Mermaids “Teaching” in Schools

[TestyAndTERFy]

I read something somewhere about the pro-trans “support” charity doing some outreach work in schools. I read on their website that they have funding and are looking for 25 schools. I also read that they’ve partnered with the police, CAHMs, and some other public sector groups to deliver training, which includes their so-called “gender spectrum” slide (the one with barbie on the left, GI Joe on the right and everyone else somewhere in between). I had a knee-jerk reaction to reading that that are going into primary schools and delivering this sort of information and also that some schools are being encouraged to hide the identify-preferences of children from their parents in cases where the parents are not accepting/encouraging. Rather than just going off the deep end I was wondering whether anyone has any first-hand experience or knowledge relating to this. TAI.

It doesn't surprise me OP. Their propaganda machine is well funded. There are some useful points in this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3154752-Trans-extremism-schools

Oh, thanks for that. I missed the post somehow so will bob over there for a read.

Worth being reminded that the curriculum for sex Ed is going to be over hauled after 20 years.

Might be worth filling in the survey

Please help shape sex ed in England. Lets stop the rot.www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3151439-Please-help-shape-sex-ed-in-England-Lets-stop-the-rot

Mermaids recently went to my sisters school for a sort of lecture, i believe it sort of happened and our mum wasn't told, will have to ask my sister though whether the school planned to or whether nobody was told until the day x

That's chilling, Skye.

Is it possible for parents to forbid a school in advance from allowing Mermaids or its materials contact with their child? Eg with a letter to the head when they start at the school? I would never want Mermaids anywhere near a happily gender non conforming child.

Surely all it should take is one determined set of parents to sue the shit out their school for allowing this nonsense?

Surely all it should take is one determined set of parents to sue the shit out their school for allowing this nonsense?

It may not even take a set of parents.

Five years ago DS’s school invited the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in to speak to the Yr10s about abortion.

I arranged a meeting with the head and the head of religious studies and explained to them how toxic this organisation is. They withdraw the invitation and they never came.

It depends,
Some schools are strict and won't budge and some will require loads of parents coming together, definitely worth a try though!
I sort of prefered the original idea they had, we used to have loads of youth groups that would educate a gender queer individual, took my brother when he started questioning himself as it gave him someone who would listen and guide him, but putting it in schools especially early will only confuse children/youth and make them think they should be questioning it or something wrong. Just stick with providing it to those who want it x

OP:
You need to argue that Mermaids and other groups are a political political pressure group, that is a group that tries to influence changes in public policy in the interest of their particular cause. As soon as they attempt to change the language used in a school, to influence school policy about sex segregated spaces and sport, rewrite scientific facts, persuade schools to prioritise the interests of their particular interest group, then they are acting as a political pressure group. A school allowing them unfettered access to children would be in breach of legislation in the 1996 Education Act and other guidance:

Schools are constrained by the duty to comply with Sections 406 and 407 of the Education Act 1996 which forbids ‘the promotion of partisan political views…’ The requirement found in the Prevent Duty and 'teaching controversial issues for schools' also places a duty to “secure that where political issues are brought to the attention of pupils… they are offered a balanced presentation of opposing views

If these organisations just focused on the welfare / bullying issues, that would be totally legitimate. But they never do. They attempt a wholesale change in school systems, beliefs and practices. Parents need to complain. Children must always be offered an alternative political view or political pressure groups can't access them. It's the law!

i would have thought that Mermaids, as a charity, is sailing pretty close to the wind when it comes to Charity Commission rules on campaigning. But the CC is pretty toothless and pretty useless in asking the right questions to notice anyway.

whoputthecatout
It's because nobody ever checks what they're doing. They've been given a free pass into schools because we all reckoned they were looking at bullying and helping this tiny group of children.
But of course they're not. They are pursuing their political aims - and gas lighting a whole generation. I do suggest that anyone who encounters them in a school takes copies and full details. When this generation who are currently taking the drugs and being supported by pressure groups (rather than those with expertise in child and adolescent development) reaches adulthood and realises the impact these drugs have had on their fertility and bodies, they will want to sue. So all details, records, screenshots etc will be very helpful for future class actions.

But chanties can campaign - I've worked for two charities and both had a strong campaign focus.

They are a partially government sponsored homophobic organization committed to trangendering away any risk of homosexuality in children. Mermaids is in trouble with the courts but the schools keep on permitting them to recruit children into transgenderism.
"The latest accounts for Mermaids UK, published last week, (October 2017) reveal it has been granted £35,000 by the Department for Education (DfE) and a total of £138,000 by the national lottery’s Awards for All fund and the BBC’s Children in Need appeal."

We need to keep saying it - they're a political pressure group and they're NOT allowed access to children without a balanced alternative being provided to their propaganda.
Point this out to schools - again and again..

The government has given £3 million to Stonewall et al to roll out mass 'anti-transphobia' training to teachers and pupils across 'at least 1,200 schools' by March next year - See page 43 of this (or page 46 if you're going off the numbering on the pdf file)

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664855/Transforming_children_and_young_people_s_mental_health_provision.pdf

Although Mermaids aren't directly named in that document but they are part of the LGBT Consortium's Alliance and are involved in this regressive, sexist, homophobic bollocks work:

www.lgbtconsortium.org.uk/tackling-hbt-bullying

If anyone has time you could write to the DfE and ask whether the promotion of eugenics / unethical medical experimentation on children advocated by transgender organisations is now DfE policy?
Ask what due diligence the DfE carried out when funding transgender political pressure groups to work in schools.
Is it DfE policy that established safeguarding principles should not apply to transgender children? (they state that adults in schools must maintain confidentiality if children disclose gender confusion issues)
Ask whether the DfE support these groups using suicide statistics in defiance of the Samaritan's guidelines?
Ask whether it is DfE policy that the Equality Act should no longer apply to girls in terms of rights to privacy, dignity and safety?

etc etc.....
This page takes you to the DfE's complaints page:

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/complaints-procedure#how-to-make-a-complaint-about-the-department-for-education

Linking to the question a PP posed earlier. My DD starts school in September. My absolute nightmare is her coming home telling me she has had a session from Mermaids or equivalent. I doubt schools would have to give parents notice of a session so there would be no way of withdrawing her in advance (I understand you can withdraw children from sex ed but this would likely be billed as anti-bullying or similar). But I'm scared if I wrote a letter in advance to the school I would be forever branded a bigot and that could impact on my daughter as well.

Thank you shedalight. Done.

qumquat Can you 'vaccinate' her with biology and common sense? I grew up on a farm breeding livestock and would have known this is rubbish at a very early age.

Where are black women on this chart?
Mermaids Gender Spectrum Rainbow;
twitter.com/LilyLilyMaynard/status/955407448575283200

qumquat
Fist have a look at their website for details of their PSHE programme - that should give you a clue. Look at their equal opps / diversity policies as well as their anti bullying policies and see what they say. Hopefully it will all be appropriately positive. I'd only be concerned if it was excessively focussed on trans issues to the exclusion of other vulnerable groups.
When she starts in September, you could ask how equal opportunity / anti bullying is dealt with as a way in?

Horrifying as it may seem the transgender advocates have begun arguing the creepy eugenics lie that Black women are not like white women but rather they are like "transwomen".

qumquat

You could pre-empt the situation by pointing them towards Transgendertrend's guidance for schools. It's inclusive, and looks at all children, gay, bi, lesbian and trans. And all the other children.

Mermaids' information elevates trans individuals above all the other children. Which is not what the equality act advocates.

A thread about the pack and it's reception amongst the transactivist community is in the link below.

Its a useful read, because it will give you, personally, an understanding of exactly how the propaganda from trans pressure groups, is so damaging.

And will give you more confidence to approach your school.

You can absolutely say that groups like Mermaids, GIRES and Gendered Intelligence don't present an accurate picture, and their information looks homophobic.

Young lesbians coming out, are encouraged by TRAs to accept men in their dating pool, as long as that man identifies as a women.

Gender dysphoria is incredibly rare.

Children are becoming confused. I'd love to see places like Mermaids account for the 2000 a year showing up at gender clinics, most of whom have nothing wrong with them.

Or the 10 girls at Saint Pauls girls' school, coming out simultaneously.

Their argument, that transgenderism is more accepted, so people are more confident in coming out, sounds ridiculous in those circumstances.

Mermaids have just had a teacher arrested for misgendering a child.

That is not the action of a non-partisan group. Schools have no business supporting an ideology. In fact, the rules are quite clear that they shouldn't.

Tell your school that mermaids are doing things that you disagree with, get them to read the transgendertrend guidance and let them make up their own minds.

Because anyone reading the TGT guidance will find it reasonable, rational, calm and inclusive of every child.

Something that seems to be notable by its absence in a lot of the other information being sent to schools.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3166853-Transgender-Trends-new-resource-pack-for-schools

Or the 10 girls at Saint Pauls girls' school, coming out simultaneously

It's interesting as I was at a very similar school to Saint Paul's and anorexia/bulimia were common throughout the school but there was one year where the prevalence was particularly high - it honestly started to feel like a contagion. It also brings to mind the true story of 18 girls in a school in the US, falling pregnant in one year, when I think the average was 3. In both situations the discussion looked to external influences affecting the girls (I think the year of the sudden boom in teenage pregnancies was when the film Juno came out and there were a few celebrity "teen moms" - I don't know what the conclusion was on that though). Meanwhile, when I was at school and numerous girls were being hospitalised due to eating disorders, it was the period of "heroin chic" and the "super waifs".

But of course it's massively "transphobic" to question whether something like this is at play at the moment.

mirislis
I totally see this too. Gender dysphoria is the new body dismorphia. The go-to mental illness for troubled teens.
It makes the statistic of 41% Transgender people will attempt suicide make more sense too.
If you took all people suffering bulimia or anorexia or self mutilation you will probably find 41% of those groups attempting suicide too.

These childen/young adults are troubled to begin with and turn to transgenderism to express this. They need help not a sex change.

For a few of the girls with severe anorexia, it virtually was attempted suicide. One of my friends who had to be restrained so that she couldn't rip out the drip that was keeping her alive knew that she would die if she did that but felt that was preferable to giving in. It took years of treatment but she made it thankfully and is now a happy mum despite the havoc her anorexia caused to her hormones and periods. I have another friend who was severely anorexic for longer and well into her twenties who wasn't so lucky on the fertility front.

Eating disorders were the main issue when I was at school - I was at uni when cutting became a bigger issue.

From The Guardian 2002,

"Why are so many teenage girls cutting themselves?
Thousands of teenagers across the country are using knives and razors to injure themselves. Nicci Gerrard reports on this alarming new blood cult"

www.theguardian.com/society/2002/may/19/mentalhealth.observerfocus

Can you imagine them now daring to write anything like what they did about cutting when discussing the huge rise in the number of girls wanting to trans?