Counsellor Faces Tribunal for Opposing Male-to-Female Breastfeeding Claims

A breastfeeding volunteer with more than 15 years’ experience has had to defend her stance against transgender breastfeeding.

A woman holds the foot of a baby in a file photo. Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images

A breastfeeding expert is facing action in a Queensland tribunal for objecting to the idea that biological males can breastfeed.

It is the third complaint Victorian Jasmine Sussex has had to deal with from male-to-female trans person Jennifer Buckley.

The first involved an incident with the Australian Breastfeeding Association, after Sussex wrote on Facebook that she did not believe it was suitable for biological men who had transitioned to breastfeed.

Her volunteer role at the Association would end after 15 years.

Sussex says it is because she refused to use terms such as “chest feeding.”

The second incident saw Buckley complain to the eSafety commissioner about an X social media post where Sussex had written the word, “delusional,” in response to an article involving Buckley and breastfeeding.

Eventually, the X post was geo-blocked, and can no longer be seen in Australia.

When Sussex responded on social media about censorship, Buckley complained to the Queensland Human Rights Commission in November, which saw Sussex taken to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Buckley has alleged that Sussex’s comments were hurtful, and that she had been vilified online.

Gender Fluidity Movement Moves into Breastfeeding

Meanwhile, Sussex says there has been a trend towards using gender-neutral language in breastfeeding circles, which she refuses to endorse.

In fact, the Australian Breastfeeding Association recently launched a book called: Breastfeeding, Chest Feeding and Human Milk Feeding: Supporting LGBTQIA+ Families.

“I haven’t faced any backlash from the community,” she told The Epoch Times.

“I’m sure 99 percent of Australians agree with me that breastfeeding belongs to mothers and babies.”

Sussex said breastfeeding was targeted by activists, who aimed to make criticism “unsayable.”

She also said because the field was new, there were no actual laws or regulations against male-to-females trying to breastfeed, and authorities were not fully across the matter.

“We need to be able to draw strong, protective barriers around the mother-baby dyad,” Sussex said.

“We can’t let it become a tool to affirm this really disordered thinking that a lot of individuals have.”

Sussex has called on the psychiatric and medical professions to act, and hopes strong representation from the Human Rights Law Alliance can be useful in the case.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal was contacted for comment.

Breastfeeding Association Explains Decision

The ABA said Sussex was not removed due to her views, but because she did not adhere to the organisation’s guidelines.

“Jasmine Sussex was not removed from her volunteer role in 2021 due to her thoughts on trans breastfeeding,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

“She was removed due to her behaviour breaching ABA’s Code of Ethics.”

The ABA directed The Epoch Times to the organisation’s language statement on the use of sexed and gendered language.

The guidelines says counsellors must call people by their preferred pronoun. So if a parent wishes to be called a “mum,” then that is what they need to be referred to.

Concerns About Safety of Milk

Women’s Forum Australia Head of Advocacy Stephanie Bastiaan said it was concerning breastfeeding groups were forced to conform to the gender fluidity movement.

“The purpose of breastfeeding is to nourish a child, not validate someone’s gender identity,” she told The Epoch Times.

“There’s no substantial evidence that the galactorrhea being fed to the baby from a male chest is safe, let alone nutritious, when you consider the drugs used to induce lactation as well as anything else they are on to affirm their gender identity medically.

“This is further alarming evidence that we need an urgent inquiry into how gender ideology has captured the healthcare system.”

Bastiaan said the complaints against Sussex were another attempt to alienate women from their activities.

“The case against Jasmine Sussex is yet another example of how laws that include gender identity as a protected attribute are being weaponised against women—by men,” she said.

“If medical experts, in this case a breastfeeding specialist, cannot speak the truth without being taken to court, the laws need urgent reforms.”