JK Rowling's has written another post

How dense would one have to be, to believe that shite?😂😂

I don't think anyone does believe it. I guess it's more about how dense one would have to be to think anyone would buy it.

It's like they don't operate in the real world. Where obvious bollocks Undermines one's credibility, not enhances it 🙄

That tweet from Mimmymum sums up the mindset of Mermaids, i.e. they are the undeniable experts on transgender kids by virtue of being either parents or trans themselves.

Sadly a quick glance at their website show how totally clueless they are. Nobody has any previous experience of working with children nor any qualifications in anything like child development, psychology or counseling. They also display little awareness of their legal responsibilities relating to child protection and safety.

Yes they have policies but they don't highlight the fundamental principles in the way that other organisations do. They do however warn about the serious consequences of outing someone.

There should be an explicit statement that they can't always keep things confidential and that they have a duty to at times share information with others that are more experienced, e.g emergency services, CAMHS, social services. Example:

www.childline.org.uk/about/confidentiality-promise/

www.samaritans.org/about-samaritans/our-organisation/our-safeguarding-policy/

When Mermaids make mention of these other organisations it always seems to be in relation to Mermaids providing them with training, not the other way round.

I would also expect to see some kind of pathway that should be followed when a Mermaids volunteer/employee has concerns. The only detail in their policies is speak to SG (the Safeguarding Lead)

If the children approaching Mermaids are even slightly as vulnerable as they would have us believe, then surely they should have highly qualified people working within rigid and stringent guidelines. Instead if someone contacts Mermaids they will be advised by a volunteer who has had two days training.

[quote Lisz]Word leaking out on Twitter that they were going to officially strip her of it and this is just her way of doing ‘You can’t fire me because I quit!’.

No idea if true but that’s pretty damning if so

twitter.com/sharpkristopher/status/1299399955845705732?s=21[/quote]

How dense would one have to be, to believe that shite?😂😂

Hang on ... is this award by the same people who are antivaccers and speaking in Berlin later or am I muddling Kennedy's ?

Robert Kennedy Jr. is the anti-vaxxer (www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-30929463.html) so son of Robert F. Kennedy who the award is named after and brother to Kerry Kennedy who wrote the statement scolding JKR

Make bold claim, get asked for evidence which you should have no trouble providing if you're being truthful, scream bigot instead of providing, and protect account (or block). So boringly predictable.

Hmmm, the original RFK employee who was claiming on twitter that they had already taken back the award has protected his tweets.

Petty not pretty!

[quote Lisz]Interesting

twitter.com/awkwardblkchild/status/1299400306963484673?s=21[/quote]
in what way is it interesting? it doesn’t seem as if that twitterer can lay claim to any particular inside knowledge. they just seem to repeat the claim that the award was being taken back without offering any proof, or timeline.

Don’t you think they’d have mentioned that they were going to rescind the award in Kennedy’s original statement? or that there would be some verification - a statement from them dated before yesterday is all that’s needed here.

I'm not buying it. If they were going to take it back, they'd have mentioned it in their brown nosing, biology denying statement, surely?

Like everything else that comes out of their mouths, this sounds like bullshit.

JKR just goes from strength to strength. This is really helping shine a light on the insanity of this debate. I'm horrified that TRAs and Mermaids might be pushing young people to suicide by their spectacularly irresponsible tweets.

Hang on ... is this award by the same people who are antivaccers and speaking in Berlin later or am I muddling Kennedy's ?

Interesting

twitter.com/awkwardblkchild/status/1299400306963484673?s=21

What world is this when you highlight the very real damage done to trans young people and they still attack?

'attack' doing a lot of work there.

Samaritans have a very carefully curated list of organisations they may refer callers to. Mermaids were not on this list a couple of years ago, they may be now. It used to be only LGBT switchboard.

Under the 'sexuality' heading, Samaritans link to 'Switchboard' and a different org in the Rep of Ireland. That's it.

0 results for 'mermaids' on a search of the Samaritans website. And I found no mention of them at all on their links page.

www.samaritans.org/scotland/how-we-can-help/if-youre-having-difficult-time/other-sources-help/

Yes, thanks @NotBadConsidering I saw that message too and it made me wonder. A quick search on Samaritans website for Mermaids brought up no results though so it's not exactly clear.

If you contact The Samaritans, ask them if it’s true they signpost to Mermaids, as Mimmymum claims:

mobile.twitter.com/mimmymum/status/1299471595853971456

Wow, Mermaids just keep going:

What world is this when you highlight the very real damage done to trans young people and they still attack? It needs to stop. @Twittersafety must take action.

These are not the words of a professional organisation. No responsibility shown for the potential impact of the statement. It's so disturbing that not only is their statement still available with no direct link to Samaritans or any suicide support but it has then been shared and retweeted countless times. Thank you to those who have put links in under the messages. Suicide ideation and causal links like these are dangerous and reprehensible.

I'll be contacting Samaritans to see what their take on it is. I'm amazed it has been left on a public site for this long.

Even IF the suicide stats are true (they’re not) there’s STILL no evidence that puberty blockers are the answer! The so-called study by Jack Turban that he thought showed they were the answer, actually showed that adults who had been on puberty blockers were TWICE as likely to have been hospitalised for a suicide attempt in the previous 12 months compared to adults who hadn’t been on puberty blockers.

The world of fandom does attract a lot of people who have difficulty coping with the real world, and for some it may offer a literal lifeline.

That does NOT make JKR personally responsible for the mental health of all HP fans.

highame yes, it’s the main reason I subscribe. But I have definitely noticed a change recently. I hope it’s not a sign of things to come.

The thing is, even if the stats about suicide/suicidal ideation were true (they’re not -GIDS has confirmed this), that still not how responsible organisations and people talk about suicide, because doing so like that increases levels of distress and likeliness to make suicide attempts.

I wrote this on the mermaids thread, forgive the repetition but I really need people to see how wrong and harmful this narrative is. ...
——————————————
I would urge everyone to read the guidelines that the Samaritans have for media coverage of suicide. Mermaids violates at least three of them with this statement. I’d particularly urge those sympathetic to transactivism to read them and reflect if you think Mermaids offers the best support to you, your children or your friends. Demand that they do better, because this style of talking about suicidal ideation and suicidality is likely to cause an increase in suicides in trans identified young people.

Oversimplification of the causes or perceived ‘triggers’ for a suicide can be misleading. As mentioned in the previous section, the suggestion that a single circumstance or incident, such as bullying, job loss, relationship breakdown or a bereavement, was the cause increases the risk of contagion. Vulnerable people experiencing similar issues are more likely to over-identify with the deceased when a single reason is given

Don’t refer to a possible rise in suicides in a specific place or among a particular group as an ‘epidemic’, ‘spate’ or other similar term. Two or more people taking their own lives who, for example, share a similar background, age or live in a similar geographic area may be coincidence. Steer clear of implying a connection where there may be none. Evidence suggests that reference to clusters can lead to additional suicides

When talking to particularly vulnerable groups, for example children and young people, apply caution when quoting statistics. Bear in mind that while the statistics may be concerning, alarmist reports can have the effect of normalising or exaggerating the prevalence of suicide.

media.samaritans.org/documents/Media_Guidelines_FINAL_v2_TABa8C6.pdf

————————————

Yes, I wonder if Kerry Kennedy has OK'd Kristopher Sharpe to say that on Twitter?!