Officials resign after esteemed La Leche League goes woke
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Rush Limbaugh, the popular host of the former eponymously-named radio show, often remarked that the Left destroys everything it touches.
Limbaugh's truism is now seen in the recently-adopted pro-trans policy of La Leche League (LLL), the renowned international charity founded almost 70 years ago to support breastfeeding mothers, especially in social cultures where motherhood and breastfeeding are undervalued.
The organization's original mission, however, has been upended; leaders of the charity have begun allowing men to attend its support groups – a move that has sparked a cascade of resignations.
Miriam Main, trustee and public relations director of LLL's UK branch, left this week in protest, saying she refuses to help men "perform a poor imitation of breastfeeding," according to The Times of London, adding the practice puts babies' safety at risk.
Main's resignation followed that of LLL co-founder, Marian Tompson, who likewise objected to the decision to cater to men wishing to "breastfeed" babies.
In a Nov. 9 letter to LLL leaders, Tompson explained her exit:
"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," she lamented, "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."
The 94-year-old humanitarian 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 organization."
A series of recently-released LLL documents confirms the charity's bizarre lurch to the Left.
LLL "supports everyone who wants to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals," the group declared, insisting that "We do not discriminate based on sex, gender or gender identity."
According to Main, critics of the new "chestfeeding" policy were "told we were transphobic" and "were compared to racists and Nazis" by the heads of the organization.
RADICALS BREEDING RUIN
The implosion of LLL – a charity renowned internationally for its decades of work helping women navigate the tender early days of motherhood – is seen as yet another example of the devastating impact gender ideology is having on contemporary society.
Indeed, "trans tyranny" has taken hold across the West.
In the United States, the movement began metamorphosizing into the monster we see today following the Supreme Court's legalization of same-sex "marriage" in 2015.
Much as its decision in Roe v. Wade forced abortion onto every state in the union in 1973, the high court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges imposed same-sex "marriage" upon every jurisdiction in America. In one judicial fell swoop, the sanctity of marriage was overthrown and the Pandora's Box of transgender sexual impulses was unleashed. And rather than placating LGBT activists, as some believed it would do, the legalization of same-sex "marriage" actually emboldened these radical elements.
With supporters of traditional marriage and the nuclear family left reeling, LGBT agents seized the opportunity, leveraging Obergefell to bring the transgender movement to the cultural and societal fore. Tens of millions of Americans – indeed, many people across the world – responded by acquiescing. In doing so, they gave a nod to the movement, and began participating – some actively, some passively – in its grotesque game of make-believe.
A decade ago there were just two genders; today, trans activists claim more than one hundred. Fake pronouns litter our lexicon, and Leftist terms like "chestfeeding" and "pregnant people" – created to cater to transgender ideology – butcher the language.
Biological men – surgically-altered and injected with female hormones – compete in women's sports, where they invariably trounce female athletes. Men pretending to be women are chosen for various "Woman of the Year" awards. Meanwhile, in what may be the ultimate irony, one such impostor is – courtesy of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – currently at the helm of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
DEFYING CHRIST – AND COMMON SENSE
The trans agenda violates Holy Scripture and the teachings of the Catholic Church. The first book of the Bible states, "God created man in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).
The Catholic Church views gender as solely binary and tied to one's biological sex at birth, indicating a person's gender cannot be changed through identification or surgery.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out" (2333).
"By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity." – Catechism of the Catholic Church (2393).
In her book Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (2005), author Sheila Kippley writes that breastfeeding constitutes an important part of the vocation of Christian motherhood.
"God's breastfeeding plan is simple," Kippley notes. "Yet this simple plan can have far-reaching effects upon the human race, offering numerous benefits for the baby, for the mother, and for society."
"God's plan is indeed good, and it is therefore good for us to try to follow it," she urges.
Various pontiffs – including Popes Saint Gregory the Great, Benedict XIV, Pius XII and Saint John Paul II – have shown support for mothers breastfeeding their children. Pope Francis, too, has spoken in favor of breastfeeding – notably in 2017, when he said, "You mothers, go ahead and breastfeed, without fear. Just like the Virgin Mary nursed Jesus."
Donald Trump has vowed to turn back the transgender ideological tide at every level of American society. He promises to stop the "physical, chemical and emotional mutilation of our children."
His plan includes ending access to gender-affirming care for youth, defunding hospitals that provide transgender surgeries for minors, punishing teachers for promoting transgender ideology among children and asking Congress to pass a bill stating there are "only two genders."
Many Americans of various faiths, as well as those of no particular religious background or faith, see in Trump's plan a sign of hope – that after a decade of destruction, trans activists and their allies on the Left may be corralled, and defanged. They are hoping that natural law – and basic common sense – will prevail against tyrannical transgender ideologues and their toxic prescriptions for social reengineering.
While many might envision Limbaugh celebrating the miraculous election victory of his old friend and president, Donald Trump, from the afterlife, they might likewise see the patriotic commentator lamenting the woke kowtowing of the LLL to the Left's recent incursion.
Dr. Barbara Toth has a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She has taught at universities in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Her work in setting up a writing center at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahmen University, an all-women's university in Riyadh, has been cited in American journals. Toth has published academic and non-academic articles and poems internationally.
"Chest feeding".....riiight.
But the question remains: what does the hungry baby get out of it?