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

How very dare the people in that training session ask question! It's as if they don't even realize that they're being generously gifted with the holy Word of Susie at all...

I've also listened to a secret recording of a Mermaids session (in a school). It was enlightening and in places quite comical (unintentionally).

In the spirit of always being open to learning, hearing what is being said from all angles, I listened to this interesting recording of a Mermaids training session (thank you, whoever you are Man in a Box, for recording it - not sure if it's Michael or someone else). Apologies if it's been posted elsewhere already.

twitter.com/MichaelConroy68/status/1074723166923182081

Man in a Box asks salient questions at key points through the presentation. Jan, the trainer, finally gets fucked off at Man in a Box asking salient questions and accuses him of 'putting words in her mouth', despite the fact that he's picking up on a statement she'd clearly said around suicide facts earlier on.

After being bombarded by 'boy jelly baby' and 'girl jelly baby' brains, etc, and GI Joe (seriously, what UK child would even know who GI Joe is, let alone 'identifying' with him) I can't believe Man in a Box is the only person in that room to ask any questions.

So much to unpack from this recording, but none of it new or surprising, and it's Christmas, so no time!

Wes streeting mp ilford north- is he often involved in this kind of thing? He’s getting some love.

Streeting was on the member list of "Labour Against Transphobia" secret Facebook doxxing group targeting gender critical women. ISTR he claimed it was accidental.

twitter.com/MrsMeadowsweet/status/978229481314881537?s=20

Reposting what I said on the other thread:

If you haven't written yet, it's important to stress all the issues with regard to safeguarding that apply across the board and not just to trans issues. Information sharing is an important one: almost every Serious Case Review highlights a failure of information sharing as an important contributing factor in a disastrous outcome. Any charity that encourages confidential disclosures and not informing parents, and discourages multi-agency involvement should be regarded with extreme caution

I agree Biologifemini

I'd add to that, do we really want to abandon safeguarding, regulatory protections and carefully created ethical and professional standards in favour of optimism, hope and a belief that it's more important to give people whatever they want quickly and nothing can go wrong with this? Or might there be other agendas beneath cutting corners and avoiding scrutiny that vulnerable children and families need protection from?

I think this is being argued on the wrong front:
Do you want laws based on opinion or facts?
Do you want medicines and treatments based on evidence, or a child opinion?
What is the defition of trans? It is now so wide and nebulous that actual trans people are being thrown under the bus.

Wes Streeting MP wades in. Bindel corrects him.

Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) Tweeted:
@BigLotteryFund What is the point of having a proper grant decision-making process if you simply get pushed around by e-mail campaigns? How can we have confidence in the independence and effectiveness of your decisions? twitter.com/wesstreeting/status/1074682139684282369?s=17

Strangely enough no TRAs on twitter can come up with a plausible reason to support Mermaids-other than hateful transphobic bigots filled with hate are lobbying to prevent money helping suicidal children.
They really don’t have a leg to stand on or a coherent argument to make.

I haven’t seen anyone say that trans kids don’t exist. Just that from what was a very rare thing to become an epidemic is a worrying trend, possibly encouraged by social media and the whole rainbow movement.

So Mermaids have predatory paedo men trying to access their service? I wonder why that might be?

As for other parents who don’t believe trans kids actually exist, well not sure why they would be there then, if what they’re interested in doesn’t actually exist.

Green et al are a brain cell away from a realisation. Oh for that illusive brain cell.

Good to see Andrew Gilligan says he has plenty of evidence to give to the Big Lottery Fund.

One of Mermaids' other bankrollers fails to recognise the irony in their tweet that they believe in facts over the baying mob. Yes because that's just what MDAs are known for, evidence and peace, whereas parents and women are known for mumbo jumbo and wielding baseball bats.

So Mermaids are publicly stating that predatory men are trying to access their website.

Presumably because these predatory men can spot a wide open Safeguarding Barn Door when they see one.

Indeed.

From the Mermaids website:

www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/parents-support-forum.html

Parent Forum

"We have had people trying to access this group for their own reasons, when they are neither parents or carers. This includes men claiming to be widowed mothers with transgender children, individuals with pornographic content linked to their names, journalists, and individuals who do not believe that transgender children and young people exist".

So Mermaids are publicly stating that predatory men are trying to access their website.

Presumably because these predatory men can spot a wide open Safeguarding Barn Door when they see one.

Make sure you/we screenshot links to GenderGP etc. as they might mysteriously disappear.

Is the recommendation for Dr Weberley on their website? If so, better screen shot it....

There's still a link to 'GenderGP', Dr Webberley's site. Helen Webberley is still touting for business there, despite currently being banned from practising as a doctor in the UK.

Recent FB post by Mermaids Charity
(Facebook UK age limit 13 years+)

apologies, for cross post

Statement

"Mermaids welcomes all levels of scrutiny into the charity and the services that we deliver to families and young people, and are determined to continue to support trans children to achieve a better future. We want to reassure all parents that access our support that we will continue to be there for you and your children.

We are very proud of the work that we do, and would like to thank our supporters, including our individual donors and funders who have made this enormously important work possible.

Whilst we are disappointed that this is necessary, Mermaids understands that the volume of correspondence, both positive and negative, received by Big Lottery has necessitated a review of the grant that we were notified of last week.

It is unfortunate that transgender children and young people continue to be a largely misunderstood population, and we understand that misinformation about the reality for trans kids is at the heart of this. Perhaps this review will reveal more about the very real challenges faced daily by families and young people, and help to foster understanding and acceptance.

We look forward to the outcome of this review and will work with Big Lottery to provide them with any additional information they require, as and when needed."

Mermaids statement:

Mermaids welcomes all levels of scrutiny into the charity and the services that we deliver to families and young people, and are determined to continue to support trans children to achieve a better future. We want to reassure all parents that access our support that we will continue to be there for you and your children.

We are very proud of the work that we do, and would like to thank our supporters, including our individual donors and funders who have made this enormously important work possible.

Whilst we are disappointed that this is necessary, Mermaids understands that the volume of correspondence, both positive and negative, received by Big Lottery has necessitated a review of the grant that we were notified of last week.

It is unfortunate that transgender children and young people continue to be a largely misunderstood population, and we understand that misinformation about the reality for trans kids is at the heart of this. Perhaps this review will reveal more about the very real challenges faced daily by families and young people, and help to foster understanding and acceptance.

We look forward to the outcome of this review and will work with Big Lottery to provide them with any additional information they require, as and when needed.

The Big Lottery Fund Statement: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/news/press-releases/2018-12-17/big-lottery-fund-statement-on-proposed-grant-to-mermaids

The thing with grants to charities is that trusts and grant-giving organisations rely heavily on previous grant-givers having done decent due diligence. So a charity which can demonstrate a growing number of legit grants of increasing value will already tick a lot of boxes.

I can’t understand why harrop retweets all the hate? It’s bizarre behaviour for a gp.
Have they not investigated him yet?

I suspect the majority of twitterari hiinf with indignation don’t actially have children. Like the wee face covered bairns that harass women outside of meetings. It’s just a lovely fluffy rainbow-covered bandwagon to them.

Mermaids statement here (that I can’t copy for some reason)

m.facebook.com/192046384225479/posts/1946903135406453/