Mermaids given £500,000 by National Lottery (Sunday Times)

I’m also wondering- is the big lottery fund required to have regard (either as a kind of public body, or by its own rules) to have regard to the UN convention on the rights of the child? (Sorry, have forgotten its exact name). Might be worth a read of that to see if there is anything useful.

Various bodies that are in favour of transing children have been using the UNCRC to back up their position.

Scottish government consultation, Annex M

consult.gov.scot/family-law/review-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004/supporting_documents/SCT10172517581_Gender_p4%203.pdf

Trans*Form Cymru charter, a Welsh Government funded project to "support trans young people"

youthcymru.org.uk/transform-cymru-charter/

It has been created in line with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child and establishes a number of rights belonging to trans* young people and their expectations of organisations to ensure that these rights are met.

Not directly related to the Mermaids grant, but Big Lottery Fund's equality categories are (of course!!) 'gender' not 'sex'. And they have David Isaacs from EHRC on the board...

Victoria, I think it would be really helpful to have ideas for an outline of stuff to cover in a letter. I was going to write to dawn austwick (CEO), Peter ainsworth (chair) and Tony Burton (head of risk and audit on board)

I was thinking of asking them to review the award and specifically investigate how the charities statements and actions align with 4 and 6 of their principles
"Simple processes, good judgements
We use simple, proportionate processes which enable us to make good judgements."
"Using resources well
We make informed choices about the resources given to us by National Lottery players: with knowledge, with people and with money, and in an environmentally sustainable way"

and their "goal in practice" of being "Valued, trusted and efficient"

Does anyone have particular knowledge of charities and grants and know what references / wording would have most impact?

Sandy

Well, they suspended me for the pic of that Canadian, and my heartfelt apology gained me 250k impressions and about 400 followers.
Considering that the initial pic and tweet got about 100, I thought that worked out in my favour eventually

On Twitter 😁

Keep up the good work

Stay up on here or on twitter? The last time one of my cartoons got taken down by twitter it had a bit of a Streisand effect. Every time I’m deleted or suspended, I end up with more shares and follows.

Yuck.

Had anyone got a chance to post the outline/structure of their complaint to the big lottery fund, or specify things they mentioned in it? I ask because I don’t want to miss anything in mine.

Also how about a complaint about this to the various Children’s Commissioners? I think there is one for England and a separate one for Wales. Scotland too?

I’m also wondering- is the big lottery fund required to have regard (either as a kind of public body, or by its own rules) to have regard to the UN convention on the rights of the child? (Sorry, have forgotten its exact name). Might be worth a read of that to see if there is anything useful. You’d think protection against unnecessary life changing sterilising medical treatment might somehow be brought within its scope.

In his article from 2017 which tells of how Mermaids was banned by a judge from contacting one exploited family, Andrew writes:

The latest accounts for Mermaids UK, published last week, 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.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mermaids-uk-charity-ban-as-boy-forced-to-live-as-girl-dvx3j99cn

Yes, I was struck by how angry Gilligan sounded in the piece.

that article is very very disapproving of Susie Green, isn't it?
I'm surprised that someone with no medical training is treated with any credibility at all.

Excellent cartoon, Sandy.

I can’t see that being allowed to stay up for long.

Michele Moore has posted her excellent Woman's Place talk in the comments.

What an amazing article. I do hope the Fund reconsider.

It’s a fucking disgrace that money would be given to these people. They actively encourage children to think they need healthy bits of their bodies cut off FFS.

Santa Draws Badly (@SandyDrawsBadly) Tweeted:
The Big Lottery Fund announces a cool 500k donation to a charity that recommends the services of a doctor convicted of running an illegal online clinic and interventions that leave kids sterile. t.co/eiQQl4oakO twitter.com/SandyDrawsBadly/status/1074238844327903233?s=17

Although bear in mind the diagnosis criteria for diagnosing has been reducing.

Under strong pressure from TRA groups, not due to new research.

Gloat. No gloating.

I think this will happen. Charities run by evangelical ‘dogooders’ will not accept criticism or alternative opinion. They believe that they and only they know ‘the truth’ and won’t take advice from experts. They are followed by like minded people for their own reasons.

No, it won’t end well. And I won’t be sad. I won’t float because of the damage done.

Composing email to CEO.

When Mermaids collapses, as any organisation that edges towards grooming eventually will, it's going to make the Kids Company debacle look tame.

I will do the same today - did you do it via their web page?

So a lot of non-medical people, with their fingers in lots of pies, tell medical experts to shut the fuck up.

Pretty spot on.

Although bear in mind the diagnosis criteria for diagnosing has been reducing.

In 1980s transexualism was a medical diagnosis
In 1993 this was replaced with Gender Identity Disorder
In 2013 this was replaced by Gender Dysphoria - a very diluted notion

Here's something to consider....
We all acknowledge the number of people being diagnosed with GD is relatively low but even so, how many of those diagnosed GD would have had a diagnosis when it was GID ?

I love that Andrew has used this in his last two articles on Susie:

Green, an IT consultant, has no medical training. Responding on Twitter to an NHS psychiatrist who accused her of “making stuff up”, she wrote that “you need to f* off. You know nothing.”

Susie Green chills me to the bone too. Somebody on Twitter has reposted the clip of Susie and her mother giggling away at Susie's son's 'micro' penis that the teen had before surgery.

I see she no longer has pastel hair.

The chief executive of Mermaids, Susie Green, who took her son for a now illegal sex-change operation

Not exactly impartial then !

This is why we need better NHS support from Psychologists with no agenda.