the demise of her marriage, she is lovely and stark:
Wes blamed our divorce on the poison oak. Sure, let the plant take the fall. A natural disaster.
Dear John, I Love Jane is fascinating, enlightening and, finally, hopeful. Not every love affair lasts but, in the end, these women are happy with their lives.
In the inspired introduction, editors Candace Walsh and Laura Andre talk about what makes the women in this collection different from those in the few previous works by women who found female partners later in life. Unlike the women in 
, and many of my clients at the time I read that book, women who love women are now less likely to lose their children in custody battles, lose their jobs and lose the support of their communities. But sadly some of this loss still occurs and it is in this book. Amanda V. Mead in her essay "This Love is Messy" did lose her public school teaching job in one of the many states that offers no protection from sexual orientation discrimination. A few others lost friends and family. But, more often than not, as 
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