“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” - Malala Yousafzai

The whistle blowing Leaders in La Leche League Great Britain (LLLGB) are providing a voice for women everywhere

Malala Yousafzai was the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner at age 17 in 2014 which she won for her tireless advocacy of the rights of girls and women to an education in her country of birth, Pakistan. Now living in England where she went for reconstructive surgery after an unsuccessful assassination attack by the Taliban in her native country, she continues to work tirelessly in the quest to fulfil the rights of females to an education.

Her exceptionally high global profile meant that the world could no longer afford to pretend to not know that under some Islamic regimes, girls and women are deliberately not educated to the same standards as boys and men. Currently in Afghanistan, girls are not allowed any formal education after the age of 12.

According to Malala Yousafzai, the Taliban "want to erase girls and women from all public life in Afghanistan".

If this sounds familiar, it will be because the inclusivity policy and the adoption of gender free/neutral language now required by La Leche League International (LLLI) means that women and mothers are being erased from the breastfeeding relationship, while lactating biological men are being vaunted as the harbingers of a Brave New World.

The whistle blowing Trustees of LLLGB just want to follow the rules

My last post outlined what happened when a minority of Trustees on the LLLGB Council of Directors objected to the majority decision to remain true to the legal charitable objectives as defined in their Charity Commission of England and Wales declaration, which is publicly available and unambiguously clear.

According to the UK Charities Commission website, the Charitable objects of LLLGB are:

TO PROMOTE THE PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN THROUGH EDUCATION IN THE TECHNIQUE OF BREASTFEEDING, AND TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC AND ESPECIALLY THOSE CONCERNED WITH THE CARE OF CHILDREN IN THE HEALTH BENEFITS BOTH IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM OF BREASTFEEDING. (All caps in original.)

Followed by this:

Activities - how the charity spends its money

LLLGB is a voluntary organisation dedicated to providing education, information, support, and encouragement to women who want to breastfeed. Our mission is to help mothers 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 the mother.

Perhaps the proponents of supporting “everyone” who wants to breastfeed should have a read through the LLLI website, which states:  

· 6.4 LLL Leaders follow the laws of the country in which a Leader is volunteering as a Leader. If the laws of the country conflict with La Leche League policies and procedures, the laws of the country take priority.

· 6.5 LLL Leaders are sensitive to the history, cultures, and customs of any country and community in which they are volunteering as Leaders.

If the mainstream coverage of this in the UK press is any indication of public opinion, then these whistle blowing Leaders are in good company when they state they are not able to support men who want to breastfeed. Joe and Jane Public are not in favor of men using babies as props for their sexual fetishes either. Just this one article in the Telegraph on 1 May 2024 entitled “Breastfeeding charity suspends trustees who want to ban trans women from its services” generated 273 comments of support for these brave whistle blowing Leaders.

For a bit more detail on why men breastfeeding is not the best idea in the world, try here and here.

The conclusion of the second article is worth reading (remember that “transwomen” are men):

Given all the available data on the amount of milk produced as well as the lack of studies on the safety of these medications at such high doses, it is safe to say there is no sufficient evidence to prove transwomen can safely breastfeed an infant. Transwomen cannot produce enough to give adequate nutrition and the unknown dangers to the infant from the medications is not worth the risk.

But even further, it is concerning that it was of great importance that breastfeeding was affirming for the transwoman. Breastfeeding is about providing nutrition and immunity benefits to the infant. It should be concerning to everyone that affirmation is addressed at all. Given the risk to the infant, the ethical question must be asked: is a transwoman nursing really about feeding the infant, or is it about feeding the dysphoria? (Emphasis in original.)

Mothers are women, not an identity or a role

“All human life on the planet is born of woman. The one unifying, incontrovertible experience shared by all women and men is that months-long period we spent unfolding inside a woman’s body. Because young humans remain dependent upon nurture for a much longer period of than other mammals, and because of the division of labor long established in human groups, where women not only bear and suckle but are assigned almost total responsibility for children, most of us first know both love and disappointment, power and tenderness, in the person of a woman.” Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution

I can’t beat that, but I tried with this post, which was published for Mothers’ Day in 2023:

Neither women nor mothers are characters in some men’s delusional fantasies and no women who are working as breastfeeding support volunteers should feel as though they are somehow letting the side down in choosing to focus their efforts on biological females alone.

Barry Humphries played a woman for laughs, not for real.

The LLLI Board has brought itself and LLLI into disrepute by insisting that “LLLI expects Leaders to support men to feed babies from their bodies.”  The U.S.-based LLLI Board is demanding that LLLGB violate its social contract with mothers that protects their privacy and dignity, as well as violate its legal charter, and abandon its long-standing purpose as a single-sex organization.  In the English legal system, “mother” has important meaning in both reality and law.  Public response to the media coverage demonstrates strong support for keeping LLL single sex.

How did we get here, where LLLI now promotes male lactation?

Inside and outside LLL, the word “woman” was redefined to include anyone who identifies as a woman. Policy changes were made that the majority had no opportunity to discuss.  Opening women’s spaces to males who identify as female represents an undemocratic or “back door” change, which is likely to stoke negativity, as many Leaders (rightly) do not feel that they had any say in how this change was made.  They felt, and feel, that their privacy, safety, and sisterhood are violated by this change.  

In 2018, the LLLI Board voted to approve an “Inclusivity Statement” that includes not discriminating around the categories of “gender identity” or “sex”.  Leaders who were on the Board at that time attest that they had no idea that this would be used to endorse the promotion of male lactation.  Many Leaders remain unaware that by signing the annual Statement of Commitment they are promising to support men who want to breastfeed.

Changing the LLLI Mission Statement

It is a reasonable assumption that the LLLI Board is considering changes to the wording of the Mission, below. Some current LLLI Board members have openly stated that their entire motivation for standing for the LLLI Board is to replace “mothers” with “parents”. As if babies won’t notice the difference when they are handed over to biological strangers.

The current LLLI Mission Statement, developed in May 1989 and revised in April 1993 reads:

Our Mission is 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.

-- May 1989; revised April 1993 

 LLLUSA has already made changes to their Mission Statement, incorporating inclusive jargon which eliminates mothers.

La Leche League USA helps parents, families, and communities to breastfeed, chestfeed, and human milk feed their babies through parent-to-parent support.  

LLLUSA has achieved this change without facing any penalties from LLLI:  I wrote about this here.

Those of us who are greatly concerned about these foundational changes can see the writing on the wall and fear that the next step may well be to remove the prerequisite of biological motherhood from attaining leadership status. If this happens, then LLL will just be one more parenting organization, with no specialist expertise in anything at all.

LLLI Official Legal Documents  

In defending the above Mission Statement, it may be important to note that the Purpose of LLLI is stated in Article 5 of the August 20, 1984, Articles of Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation. LLLI Inc. is incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois and the Articles and amendments are filed in the office of the Secretary of State. These have stood the test of time since 1984.  Note that all of the official statements cited below use the words “mother,” “breastfeed,” and/or “women.”

From the Articles of Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation, August 20, 1984:

The purpose for which the corporation is formed is charitable and educational and solely in furtherance thereof:
a) To help the mother learn to breastfeed her baby;
b) To encourage good mothering through breastfeeding thereby stimulating the optimal physical and emotional growth of the child and the development of close family relationships;
c) To promote a better understanding of the values of breastfeeding, parenting, childbirth and related subjects;
d) To offer discussion meetings and conduct lectures for the purposes stated above and on related subjects for such educational purposes as are herein expressed.

Additionally, the Purpose of LLLI is set out in several official documents:

From the LLLI Bylaws:

The purpose of La Leche League is 

·      To help mothers learn to breastfeed their babies; 

·      To encourage mothering through breastfeeding;

·      To promote a better understanding of breastfeeding and related subjects.

From the Policies and Standing Rules:

The Vision Purpose of LLLI :
To realize, deepen and share the love and wisdom found in the breastfeeding relationship.

From the LLLI Financial Statements dated April 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023, filed with the Internal Revenue Service, describing the Purpose:

The organization is a not-for-profit, nonsectarian membership organization whose purpose is to offer encouragement, information and support to women who choose to breastfeed their children and, in doing so, to foster good mothering through breastfeeding.

From Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service:

The purpose is "to help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother."

See anything in there about helping men with breastfeeding? Nope, neither do I.

All of these LLLI bylaws, policies and legal filings are available to the public and people may consult these documents to guide them in their decision around charitable donations. The public may conclude from these documents that their donated funds are supporting a breastfeeding organization that exclusively helps biological women to breastfeed. It has been noticed by Leaders that when LLL is soliciting funds from the general public, suddenly “a variety of terms” are not used to replace women and mothers and the word “chestfeeding” is often missing.

Using monies for anything other than supporting females to breastfeed may not rise to the level of unlawful fraud, but it is certainly disingenuous and devious to claim that “LLL has never been a single-sex organization” and to suggest that complaints cannot be made against this assertion.  

The current LLLI Complaint Resolution Process is a cross between a joke and a mockery

There is a formal complaints procedure for disgruntled Leaders who are not happy with something in regard to LLL policies and procedures and this should have had a real workout over the last few years as gender ideology has tightened its stranglehold over the upper echelons of the LLL hierarchy. That it has been underused is a testament to the “no debate” approach to criticism that is found in every group that has jumped on the Trans Express Gravy Train.

The LLLI Complaint Resolution Process states that 

"The LLLI Board establishes and maintains a Complaint Resolution Team consisting of seven to nine Leaders or former Leaders. Current LLLI Board Members are not eligible to serve on the Complaint Resolution Team."  

The Board has violated two provisions of the Policy and Standing Rules (PSR) right there as there are only five Leaders chosen to deal with the complaints made against the LLLGB whistle blowers contrary to the required seven to nine and they are all current Board members so are automatically ineligible.

The PSR [Policies and Standing Rules] also states

"Candidates for the Complaint Resolution Team are required to undertake training provided by LLLI and to have experience in conflict resolution and/or mediation...." 

Have the chosen five team members undertaken the required training and do they have the requisite experience? There is no evidence they have either.

Contrast what the LLLI Board is setting up with a fair hearing.  Fair proceedings are conducted fairly, justly, and with procedural regularity by an impartial judge or panel. The right to a fair hearing is explicitly proclaimed in Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, multiple amendments to the United States Constitution, and Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, in addition to numerous other constitutions and declarations throughout the world.

Conversely, what the LLLI Board and Conflict Resolution Team are proposing is removing the Leaders due process and creating a kangaroo court, which is an informal pejorative term for a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice including due process and is often convened with a predetermined conclusion.

Another question that arises from the process concerns this from the Complaint Resolution Process PSR:

"Any complaint made to the police or legal system in any country about an LLL Leader, LLL entity, LLL staff member, or LLL volunteer supersedes this Complaint Resolution Process, until the legal process is complete." 

Since those defending the complaint have contacted the UK Charity Commission concerning an "LLL entity", that is LLLGB, has the Complaint Resolution Process been "superseded"? How long will the LLLGB members of the Council of Directors be suspended due to the process being "superseded"? How long will their right of due process be denied?

There is an LLLI whistle blower policy, but it’s a joke

Care to join me down the rabbit hole?

If you want to replicate Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole in Wonderland, have a look at the whistle blower policy on the LLLI website. It starts off well:

La Leche League International (LLLI) requires its representatives, both employees and volunteers, to observe high standards of business and personal ethics in the conduct of their duties and responsibilities. Representatives of LLLI must practice honesty and integrity in fulfilling their responsibilities, and must comply with LLL policy and all applicable laws and regulations.

That last sentence is a great example of an oxymoron because it combines contradictory words with opposing meanings. As I have previously written, the LLLI Mission Statement and the LLLI inclusivity policy are incompatible.

Whistle blowers are encouraged to contact an LLL entity first about a problem to “correct [it] internally” but: 

External systems of justice remain available should the complainant consider that making use of them is warranted.

Isn’t that just super kind of them to tell Leaders that if there is no “internal correction” they are free to go elsewhere to alert someone that something is wrong? Considering my file of letters to the Board distressed about the compelled directives to support “everyone”, I’m thinking that the only way to get this sorted is to use an “external system of justice”.

The next paragraph about threats of intimidation is a real doozy:

No person will be discharged, threatened, or discriminated against in any manner for disclosing or threatening to disclose to an LLLI or LLL representative any activity, policy, or practice of LLLI that the person perceives to be violations of law and/ or other regulations.

Tell that to those Leaders who went to the Charities Commission and were immediately suspended and removed from all LLLGB social media outlets.

Reading this next bit made me wonder if it had been written by a staffer working for The Onion, which is a satirical magazine:

LLLI has an open-door policy and suggests that LLL and LLLI representatives share their questions, concerns, suggestions, or complaints with the LLLI Board.

Writing to the Board about biological realities will get you a form letter that is a master class in gaslighting. I have a whole file of these. Sharing your opinion or even just asking a question on any LLL Facebook pages will get you bullied and expelled.

Acting in Good Faith

Anyone reporting a concern must act in good faith and have reasonable grounds for believing the matter raised is a financial infraction or violation of law. The act of making allegations that prove to be unsubstantiated, and that prove to have been made maliciously, recklessly, with gross negligence, or with the foreknowledge that the allegations were false, will be viewed as a serious disciplinary offense.

It is clear and self-evident that supporting men to breastfeed is not in the remit of LLLGB nor in fact, in LLLI. Many Leaders in LLLGB have written to the Board distressed at the command that they are required to help “everyone” to breastfeed, but their complaints and misgivings are dismissed out of hand, and they are offered two options: comply or resign.

“Mixing causes” is a phrase known to every Leader on the planet. It is the secret to LLL’s longevity, its reach and its endurance over time and the many differing cultural spaces it has been accepted into.   In a nutshell, it’s sticking to the core business of supporting mothers to breastfeed their babies. LLL has no position on any other topic; not vaccination, home birth, diets, abortion or anything else. Male lactation is not in a Leader’s scope of experience, even for those Leaders who may support this practice.

Malala Yousafzai is a brave young woman who has used her one voice to point out the wrongs that girls are subjected to. Those Leaders in LLLGB who blew the whistle about helping men to breastfeed are worthy defenders of women, mothers and babies. I salute their bravery.