Dear Editor, I am writing in response to your editorial entitled, Enacting a Non-Binary Gender Inclusive Policy is the Ethical Choice: A Commentary. First, I would like to address two misrepresentations regarding my World Nutrition Journal commentary (Munzer, 2021). This commentary is cited as providing evidence for some having "raised objections to separating gender identity from sex." I have no objection to separating gender identity from sex; rather, I would argue that it is vital not to conflate sex and gender identity but to apply each concept if and where appropriate. However, this was not the focus of my commentary, which rather highlighted the fundamental importance of specific and sexed language, that is the use of "mother," when discussing breastfeeding. In contrast, I would argue that the Journal of Human Lactation's (JHL) policy and guidance regarding "gender inclusivity" conflates and confuses sex, gender, and gender identity and prioritizes a gendered understanding of language. Nowhere in any of JHL's policy, guidance, or opinion papers can I find an explanation as to why gendered meanings of "woman" and "mother" are being prioritized over sexed meanings. In fact, it seems that there is a total lack of acknowledgement that a sexed meaning of "mother" even exists and that this term can be used to cover all female parents irrespective of any gender identity they may have. Pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding are inherently sexed processes, this makes it particularly puzzling as to why JHL would prioritize gendered understandings of "women" and "mothers" over sexed meanings. You also suggest that I argue that desexed language is "effectively taking the mother's rights to her domain of breastfeeding away." This is not quite correct. What I describe is how replacing the term "mother" with "parents" or "families" inappropriately includes other people, so diluting and undermining the breastfeeding rights women and children hold.

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It seems obvious that support for mothers is central to global breastfeeding advocacy. The Global Breastfeeding Collective, WHO and UNICEF all emphasise the importance of supporting mothers to breastfeed their infants (World Health Organization, 2018b; Global Breastfeeding Collective et al., 2020; UNICEF, 2018). Yet increasingly, some breastfeeding organisations, particularly those based in the USA, appear to be avoiding referring to "breastfeeding mothers", favouring a different term, that is, "breastfeeding families" (