This past legislative session, lawmakers debated a bill to guarantee mothers the right to breastfeed in public, a provision every other state except Utah and one other already had in place.
But the bill barely squeaked through its committee hearing on a 6-5 vote, with five male legislators voting against it, including Rep. Curt Webb, R-Logan, complaining that, if the bill passed “you don’t have to cover up at all. … I’m not comfortable with that, I’m just not. It’s really in your face.”
But it’s this type of tone-deafness that happens all to often in the Utah Legislature, due in no small part to the scarcity of female elected officials.