By Stephanie Bastiaan
Victorian mother and breastfeeding advocate Jasmine Sussex is being taken to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) by trans-identified male Jennifer Buckley after raising concerns online about biological males trying to chest feed newborn babies. Courts, including QCAT, have the power to summon respondents to attend proceedings in a location most convenient to the applicant. This legal action follows three years of complaints by Buckley to various authorities, including the Queensland Human Rights Commission and the e-Safety Commission, who subsequently ordered posts by Sussex that said men can't breastfeed to be removed.
Buckley first documented his attempts to lactate on Facebook in 2019 while his wife was pregnant with their son. Supported by his endocrinologist, Dr Naomi Achong, he started increasing his doses of oestrogen and taking the drug domperidone in the months leading up to the birth. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Buckley said his wife supported his desire to breastfeed their baby.
Despite doctors in the hospital warning him that trying to feed his newborn baby from his chest would put the baby at risk, Buckley signed a waiver and pursued it within the first hour of the baby being born while his wife was being treated for haemorrhaging. Buckley says the couple decided to discontinue after his ‘milk’ supply ceased a day and a half after leaving the hospital, which he says was due to the stress of his wife being readmitted with a retained placenta. Buckley described the experience of chest feeding as making him feel 'more feminine'.
In May 2021, Sussex, a 15-year volunteer with the Australian Breasting Feeding Association (ABA), responded to Buckley's post on the ABA Facebook page, stating that Buckley appeared to be a man pretending to be a woman.
In response, Buckley lodged a complaint with the ABA, and before too long, Sussex, along with several other breastfeeding counsellors, was dismissed by the ABA following investigations of complaints regarding a failure to use gender-neutral language such as 'parent' instead of 'mother'. Shortly after, it emerged that the ABA received a $20,000 donation from Rainbow Families to produce a booklet that promotes 'chest feeding'.
In response to the exclusive in the Daily Mail, which was published in 2022, Sussex described his take on feeding as 'delusional queer theory'. She also noted in other posts that men chest feeding babies is 'experimental' and part of a 'dangerous fetish' - something Sussex says has been explored by commenters in the USA.
Buckley alleges Sussex's posts vilified and incited hatred against him and ‘transwomen’ in breach of Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Act 1991, which was amended in 2003 by Attorney-General Rod Welford under Premier Peter Beattie's Labor Government to include 'gender identity' as a protected attribute. He is seeking that Sussex's posts be removed, a private apology, and $15,000 in compensation.
Men can't breastfeed; men shouldn't chest feed.
Men cannot produce mother's milk. However, they can produce substances like galactorrhea - a milky discharge from the nipples unrelated to breastfeeding. It can be drug-induced or caused by illnesses such as tumours of the pituitary gland. There is no evidence to support the safety or nutritional value of such excretions nor the long-term effects on the infant. There is enormous concern, however, that the commonly used lactation drug domperidone carries a potential risk of causing problems with the baby's heart.
While the U.S. FDA has banned the use of domperidone altogether, breastfeeding mothers can use it in Australia in small doses for a short period under the direction of their physician to boost their milk supply. Traces of the drug have been found in the breast milk of women; however, the amount detected is dependent on the dose taken. There is a lack of safety data available to confirm what impact it has on infants long term. Nonetheless, men who identify as women use it alongside the cocktail of "gender-affirming" drugs, including oestrogen, anti-androgens, progestogen and other feminising hormones.
There are also no studies or reports of men producing adequate quantities of liquid to sustain nourishment, something Buckley acknowledged when his son became jaundiced from the lack of nutrition from his feeding.
Mothers produce breast milk, which contains fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and a varying composition of minerals and vitamins. It is tailor-made to meet the needs of the infant and can boost the baby's immune system and protect it from infection.
Breastfeeding also strengthens the bond between the baby and its mother, which is essential for the baby's long-term physical and psychological development.
The purpose of breastfeeding is to nourish the infant, not to make one feel feminine. One can only conclude that men's chest feeding is simply a science experiment at the expense of the infant to validate the desires of men to be women. The fact that medical professionals in public and private health are facilitating it – including female-focussed hospitals like the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne – indicates how ideologically captured our healthcare system is.
Infants cannot consent to being used as guinea pigs. It is unethical and requires an urgent investigation.
Meanwhile, women like Jasmine Sussex will continue to be dragged through legal procedures until we fix our current laws that allow Australians to be punished for defending biological reality.
#IStandWithJasmineSussex
Stephanie Bastiaan is Head of Advocacy at Women's Forum Australia.
Women’s Forum Australia is an independent think tank that undertakes research, education and public policy advocacy on issues affecting women and girls, with a particular focus on addressing behaviours and practices that are harmful and abusive to them. We are a non-partisan, non-religious, tax-deductible charity. We do not receive any government funding and rely solely on donations to make an impact. Support our work today.
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