Breastfeeding charity suspends trustees who want to ban trans women from its services

[IwantToRetire]

Six trustees of a nationwide breastfeeding support group have been suspended for demanding that biological men be excluded from their services.

The British wing of <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/H8gDN/www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/04/01/nhs-thrall-deranged-progressive-ideology-harming-mothers-babies/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">La Leche League (LLL), which gives mother-to-mother support to those finding it <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/H8gDN/www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/what-i-really-wish-id-known-about-breastfeeding-that-might-have/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hard to breastfeed, has been told by its US-based board of directors that the service cannot be single sex and they <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/H8gDN/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/08/shouldnt-men-breastfeed-too/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">must support “male lactation”.

The suspended trustees have now complained to the Charity Commission, saying the charity’s demand that trans women were admitted was against UK law because single-sex places are protected.

Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, has asked members of the public for examples of state bodies misapplying the rules on single-sex spaces.

Start of a much longer article at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/01/breastfeeding-la-leche-league-suspends-trustees-trans-women/

Can also be read at https://archive.ph/H8gDN

If you argue the point for transmen and NB to be included you argue the point for men who say their women too by default.

It was coming from the women. Many who had joined the group as women and then come out as NB later on.

*they're women

Wow, that’s the most likes I’ve ever had on a post! I suspect there are a lot of ex Leaders or trainees/volunteers here, who left because we couldn’t in good conscience go along with LLLI’s policies.

I am going to see what happens, but if UK law prevails I’d love to rejoin. There’s no longer any NHS breastfeeding support locally, and LLL is meeting a need.

How feasible would it be to start a new charity in the UK that was separate from any of the captured ones?

I am an ex bf volunteer, for a different organisation. It makes me sad when I think back to how brilliant, how clear, how focused on women, organisations such as the ABM used to be, in the first half of the last decade. Thousands of women willingly giving up their time and effort to run groups, attend training or become qualified. Did you know that the National Breastfeeding Helpline was staffed by volunteers? Volunteers who had to attend a year-long training course and undergo ongoing supervision in order to do so? But honestly, at the time nobody seemed to mind as everyone knew that we were working towards a common goal and that goal was a simple one: supporting mothers and babies.

The birth world is now ripping itself to pieces over this and other equalities-related issues. The only thing it will lose is talented women who will no longer be willing to give up their time.

Read Milli Hill 'I will not be silenced'. And weep.

This story has stayed with me all day. How dare women betray their sex and let men with fetishes commit child abuse. I hope the charity commission take swift action to protect infants.

This is interesting:
Guest post: Statement from the concerned LLLGB trustee group defending sex-based rights – With Woman (with-woman.org)

Written in response to this:
Letter circulated to La Leche League Leaders misrepresents objections of trustees. – With Woman (with-woman.org)

I hope it gets publicity. It's about time that particular stone was lifted up.

Don't these fool organisations even think of what sort of fetishes these men have, what sort of men want to do this, and how they're using babies as their sexual props?

I had support from LL as a new mum and it was really helpful. I cannot begin to imagine what having a biological male in that space would have felt like as an extremely vulnerable postnatal woman.
It seems LL in America is a massive part of the problem since they have made LL U.K. choose to either become single sex (supporting only biological females AKA women, trans men and non binary females) and lose all their branding meaning they would potentially have rival organisations popping up or agree to support biological males. What a crazy situation.

LakeTiticaca · 02/05/2024 09:13

When a biological man carries a pregnancy and gives birth to a baby, that's when all this will be acceptable.
We are waiting......

The Heat Death of the Universe will predate that.

Maybe it’s time LLLGB disconnected from its American parent?

Surely it doesn’t matter if there are rival organisations popping up? Most women in LLL are in it to help new mothers breastfeed - as long as they get that support, does it matter which organisation is providing it?

I think it matters because the LL officially endorsed version may then eclipse the original UK LL which now can't market itself and so women may go to the official one not realising it includes biological men.

It could make sense to separate? They could then be ‘The la leche league charity UK’ or similar. After all, they have the people and the groups…It would be a bit rocky for a while but would probably work out ok.

After all, another of the big bf charities began as a breakaway group from the NCT.

Yes, they are actually supporting disgusting sexual exploitation of babies, by evil men.

These babies are going to be seriously disturbed and traumatised children/teenagers/adults when they realise/find out/are told that their mothers allowed men to use them to satisfy fetishes and fantasies. The men doing this and the women allowing it should be charged with CSA.

How is nobody prioritising infants safeguarding? Why are LLL UK talking like it's the most important thing to be in LLL International? It is criminal to put these adult concerns above the potential lifelong trauma of being involved in sexual gratification as a child.

Brendan O'Neill in Spiked has written a furious article about this. "Breastfeeding men is an Orwellian lie":

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/04/breastfeeding-men-is-an-orwellian-lie/

I'm also an ex volunteer in a different charity. In the breastfeeding world a few years ago (c 2017-18) I started to hear one or two other women using 'human milk' instead of breastmilk and other non sexed terms. A few years before (c2012-14?) I remember talking about how this whole move towards trans inclusiveness was happening in the bf world in america, and would come here. Here it is!
It's playing out most dramatically in LLL now because they have most strongly adopted the lunacy, but im sure a version is happening everywhere.
For example this thread from '22 about bfn watering down their aims to be less mother focused.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4588083-breastfeeding-network-new-vision-aims

It is possible for new bf organisations to spring up. A new small org won the contract in one area I know of (over more established orgs) though I think it's a company rather than a charity, and also doesnt emphasise the mother-baby dyad anyway.

Thanks @Manderleyagain. I will read that thread.

I suspect that a lot of bf peer-supporters and midwives initially interpreted the term ‘human milk’ as being distinct from ‘cows milk’ which is the main ingredient of most infant formula. But they didn’t see what was coming!

Makes me so angry. When a woman presents with advanced breast cancer invading the chest wall there is a. Need to distinguish breast and chest.

There's a lovely ER Dr on X who posts interesting cases and explains them (lots of chest X-rays).
Here's a very serious chest injury. (I did know what it was but take a look. Not a pretty sight for anyone sensitive).

x.com/em_resus/status/1744092475554185384?s=46

If anyone starts talking chest feeding take them down with anatomy. Just don't tolerate it.

I also think that what non-involved supporters of this plan might not get is that there are often, quite reasonably, women with exposed or semi-exposed breasts at breastfeeding support groups. It’s not just sitting in a circle talking about breastfeeding, it’s doing it! A bf supporter might be showing a mother a different hold, how to latch a new baby on for the first time or taking a look at an area of breast pain that might be a blocked duct. And yes, you can do all those things with precautions for privacy, but sometimes some exposure is inevitable and no woman wants a strange man around while her breast is exposed.

Fantastic article in the Critic

https://thecritic.co.uk/misappropriating-motherhood/