AAWAA brings to you ‘Local Action’ – interviews with women getting it done across Australia. In Local Action we talk to Mother of three and volunteer breastfeeding counsellor Jasmine Sussex. Jasmine has been attacked for holding the most reasonable and normal belief in the world – That only women can be mothers and only mothers can breastfeed. In the face of relentless attack she has held her head high and stood for the truth and reason. Jasmine’s been getting it done!
Jasmine, you’ve had quite a journey with the Australian Breastfeeding Association … can you tell us how it all started?
It started with the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA). I was concerned that the ABA was betraying its core mandate, that is, supporting mothers to breastfeed and failing to safeguard the mother-baby dyad.
Beginning around 2018–2019, the organisation started using dehumanising language like “breastfeeding parents,” “birthing people,” “pregnant parents,” and even “breastfeeding families.” Some of the more extreme-or perhaps naive, well-meaning counsellors who had worked with young trans-identified women began using terms like “chestfeeding” interchangeably with “breastfeeding.” This language was intended to support women who no longer perceived themselves as women, often due to psychosocial trauma, even if they still had breasts.
These well-meaning women believed using such language aligned with the ABA’s code of ethics—to provide care to all breastfeeding mothers. I respected that, especially in regard to detransitioners: young women who had surgically removed their breasts and later embraced womanhood again. The ABA does owe these women care and support in the future if they want to feed a baby—whether through donor milk, formula, or emotional counselling. Of course, they won’t be able to breastfeed if their breasts have been removed, often negligently, by health services. Still, the ABA should absolutely support them. But I was not willing to cheerlead the removal of women’s breasts.
When did the disagreement begin?
Complaints were lodged against me by other breastfeeding counsellors—some of whom, I’ve since learned, have teenage or young adult children who identify as members of the Rainbow Community (the term ABA used to refer to “LGBTQIA+” individuals). They were thinking about supporting lesbians and trans-identified females. The issue is that by saying “rainbow community,” you are also including trans-identified men with autogynephilia, and gay men who seek to use women’s bodies as surrogates in order to contract order a child. The ABA was spectacularly naive in thinking they could support the entire community and that everything would be fine.
I’m still amazed after ABA received just $20,000 to write a book and this is where we ended up. The book was meant to be inclusive of the rainbow community and be “world-leading.” They had on rose-coloured glasses.
So, that’s how it started…
Yes, when I was being investigated, disciplined, and ultimately sacked, I came to understand that men from the trans-identifying community were enraged by my “gatekeeping breastfeeding” as they saw it. They targetted and began lodging complaint after complaint — over 18 months — first demanding that I be sacked as a breastfeeding counsellor. After I was dismissed and spoke about the experience at the Meanjin Brisbane International Women’s Day Conference in 2022, the same people began contacting the ABA directly. Worse I felt and knew that close colleagues supported and encouraged this and undermined me.
The betrayal … it was shocking.
Spectacular.
It is fine to support young, trans-identified women. But sometimes we must make a choice—between women and men, and between mothers and men who wish they were mothers for very unhealthy reasons. Some made the wrong choice.
My opponents sure were watching all of this. I reckon they must have spent hundreds of hours monitoring me, complaining about me to anyone who will listen. I have a mental list of the organisations that have been contacted, but I’m sure there are more.
I’ve worked for both state and federal members of parliament over the years, Labor MPs. Anyone who’s done this work knows that if you receive this sort of attention, you’re likely dealing withspeople who are struggling with their mental health.
Yes, you’re not the first woman to suggest that this behaviour is akin to stalking. I do have moments where I worry that I am being stalked …
The complaints escalated to formal investigations by the eSafety Commissioner. I told them I believed they had misidentified the relevant person. I don’t think they liked hearing that. They replied that I could submit a complaint if I wished, but by then an article had already been published in the Daily Telegraph (by Clarissa Bye) — which was a reputational hit for eSafety so I doubted eSafety would treat my complaint fairly.
I have piles of messages from women who support me. The complaint to the eSafety Commissioner wasn’t just about me—it’s part of a broader pattern. Trans-identifying men have been lodging multiple complaints against multiple women. I believe the eSafety Commission is enabling the abuse of women by trans-identifying men and I’ve told eSafety staff this is my experience of it as a federal government agency.
I’m not the only one. It’s clear they wanted to silence me with the help of the eSafety Commissioner. But the opposite happened. Are you familiar with the Streisand Effect? This has brought more attention to the issue than ever before.
I’m extremely disappointed with the eSafety and Human Rights Commission. They accepted the complaint and sent me alarming letters.
Imagine receiving those letters. They may be standard form, but opening that envelope is deeply stressful. Then there’s the pressure of seeking legal representation, meeting deadlines, and so on.
When was this and what did you do?
That was Nov 2023. I blocked people on Facebook and Instagram in June 2022. Then The Australian article was published, which discussed the problems the ABA was experiencing. It wasn’t about men—it was about women and dehumanising language. I saw the comments on the page, and while I didn’t respond directly, I replied to the ABA, saying that counsellors deserve a safe workspace and that once arrangements were made to let us know when we could return to the workplace.
At that point, I was near the end of my time with the ABA. I had been the recipient of numerous bizarre complaints and was under investigation. I had a 2.5-hour meeting with the president and treasurer, which was deeply concerning. The fact that my investigation was being handled by the president, the treasurer, and an executive delegate felt inappropriate.
I then had another formal complaint about my post on the ABA Facebook page.
Is that when people got to know who you were?
No-one would never have known who I was if it weren’t for another breastfeeding counsellor leaking my information. When thousands of women, from both Australia and overseas, were commenting on the ABA Facebook page in the wake of The Australian article about mother-erasing language—just two days after Mother’s Day—someone drew attention to my comment. Although the post was deleted almost immediately, another woman alerted me to comments being made about me.
In response, I commented. But another woman immediately deleted my post and blocked me from the ABA National Facebook page, even though I was a member and a breastfeeding counsellor. She also made a formal complaint about me to my support contact and executive officer. That same day, I received an email from the National Breastfeeding Information Manager, cc’ing the executive officer. They told me I had breached the Code of Ethics twice that morning. They were clearly trying to spin their own narrative in response to the damaging article in The Australian.
My so-called violations were:
- Replying to another woman’s comment with: “Everyone knows only women can breastfeed.”
- Calling out male breast feeding behaviour.
All of this happened within hours. I was told I was under investigation and blocked from the Facebook page. I believe the sharing of my personal information was a serious breach of privacy principles. This was a witch hunt. Even if the executive team didn’t know of the breach of privacy they were later made aware—and they still took no action.
What happened after, with X?
In June, Channel 7 did a story about a trans-identifying female in Texas who claimed she was discriminated against in hospital. A lot of the breastfeeding community was commenting on it across social media. I blocked some comments But first, I commented, “You know what most Australians would call a man who tries to breastfeed a baby? It is child abuse.”
What were the consequences of that?
I was expelled as a member of the ABA in May 2022. I was a bit of a mess—but I was also free, because I could intellectually and emotionally analyse what had happened when I was sacked the year before as a breastfeeding counsellor. So by the time they came for my membership, I already had a counsellor, who was a great help to me during that period. I was a mess, but I was also okay. I also had supportive women around me.
My experience with the ABA wasn’t public at that stage. It was only in radical feminist and breastfeeding circles that I was known and had support. When I spoke at the IWD Meanjin Brisbane Conference, there was some media coverage. That was when I really felt the support of the broader women’s liberation community. That support was a lifeline. Without it, I would have needed a lot more therapy.
I love that. Women supporting women. The Sisterhood.
I blocked the attacks on every platform I could. But with all that love and support from women, I went on LinkedIn and started a profile. It was actually really great. LinkedIn became a place where I could have conversations about the erasure of women from language and the takeover of women’s single-sex therapeutic spaces. LinkedIn was like therapy. I healed myself through those conversations.
By 2023, a male from the trans-identifying community—who disagreed with me gatekeeping breastfeeding for women only—complained against me to the Queensland Human Rights Commission.
By 2024, I had amazing lawyers. Every time issues popped up on my LinkedIn views, I took a screenshot and sent it to them. They were always reassuring when I documented his behaviour. During 2024 we went through a process of attempted conciliation with the Queensland Human Rights Commission; unfortunately it was unsuccessful.
The complainant then chose to escalate the matter to the Queensland Civil and Administrateive Tribunal, QCAT. This year in February we had a compulsory QCAT conciliation conference. I was given handouts with information on how to prepare. As a law-abiding type citizen I read them carefully. It said to think about what you want to achieve from the conference.
I thought about it a great deal. I spoke with my husband. We considered options. However, this conference, too, was unsuccessful.
What did you learn from that?
The first rule of therapy is this: The therapist can’t help you change the world—they can only help you deal with yourself. You just have to accept and love yourself. But sadly they don’t exist without external validation, do they?
That’s the real danger of this ideology. Their identity and mental health hang entirely on external validation and perceived acceptance. It’s a house of cards.
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Jasmine. Is there anything you want to say before we finish up?
The last thing I want to say is this: The truly awful part of all this—not just the complainant, but the whole ideology of sex denialism and transitioning children—is that it fundamentally attacks the relationship between mother and child.
And they want to be the mother.
That’s why breastfeeding is the target. It’s the flame to the moth of these men. Because breastfeeding, more than anything else, embodies motherhood. And motherhood is an incredibly powerful role that only women can have. We must not allow that to be destroyed and I will not let anyone do that!
Over my dead body.
Join Jasmine at WOMEN WILL SPEAK at 12 noon, Saturday 26 April 2025 at the Parliament of Victoria, Spring Street, Melbourne. Be like Jasmine and speak the truth proudly. Women will speak! The views expressed by the women interviewed in Local Action are their own and do not necessarily represent or reflect the positions of AAWAA.
