ARTICLE – Daily Mail
Breastfeeding charity La Leche League GB in row over trans women policy
ALEX WARD – 2 MAY 2024 – DAILY MAIL
Britain’s oldest breastfeeding charity has called in regulators amid claims of ‘harassment and bullying’ over a policy to include trans women in meetings.
Directors at La Leche League GB (LLLGB) have requested the Charity Commission intervenes over an inclusivity policy that permits biological males.
The majority of the charity’s board of directors have objected to allowing transgender women to be at the gatherings.
Directors have raised concerns that the diktat from the global organisation – based in the US – could mean volunteers are also forced to give advice to trans women wishing to breastfeed.
But a minority of its board members have sought to implement the inclusion policy and brought in LLL International as back up.
Meetings are currently female-only and LLLGB’s directors have resisted attempts to permit males.
The row has become so heated that it has seen six of the 12 board members sent notices of complaint, threatening them with removal.
A serious incident report has now been sent to the Charity Commission, which will decide whether to investigate.
The report, seen by the Mail, warns of an exodus of volunteers if the charity’s international parent body forces the policy on them. It also warned that women in need of support would be put off from attending meetings if trans women were present.
The report read: ‘Opening meetings to males (of any gender identity) would exclude a significant number of our beneficiaries i.e. mothers.
‘At meetings, they expose their breasts and share intimate experiences. Most are comfortable doing so around other mothers; many will not breastfeed around men, whether for religious reasons, modesty, previous (or current) experience of male violence or ‘just’ discomfort.
‘Leaders are all volunteer mothers experienced in the ‘normal course of breastfeeding’.
‘We consider that insistence on opening meetings to males and supporting males to lactate will prompt many Leaders to leave.
‘Following the most recent trustee election a minority of trustees began . . . to thwart the majority in discussing these issues. The result has been a culture of censorship, harassment and bullying.’
The row reflects a wider move by LLL International which has been interpreted as undermining women’s rights….
GUEST POST: Statement from the concerned LLLGB trustee group defending sex-based rights
GUEST POST – 2 MAY 2024 – WITH-WOMEN.ORG
“La Leche League (LLL) has always been about mother-to-mother support to breastfeed. Being able to provide a female-only service is fundamental to the rights, safety and wellbeing of both mothers and babies.
“The volunteers at LLLGB have built a powerful legacy over 50 years, having helped thousands of mothers in a culture that is not always supportive of breastfeeding.
“Pressure to abandon mother-only breastfeeding services has been building internationally at LLL for several years as gender-identity activism has gathered force. We are now at the point that group leaders around the world are being told they must support ‘male lactation’.
“As a group of current trustees of LLLGB, we have exhausted every process available to us to defend sex-based services. LLL International and a small number of fellow trustees at LLLGB have undermined our efforts and left us with no choice but to alert the Charity Commission.
“We would like to reassure group leaders and the mothers who benefit from LLLGB’s services that we are confident the law is on our side, as mother is a sex-based term in UK law.
“Our primary focus is to serve mothers and their children, and we are determined to see through this turbulent time and secure the future of LLLGB as an organisation with mother-to-mother support at its heart.”