Reduxx has learned that two women in Australia have received notices from Twitter informing them they have broken Australian law after tweeting about a trans-identified male who has been breastfeeding a child.
Jasmine Sussex and Standing For Women Queensland (SFWQ) were both contacted by Twitter on May 16, with the platform informing the two accounts that specific content they had posted would be censored to Australian users in order to comply with Australian law.
Twitter sent two emails to each user, the first explaining that the platform had received “official correspondence” from a “government entity or law enforcement agency” which had claimed that their content had violated Australian law. A second email was sent shortly after to each user advising them that the content was going to be withheld in Australia.
Sussex had one tweet withheld, while SFWQ had five tweets censored in total. All of the content referred to an Australian trans-identified male who sparked backlash last year after publicly declaring he had induced lactation and was breastfeeding his own biological son.
Speaking to Reduxx, Sussex explained that she was horrified when she first received the notice from Twitter.
“I was appalled that it was claimed to be in violation of Australian law to criticize what I and most Australians consider to be a cruel and medically dangerous experiment on newborn babies,” Sussex said.
Sussex is a veteran advocate for breastfeeding mothers, and found herself fired as a volunteer breastfeeding counselor in 2021 after pushing back against the adoption of “gender neutral” language in breastfeeding care.
The following year, Sussex was removed from the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) after 18 years of membership.
“I was sacked for. … ‘Engaging in Sectarian Controversy’ in breach of the ABA constitution,” she explains. “In other words, continuing to talk about the dangers of gender identity ideology for mothers and babies, including how men were forcing their way into the breastfeeding relationship by attempting to induce lactation.”
But it was while she was still a member of the ABA that Sussex first came across Jennifer Buckley, a trans-identified male who had begun to participate in motherhood discussions on the ABA’s Facebook page.
Buckley, who began transitioning in 2017, first induced lactation in 2019 in en effort to breastfeed his biological son after his wife gave birth. The 41-year-old paramedic said he had wanted to “experience what it was like to be a mum and breastfeed.”
But Sussex was disturbed by his decision, and had witnessed him participating in motherhood discussions on the ABA Facebook.
“Buckley [had been] boasting about making ‘colostrum’ for his newborn son as a transgender ‘mother.’ I didn’t respond to him directly … but I did raise with the ABA that ABA Counsellors are entitled to a safe workplace and that what appeared to be a man identifying as a woman was on the page boasting about making colostrum. Only the birth mother makes colostrum,” Sussex explains, noting that she was swiftly penalized for raising her concerns about him.
“I was blocked from the [Facebook] page and sent an email that afternoon saying it was a breach of our code of conduct/ethics for me to even raise this as a workplace health and safety issue with the ABA.”
Sussex says that she received an email from the ABA’s National Training Manager the next day removing her from her service on the National Government Funded Breastfeeding Helpline.
In May of last year, Sussex attempted to appeal to the ABA’s board on why she shouldn’t be expelled, directly referencing her concerns with Buckley.
“I raised my concerns as I felt it was a dangerous medical experiment on humans, and due to safeguarding issues for counsellors and breastfeeding mums and babies. I also said that supporting fathers to breastfeed to affirm their gender identities is antithetical to the work of the ABA in supporting its first and only priority as per the code of ethics and constitution – the breastfeeding mother and baby partnership.”
Sussex’s attempt to convince the board to reinstate her membership has so far been unsuccessful. But since then, Sussex has had multiple interactions with Buckley through social media.
On May 12, Standing for Women Queensland posted a Twitter thread on the Australian Breastfeeding Association having received $20,000 from an LGBTQ lobby group to create an educational booklet about “chest feeding.”
The organization wrote: “Profit before ethics & safeguards for babies and mothers. Babies are being used as props for male perversion.”
To emphasize their point, Standing For Women Queensland posted a screenshot from a May 2022 Daily Mail article profiling Buckley’s decision to induce lactation and breastfeed his son. The article was fully redacted by the Daily Mail in late 2022 after Buckley complained about his representation in the piece, but archived versions of the report still exist.
In response to the tweet by SFWQ, Sussex responded with a link to another article featuring more information on Buckley, writing: “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.”
Days later, both SFWQ and Sussex received notices from Twitter informing them that an official entity was claiming that they had violated Australian law for the tweets, and that the content would be restricted in Australia.
SFWQ also had five additional tweets from May 5 censored, all of which featured screenshots from the now-deleted Daily Mail article on Buckley.
While the notices sent by Twitter did not specify which government or law enforcement agency had demanded the censorship, Sussex says she “strongly suspects” it was the office of the eSafety Commissioner.
The Commissioner is an arm of the Australian government dedicated to combatting “cyber abuse,” but has recently come under widespread criticism for using its power to censor media outlets, websites, and individuals at the behest of trans activists.
Earlier this month, Reduxx was contacted by the eSafety Commissioner and advised to censor or delete an article naming trans activist Riley Dennis as having been the subject of complaint after allegedly injuring female players during a women’s football game. After the article was released, the eSafety Commissioner contacted Twitter and advised them to withhold the content in compliance with Australian law.
Ovarit, a pro-woman Reddit alternative, as well as an individual gender ideology critical activist, were also contacted by the eSafety Commissioner at that time.
Sussex has submitted a Freedom of Information request to the eSafety Commissioner to concretely determine if they were the “government or law enforcement agency” behind the censorship, but does not anticipate a response for weeks, if not months.
Reduxx also reached out to the eSafety Commissioner with questions on the Twitter action against Sussex and Standing for Women Queensland, but was told the office would not comment on individual cases.
Leah Whiston, a member of Standing for Women Queensland who operates their official Twitter account, admits she was “taken aback” when she received the notice advising her that her posts on Buckley had violated Australian law.
“I see that women are silenced all the time now for speaking out about the wrongs of child abuse. Child abuse seems to have been totally normalized these days,” Whiston says.
Unlike Sussex, Whiston had only become aware of Buckley months ago after a friend first informed her about his story in the Daily Mail. More recently, Sussex connected with Whiston on the subject and shared more information.
“I’ve been horrified ever since. Mainly worrying about safety of his wife and child,” Whiston explains, noting that she has never personally interacted with Buckley.
“Being a new mother myself, I understand the importance of the breastfeeding bond between mother and baby in a way I didn’t before I embarked on it myself … I’m still in disbelief about what’s occurred with Buckley and his baby and how this has been allowed to happen,” Whiston says.
“I’m pregnant again, and it has made me lose faith in the institutions that I will likely use again, especially the Australian Breastfeeding Association. It makes me wonder how on earth I can trust the people who are meant to provide ethical care and safeguards to mothers and babies, if they advocate for men to use babies as props for men’s sexual fetishes, and silence the women who speak out about how wrong this all is.”
Sussex shares the sentiment, adding from her expertise as a breastfeeding counselor that men attempting to breastfeed babies is “biologically and psychologically dangerous” for all involved.
“Men who covet female physiology in this way are, in my opinion, either suffering from a serious delusion or sexually motivated by the idea of themselves as lactating women,” Sussex says. “There is no evidence that drug-induced secretions from a male nipple are in any way equivalent to mother’s milk. It is more likely the secretions are akin to galactorea, which occurs when abnormal levels of prolactin are released from the pituitary gland in females who aren’t pregnant or males with disease.”
Despite the lingering threat of further consequence, neither Sussex nor Whiston feel dissuaded from continuing to speak out.
“I don’t believe I have violated any Australian laws. I think this has been done as a way of trying to frighten me,” Whiston told Reduxx. “I don’t plan to do anything apart from keep speaking out about how wrong it obviously is for men to use babies as props for their sexual fetishes.”
Sussex echoed her sentiment, adding: “I will not stop talking about the incalculable dangers of gender identity ideology for women, children and same-sex attracted people.”
Earlier this month, Reduxx learned that an Australian woman who had criticized a transgender male’s participation on a women’s sport team had been handed an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) by police.
Kirralie Smith, a spokesperson for an organization dedicated to combating gender ideology, will be challenging the order in court later this month. If the court decides that the AVO is justified and that she has taken actions which breach the order, Smith could potentially have criminal charges leveled against her. Prior to being slapped with the AVO, Smith had her content on Facebook censored by the eSafety Commissioner.
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