Mick Hartley

The breastfeeding charity that welcomes men:

A trustee and PR director of Britain’s oldest breastfeeding charity has resigned after it introduced an inclusivity policy that allowed men to attend support groups.

Miriam Main is leaving La Leche League GB (LLLGB) after a diktat from the global organisation elicited fears that volunteers would have to give advice to transgender women.

Directors at the charity’s British arm have already requested that the Charity Commission intervene over the inclusivity policy, which permits biological males to seek support from the organisation.

Main resigned on Monday, saying that she refused to help biological men “perform a poor imitation of breastfeeding”, which she said put babies’ safety at risk.

Her departure came as Marian Tompson, 94, an American and one of the founders of the La Leche League in 1956, quit last week over the decision to admit men.

Tompson described the organisation as a “travesty” and said that its focus has subtly shifted to include men “who, for whatever reason, want to have the experience of breastfeeding”.

Her letter, sent to LLL leaders, added: “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 organisation.”

The league was founded by a group of mothers in the US and supports more than 1,000 parents each year in the UK.

In Main’s resignation note, she spoke of “bullying, lies, and cruelty of recent times” and said that this had been “unreasonably hard to endure”.

She added: “I hope that the wonderful work of hundreds of women is not lost through mixing causes and politics.”

Documents produced by LLLGB on transgender and non-binary parents stated that it “supports everyone who wants to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals”. It said: “We do not discriminate based on sex, gender or gender identity.”

"…to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals". Yes, but what goals? Nurturing infants by breastfeeding – or using them as props to validate a new girly identity while getting a sexual thrill from "chestfeeding" a hormone-drenched discharge. There is a difference.