In 1956, a group of seven women, including Marian Leonard Tompson, formed La Leche League International (LLLI). The organization's purpose was "to help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother."
Well, let's just say things have changed a little bit since then, especially the "mother-to-mother" part, and Tompson and other members of LLLI leadership aren't having it. The 94-year-old, who currently sits on the organization's board of directors, announced earlier this month that she was resigning from the work that she has poured her heart and soul into for most of her life. The reason? Breastfeeding men.
In a letter to the organization, she says it has become a "travesty of my original intent." She added:
From an organization with the specific Mission of supporting biological women who want to give their babies the best start in life by breastfeeding them, LLL’s focus has subtly shifted to include men who, for whatever reason, want to have the experience of breastfeeding despite no careful long-term research on male lactation and how that may affect the baby.
This shift from following the norms of Nature, which is the core of mothering through breastfeeding, to indulging the fantasies of adults, is destroying our organization.
Despite my efforts these past two years as a Board member, it has become clear that there is nothing I can do to change this trajectory by staying involved.
Still, I leave the door open to come back when La Leche League returns to its original Mission and Purpose.
Tompson wasn't alone. Miriam Main, a Scottish breastfeeding advocate and trustee of the Great Britain branch of the organization, also turned in her resignation. In a guest post on author Milli Hill's Substack, Main explained why, claiming it all started with changes in language, like replacing "mother" with "parent" and "breastfeed" with "chestfeed." "Leaders who expressed concerns about clarity of language – for example for women for whom English is not their first language - were ridiculed and abused," she explained. She added:
We began to be told that as an inclusive organisation we would have to welcome trans identifying men who wished to breastfeed to our meetings. Leaders then began to raise legitimate concerns about safeguarding issues. For example, the physical safety of a baby being breastfed by a man; the social and physiological safety of a mother separated from her baby so a man can breastfeed; the psychological safety of women in the room where a man is present; the need for privacy for women with certain religious beliefs. In raising such concerns, we were told we were transphobic, and we were compared to racists and Nazis - by other Leaders!
Ultimately, Main concluded that "the LLLI Board has shown that theoretical male lactation trumps the needs of real women."
A quick visit to the LLLI website proves Main's point. The opening statement on the homepage reads, "Breastfeeding is warmth, nutrition, and love all rolled into one. We’ve been supporting mothers and nursing parents since 1956. If you need support with breastfeeding, chestfeeding or feeding your child human milk, the LLLI website has lots to help you!"
According to the Catholic News Agency, "LGBT advocates have argued that men who believe they are women are capable of breastfeeding babies by way of taking synthetic hormones and inducing lactation via nipple stimulation." However, as Main mentioned, when leadership dared to question the psychological impact of this, they were called "Nazis" or "transphobic."
The Pew Research Center states that 80% of liberals claim "science is their primary source of guidance on what's right and wrong." But based on what's going on at the LLLI and elsewhere around the world, it seems as if many of them have abandoned the facts in favor of a fantasy world that could have a brutal impact on future generations.
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