A Victorian breastfeeding expert is being dragged before a tribunal for criticising a biological male for giving his newborn son frozen nipple secretions he produced by taking hormones and drugs to artificially induce lactation.
Jasmine Sussex is being taken to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) for “vilification” over comments she made on X about a man who calls himself Jennifer Buckley and claims to be a “transgender” woman, but is refusing to back down and will defend the claim with the help of the Human Rights Law Alliance.
In 2019 Mr Buckley revealed he had fed his newborn son a substance that he had been able to produce in advance by taking the hormone oestrogen to mimic pregnancy, along with an anti-nausea medication called domperidone to increase his prolactin levels. He then froze the secretions to save for after the baby’s birth.
Ms Sussex, a mum who was a volunteer councillor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association for 15 years until being fired for refusing to use the word “parent” instead of “mother”, responded to a news story about Mr Buckley by saying on X that “only mothers breastfeed” and calling his actions “experimental” and a “dangerous fetish”.
“This is Buckley’s delusional queer theory take on his experience ‘breastfeeding’. Silver lining of this awful start to life for baby Auden is that he was almost exclusively formula fed thanks to his mum,” she wrote in one tweet about the Daily Mail article, which that publication later removed due to complaints from Mr Buckley.
Mr Buckley also complained to Australia’s controversial eSafety Commissioner, who ordered then-Twitter to remove posts from Ms Sussex and an account called Standing for Women Queensland for Australian users, claiming they “violated Australian law”.
He then filed a vilification complaint with the Queensland Human Rights Commission in November, claiming that Ms Sussex’s posts incited hatred, contempt and severe ridicule. The two parties had conciliation, but when that failed Mr Buckley decided to pursue the complaint at QCAT.
Ms Sussex told Noticer News: “Breastfeeding is a beautiful part of pregnancy and birth. A complex cascade of hormones, physiology and a newborn baby suckling together create mother’s milk.
“Futile attempts at trans lactation in male bodies disrupts the symbiotic relationship of mother and baby for no good reason.
“Doctors who help these men are conducting unethical experiments on babies just to gratify a man’s ego as a ‘breastfeeding mother gender identity’.”
Mr Buckley claimed he had fed his son Auden the frozen milk an hour after birth, and that he had induced lactation with the encouragement and assistance of an endocrinologist. Auden was conceived with Mr Buckley’s wife using sperm he froze before taking hormones to alter his body and reproductive system in 2017.
That same Queensland doctor is understood to have helped at least five other men who claim to be women to feed their babies chemically induced male breastmilk.
Every time a man tries to induce breastmilk to affirm his gender identity he is medically experimenting on his child and sabotaging his child’s human rights to Mothers milk. Sometimes it is also a fetish. #MenDontBreastfeed #OnlyMothersReastfeed https://t.co/bTmsqDg6MB
— jazzmo (@jazzmoi3) September 6, 2024
Ms Sussex spoke out on X on Saturday asking for support with her legal defence.
“Every time a man tries to induce breastmilk to affirm his gender identity he is medically experimenting on his child and sabotaging his child’s human rights to mother’s milk. Sometimes it is also a fetish,” she wrote.
“Breastfeeding belongs to mothers and our babies. Futile attempts for men to chemically induce nipple secretions is a cruel medical experiment designed to gratify a man’s delusional ‘maternal gender identity’. Our babies deserve better.
“If you can help us tell the truth in court that men can’t breastfeed and protect mothers and their babies, please do.”
One response from an Australian X user read: “My AGP [autogynephile – a man who is sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female] ex tried to ‘breastfeed’ our newborn daughter. He was aroused by it. He would masturbate while watching me feed her.
“12 years later he is writing fetish novels about lactation, breastfeeding and cow human hybrids with ‘big mummy milkers’. IT’S A FETISH.”
John Steenhof, Principal Lawyer with the Human Rights Law Alliance, said on a fundraising page for Ms Sussex that she was being penalised for speaking up.
“A landmark win in Jasmine’s case will help to protect the rights of all Australians to share their beliefs publicly without fear of legal action,” he wrote.
“Your generous support today will help HRLA represent Jasmine and defend her fundamental freedom rights.”
