Butterfly ITV Mermaids drama

[Velella]

Here are details (lifted from a post on twitter) to contact ITV and complain about a programme which promotes ultimate sterilisation of children for liking the 'wrong' toys, clothes and hairstyles.

All About Trans have issued 'tips' for journalists covering ITV's Butterly programme. Basically dictating the article for them. Deeply sinister and likely to be copy and pasted by lazy journalists.

What has happened to critical thinking?

t.co/fAJ6Rd8aBf

And that's why we need to counter this narrative. Are any of the groups highlighting this? I think putting out the counter narrative is vital as this drama will have a huge audience and media coverage.

The Guardian Guide today has a piece about it, which is pretty predictable Guardian stuff. Doesn't seem to be online or I'd have linked.

It'd be interesting to find out which organisations they consulted in the making.

'All About Trans have issued 'tips' for journalists covering ITV's Butterly programme'

What???!!!! This all gets scarier and more sinister every day

Was it 'All About Trans' who provided the intensive and significant training for BBC, Channel 4 and New Statesman etc some time ago?

I remeber some discussion about this about a month ago.

From the 'tips':

Transgender adolescents have to be around 16 years old to be given cross sex hormones on the NHS (oestrogen for a transgender teenage girl and testosterone for a trans teenage boy).

Unless you go to Helen Webberley who will give it to you from 12.......

Ok its a bit confusing but here from the history page of All About Trans:
"All About Trans was launched in 2011

At the time it was known as Trans Media Action , a project run by the charity On Road Media. In the early days we worked with the organisation Trans Media Watch to devise ways to improve media professionals’ understanding of trans people, encouraging them to find out more and to create more sensitive portrayals of trans people in their work.

In late 2011/early 2012 we organised three workshops at the BBC and Channel 4 that brought together volunteers from the trans community and media professionals to find out what level of understanding the media really had about trans people and to try and find ways to work together to improve portrayal. At that time trans people were the butt of jokes in prime time comedy or the subjects of shocking tabloid stories.

It was time for something bold

Trans Camp took place in January 2012. The day was dedicated to exploring creative solutions to major stumbling blocks in the media’s portrayal of this misrepresented and misunderstood community.

Hosted at Channel 4, Trans Camp brought together over 60 innovators, developers, entrepreneurs, designers, media professionals and trans people from all walks of life to come up with new and exciting ideas to address how the media portrayed trans people."
www.allabouttrans.org.uk/about/history/

On Road Media are working with BBC about reporting of trans matters. (Channel 4 also)

from their website,
"Trans Media Action: Improving portrayals of transgender
people in the media
Since January 2011, we have been doing some groundbreaking work with the transgender community in partnership with Trans Media Watch."
www.onroadmedia.org.uk/work/working-with-the-transgender-community/

Overview
On Road is a charity that tackles social problems by improving media coverage of misrepresented groups and issues. The team delivers projects in collaboration with different communities across the UK to bring about real social change. On Road was founded in 2008 and we were awarded charitable status in January 2016.

Within each project, we deliver four key activities: what we call the “interactions” – informal and curated meet-ups between activists with lived experiences and senior journalists, bespoke media training with a focus on self-care, peer support for activists engaging with the media and mentoring for project participants."

www.onroadmedia.org.uk/about/meet-the-team/

2013 important Guardian Article with background to Press ForChange and influential trans-activists:

(extract
"Much of their [Press For Change] campaigning remained on the quiet. The passage of the 2004 law to give trans people legal status was "remarkable," says [Christine] Burns, because "the government was able to pass an entire act in parliament without anyone throwing a fit in the press". In popular culture, the activists became more forthcoming in their attempts to increase popular understanding of trans issues. Although the arrival of trans character Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street in 1998 was one breakthrough, Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays Cropper, is a non-transsexual woman. Some believe one sign that minority groups are not taken seriously is when characters in popular culture are not played by members of that group (from the Black and White Minstrels of the 60s and 70s to non-disabled actors taking disabled parts). "I can advise any casting directors that there are plenty of transsexual actresses," says a medical professional involved in transition treatments. (continues)

In 25 years, [James] Barrett has seen trans people become "a networked bunch" – more so than other people, he thinks – thanks to the internet. Lees, who also works for Trans Media Action, says social media is the "essential catalyst" for the transformation of trans people in society. "Society is in transition and we've woken up from the operation and there's no going back. We can't pretend that trans people don't exist any more," she says. "People have been taking the piss out of trans people for 60 years. The narrative on trans issues has been controlled by people who have no understanding of them. Social media is about us grabbing the narrative back and telling our own stories – this is our reality, this is what we go through and this is what matters to us. We're here, we're in your face, we definitely exist. That's the most important thing – realising we exist." (continues)

www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/22/voices-from-trans-community-prejudice

Paris Lees in 2013 interview above:

"People have been taking the piss out of trans people for 60 years. The narrative on trans issues has been controlled by people who have no understanding of them. Social media is about us grabbing the narrative back and telling our own stories – this is our reality, this is what we go through and this is what matters to us. We're here, we're in your face, we definitely exist. That's the most important thing – realising we exist."

twitter.com/guideguardian/status/1048231067482836998?s=19

Link to Guardian piece on Twitter.

"The first time I changed the world was when I told my mates to call me she rather than he. I literally constructed a new world where its possible to understand myself as a genderqueer woman, despite being asigned male at birth simply by changing the language to describe myself. This is why language and pronouns are so important. Its about creating a world in which trans people are allowed to exist"

"And I can honestly say that the work that trans people do for each other means that, for me at least, the trans community is a beautiful place to be. Despite our differences, we have each others' backs"

Jess Bradley 'To My Trans Sisters'
edited by Charlie Craggs

This insistence on existence is really weird isn't it?

A fawning interview with Susie Green took up the entire centre double page spread in the Mirror on Friday. I tweeted about it.

Any research into Susie Green would reveal what she did to her child, and at what age. But not a whisper of that or what Mermaids recommends - early medication, early surgery. Just praise.

From the Mirror article:

"Terror quickly turned to denial for Susie and her husband Tim. Over and over again, they told Jack it was fine to be a boy who liked girlie things – but that didn’t make him a girl. But Jack just kept telling them that was not who he was."

"Over the next decade, Jack started living as a girl and at 16 had gender reassignment surgery in America, at that time the youngest Brit ever to do so."

"Susie worked as a consultant on the show along with other families at her charity Mermaids."

Susie Green TedTalk

Like the similar Guardian article this week there is discussion and details of suicide attempts contrary to well-established guideleines on reporting and also without link to Samaritans

Mirror link:
www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/mother-transgender-jackie-explains-moment-13355068

twitter.com/MoreAvocadoes/status/1048101198841204737

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1048098968088072194.html

"THREAD: Ethical issues with Mermaids. There's a lot to cover and 280 characters doesn't always allow for level of detail.
They’re a UK registered charity who support trans and gender non-conforming young people and their families. This is an admirable goal. Families and children in a complex and distressing situation ought to be able to access peer support. No-one is disputing that.
What they are not - scientists, child development experts, safeguarding professionals. And yet they are giving advice and providing resources to schools, police forces, youth organisations, the NHS etc.
There’s nothing wrong with a family support group being non-experts. The issue here is that they are passing themselves off as experts and getting their mer-fins all over public policy as if their 'affirmation only' position were backed by evidence.
Then there’s that court case. The Times reported it and then had to print a correction. This is often jumped on as ‘the entire article was a pack of lies and Mermaids were blameless’. Not the case.
The facts: the judge told the mother that Mermaids were to have no more contact with the child, and awarded residency to the father. This was because the mother, with Mermaids support, was raising the child as a girl. He didn’t want to be a girl.
Mermaids response to the ruling: “this is a huge injustice and transphobic practice. Devastating for the child. :(‘

The Times correction was that it was not ‘court ordered’ that Mermaids needed to stay away from the child - it was verbally ordered by the judge. That’s it.
In Mermaids own words: “Following the proceedings, the mother informed us that the judge had ordered the child should have no further contact with the charity.”
There’s more. Mermaids make heavy use of discredited trans youth suicide statistics. This goes against Samaritans guidance on suicide reporting, and the figures themselves are both unreliable and misrepresented. It was a survey about ideation in a self-selecting group.
I have a bit of personal experience with Mermaids. I’m not going to go into much detail as it’s outing, and I keep my Twitter anonymous for personal safety reasons.

I attended one of their talks and asked them how they tell the difference between a trans and GNC/gay/lesbian kid.
They couldn't answer. They also called me something rather offensive when I asked where I sit on their gender ‘spectrum’ as someone who rejected feminine norms as a child (probs due to autism as well as not being straight) but grew up to be a happy, non-dysphoric bi and NB adult.
Autistic kids are massively over represented in those seeking gender ID therapy. When I was younger (showing my age) it used to be called ‘wrong planet syndrome’. Now it seems to have evolved into ‘wrong body’.
Mermaids aren’t experts in autism, or very much beyond their own direct experiences. Are they the right group to advise parents of distressed autistic kids - who often show gender variance as part of their autism?
Those I’ve met in person seem like decent, loving parents, but what they as an org are doing is profoundly unethical and anti-science. They are putting vulnerable children on a lifelong medicalised path because it fits their ideology, not because it’s best for the child.
That's before we get onto the eye-watering sexism and homophobia regularly expressed by their leadership. Gay people are 'deviant' and Barbie is the most womanly woman, whereas GI Joe is the manliest of the male sex.
So here we are. A parents group, largely staffed by decent people, that has gained influence far beyond common sense and sanity due to an ideologically driven leadership. I hope I’ve helped the merscales fall from a few eyes."

Have emailed their complaints department. Susie is in breech of samaritans policy to how suicide should be discussed in the media. Mermaids is more a pressure group than a charity. Am worried this programme will not be factually accurate & they have been advised solely by pro trans people-there will likely be no balance or harsh truths about the reality of medically transitioning.

Helen Webberley is the recommended/ preferred gender service by many associated with Mermaids and is linked from the charity's website.

It would be interesting to see what follows Helen Webberley's sentencing.

Panorama
August 2018 'Online Doctors Uncovered'

"Panorama goes undercover to reveal online doctor sites putting profit before patient care. In 2017 the Care Quality Commission issued a warning about the risks of buying drugs prescribed by doctors online. The programme discovers opiate-based painkillers and slimming tablets being sold to potentially vulnerable people and antibiotics being delivered across Europe in the face of warnings about resistance.

Dr Faye Kirkland, journalist and GP, meets the families of patients who have died after online consultations and exposes the sites running rings around the regulators."
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b3qb74