Mermaids training course in my workplace

I’d be mad.

Make sure you share this.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-ideologists-are-spreading-cod-science-m8n0pdbq3

Jan the trainer from Mermaids made some outlandish claims in her training and misquoted the equality act.
**So toilets, changing rooms, sports, residential. The Equality act is unambiguous its crystal clear. Unisex and gender neutral facilities are absolutely fine, but that’s not a disabled toilet with a sticker on.

But you can’t prevent anyone from using the facilities of the gender with which they identify and are living as. If someone complains, you provide an alternative to the person complaining. THAT IS THE LAW.

If you get a what if? which you will, just replace one protected characteristic with another and ask yourself the question again. So what would happen if you said ‘you can’t use those toilets because you’re Jewish?

Usually if you’ve got a ‘what if?’ just do that and it will quite often just give you the answer and then you can go ‘OK, I can deal with this. It’ll be fine. So that’s for primary schools..*

There's a couple of threads on this too on here.
Michael's questions are excellent

How about saying you'd really be interested in attending the training, but seeing as you can't/it's full, would it be okay for someone to record it or provide a transcript of it for you? I think recordings of these trainings are very illuminating.

I am suspicious about Mermaid's sudden interest in bi & homophobia.

If they commandeer the word 'homophobia' and train everyone on what it means and what it doesn't, it controls a damaging fact that TRA ideology is homophobic.

I'm willing to be that Mermaids will be vigorously teaching everyone that homophobia = saying people with penises aren't lesbians, while biologically female lesbians being coerced to 'overcome' their homosexuality and learn to cope with penis isn't homophobic at all.

When a word is a pest - like woman, female, sex, inclusion, - and gets in the way of the One True Faith, tell everyone loudly and often that the word actually means something totally different.

Gaslighting on a massive scale.

Good point Ancient

Given that this group seem to oppose the very definition of same sex relationships, and promote children who self define based on gender, how are they experienced in defending sexuality based on sex preferences?

Ask when you will be receiving training on how to support children who are disabled and of different faiths, training on how to improve your organisations support to pregnancy and maternity, when you’ll be getting training on unconscious bias against women (if they insist on preferred pronouns for eg then there’s good evidence being referred to constantly as female can result in negative unconscious bias) and when you can expect training on the organisations approach to tackling sex discrimination such as evident in pay gaps?

I mean if they are going to have a lobby group in for one specific issue then ask about support to all the protected characteristics.

I am suspicious about Mermaid's sudden interest in bi & homophobia. Can't but wonder if they're widening their net for more money.

consideration, not association. More coffee needed.

I'd go with Annie

Go to a senior leader and quietly and privately raise that list of concerns, the whole the advice is not exactly compatible with actual law/law is misrepresented and it's just a matter of time before the law suits start; the issues currently raised by mass Tavistock resignations; and also that Mermaids are rapidly acquiring a national reputation not in a good way, and with obvious and evidenced reason. So this is perhaps something to give very careful association in deciding whether to associate your workplace/organisation.

Raise your concerns about Mermaids' homophobia, their promotion of conversion therapy, their record of vexatious complaints against trans-identified people who disagree with them (especially mimmymum -v- Miranda), their misleading use of data, their disregard of Samaritans guidelines, and how their work is experienced as hostile by many LBG people.

What is Mermaids' expertise in homophobic and biphobic bullying? Surely they are a trans-only charity?

It would be better to ask for advice from a gay man and a lesbian woman, I would have thought.

Pull together a list of good phrases:

Isn't that really sexist?

I thought gender stereotyping was sexist and harmful as it impacts pupils' educational choices and interests...

Etc.

Just to throw into conversation. Perfect your puzzled eyebrows.