BBC removes trans charities from support page

Surely it's the rights and safety of children that are being undermined, in this context?

They are not the victims of a dispute. They are the trans activists. How weird.

And ‘transgender children’ ? Can we stop using this terminology please. Children who are questioning their gender.

Very disingenuous FB post from The Times today:

Mermaids, which supports transgender children and young people, is the best-known trans group to be removed from the BBC Advice Line service.

The charities appear to have become victims of a dispute between trans activists and campaigners who believe that the rights and safety of women are being undermined.

I would expect Mermaids are trying backchannels into the BBC to persuade them to change this.

I think this is certain. Belcher and Trans Media Watch and their pet MPs and other officials will be on the case, I'm sure.

I do hope the BBC responds to Mermaids and fulfils the FOI. I do hope Mermaids recalls that we can all read FOI content. Since we know that the BBC is institutionally pro-genderism, there must be some quite significant reasons this decision was taken. I, for one, would love to read about them.

Me too, WhatKatyDidNot

Made the times

Some great comments and all the sunlight you could wish for!

if someone spotted that the Beeb were openly supporting an organisation that they themselves had investigated

Yes, that was my thought, that it was this that gave them a pretext to invoke the "journalism" exception. Or, being optimistic, that there's currently an active investigation by BBC.

It may well be linked to the Newsnight pieces they’ve run recently. Presumably all Newsnight items have to get signed off by their legal department first and if someone spotted that the Beeb were openly supporting an organisation that they themselves had investigated, well... excrement meet oscillating wind machine!

Yes it’s a religion . State sponsored. Although we are working on that.

I'm hoping the decision came about because someone at the BBC finally got around to watching one of those training videos and said "hang on, we're supporting this?"
But then there's I am Leo and all the other genderist stuff.

The thing with the FOI requests is it just reminds me how deep this goes. They really believe they are right and that they are doing a good thing for kids and that there is some weird cabal out there trying to stop them through evil means.

That's where quasi-religious fervour gets you.

The thing with the FOI requests is it just reminds me how deep this goes. They really believe they are right and that they are doing a good thing for kids and that there is some weird cabal out there trying to stop them through evil means.

There are other organisations, the BBC don't HAVE to bow down and swear loyalty to mermaids forever ffs.

Someone on that thread is under the impression it's illegal not to. And someone else thinks that the NHS updated info on puberty blockers is apparently 'misleading'.

So a number of people are certainly under the impression that the BBC must do what they're told.

If I were Mermaids I would be worried that the FOI will come back: "We had a meeting and we all agreed, we think trans kids should be supported in the best way possible, but the evidence suggests you are the worst organisation to do that."

Anyone can make the same FOI, though. And I'm sure it's not just mermaids making it. Mermaids, for some reason, have taken the decision to announce it tho.

I've just seen that tweet, it reads to me like a bit of toys chucking out of the pram. Playing the injured party, after investigations, and will push and push so the BBC will have them back with a big grovelling apology

There are other organisations, the BBC don't HAVE to bow down and swear loyalty to mermaids forever ffs.

But yes, a FOI request we can ALL see then, I find it hard to believe the BBC would remove them because some people had a whinge. There would have been reasons

They're hesitant to make a public request in case there's a public response, seen by many, that concerns about puberty blockers, and the rest of it, are real and series. This has to be seen in the context of the advice given about lobbying in this area: it must be below the radar. I would expect Mermaids are trying backchannels into the BBC to persuade them to change this.

But they have made a public request. When the BBC responds to their FOI, the response will be available to everyone.

I'll correct that to say that when I looked for the url for the FOI disclosure log, I found out that the BBC don't publish all their FOI responses.

The BBC publishes a selection of responses to previous Freedom of Information requests handled under the Act. The selection of what we publish is made by considering if we believe that there may be a wider public interest, when information is frequently requested, or when information is not already available elsewhere.

www.bbc.co.uk/foi/publication-scheme/classes/disclosure-logs

I do hope the BBC responds to Mermaids and fulfils the FOI.

There's also this one on behalf of Gendered Intelligence and GenderGP which I posted a link to earlier, asking for the minutes of the meeting in which they made this decision.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/minutes_from_meeting_resulting_i

The one which was refused (also sent by a TRA) was asking for a lot more information, including memos and emails relating to the decision and:
Were any journalists employed by The BBC involved in this decision?
What guidance did you use to decide these registered charities were no longer suitable to provide links to?
Did you receive mail from outside the corporation relating to this page - if so how much correspondence.

The response from the BBC seems to me to be open to challenge: The information you have requested is excluded from the Act because if held it would be held for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature.’

I don't see how information about organisations offering support, and the reasons for their inclusion or non-inclusion on a web page, can be held for the purpose of journalism, art or literature.

Thank you @ItsAllGoingToBeFine

All trans groups are surprisingly quiet about this.

Curiouser and curiouser.

They're hesitant to make a public request in case there's a public response, seen by many, that concerns about puberty blockers, and the rest of it, are real and series. This has to be seen in the context of the advice given about lobbying in this area: it must be below the radar. I would expect Mermaids are trying backchannels into the BBC to persuade them to change this.

I want a public enquiry, and I'm going to finish all my posts with that sentence

Yes. We might need several.

I do hope the BBC responds to Mermaids and fulfils the FOI. I do hope Mermaids recalls that we can all read FOI content. Since we know that the BBC is institutionally pro-genderism, there must be some quite significant reasons this decision was taken. I, for one, would love to read about them.

Mermaids et al

As an aside, can anyone remember if the NHS Gender dysphoria pages used to link to Meena et al?