AIBU to ask what you think about this?

[Thinkingabout1t]

The transgender children's charity Mermaids has been immensely influential in the past few years, advising politicians, media and large organisations.

If a boy says he's really a girl born in the wrong body, or a girl denies that she's a girl, Mermaids recommends not discussion but affirmation -- by teachers and other adults, as well as by parents.

Mainstream media and politicians have fallen over themselves to agree. The number of children being prescribed drugs to prevent puberty has rocketed in recent years.

But now, says Jo Bartosch in the online magazine Spiked, questions about the influence of Mermaids on clinical bodies, its response to critics and the science behind the ‘born in the wrong body’ approach have begun to tarnish Mermaids’ highly polished image.
www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/03/mermaids-leading-children-up-the-trans-path/

The role of trans groups, including Mermaids, in the promotion of transition as a cure-all solution for troubled young people, is alleged to have prompted a spate of resignations at GIDS [the Gender Identity Development Service], with 35 staff members leaving between 2016 and 2019," says Bartosch.

Recently, James Kirkup noted in The Spectator, the NHS changed its advice about puberty blockers from
"The effects of treatment with GnRH analogues are considered to be fully reversible, so treatment can usually be stopped at any time" to
"Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria."
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-nhs-has-quietly-changed-its-trans-guidance-to-reflect-reality

A recent statement by minister for women Liz Truss emphasised the need for safeguarding children. This has been met with a campaign of letter-writing and a furious public statement by Mermaids, says Bartosch.

Finally, it seems questions are beginning to be asked about the ideological bias of Mermaids and the charity’s influence on government. ... The story of Mermaids’ success is testament to the credulity of adults who should know better, and the vulnerability of the children they ought to protect.

Well worth reading. But what do you think?

You are def NBU. Mermaids are an extremely questionable charity and how they’ve managed to get their claws into so many government departments and business I’ll never know. Promises of woke cookies no doubt.

They are another Kidz Company scandal waiting to be broken to the wider public, though much much worse as they are encouraging actual physical harm to children.

They are an accident waiting to happen. This is a brilliant article from Jo. Mermaids don't appear to have any medical expertise to be advising anyone on these issues, let along government.

When they fall (and they will fall), there will be a frantic deletion of Tweets from their so-called 'celeb' supporters. I refuse to spend money with any company who supports them.

You are NBU.

Mermaids is being recommended left right and centre every where.

Few realise they follow the US model of confirmation which is not the NHS UK.

The safeguarding issues are unbelievable; no other charity would ever have volunteers aged 18 at secret residentials or advising on closed forums, or on private emails to younger teens and children. It's mind boggling that the national lottery think this is ok and have given them so much money.

An 18 year old who wants to volunteer for mermaids wants to share their journey of transition which is biassed. You only have to look at YouTube videos to know that hormones are taken and talked about like sweets and easily obtained via non official routes.

mermaidsuk.org.uk/volunteering/

I very much doubt those volunteers talk about the long term effects of both blockers and hormones.

For example, the impact on young women's uterus and vagina. Vaginal atrophy is something only the elderly should need to worry about.

Not to mention irreversible lowering of voice box. And sterilisation.

I think the principles of Mermaids are just so sexist. They rely on gender stereotypes which most of us are trying to avoid for our children. Girls like punk and Barbies, boys like blue and lorries! The CEO Susie Green took away all 'girl' toys away from her 2 year old son because she thought he might be gay (seriously thinking about your child's sexuality at 2 is strange). That is traumatic enough for a child but then he was told he was really a girl and for his 16th birthday flew him to Thailand to be castrated because it was illegal at that age in the UK (and is now in Thailand to stop western castration tourism). Where is her child now, certainly not on the board of trustees, in fact no young people on the board of trustees if they were doing such a good job surely some if their ex customers would want to be part of the charity?

My problem with Mermaids is their only treatment is affirmation and there is no getting off the train once you are on it. They claim to support gender questioning children, but they only do this by affirming them in the opposite sex. It is just crazy.

My daughters can have short hair, play Minecraft, play with Lego, build with wood, like the colour blue, aspire to be a pilot and engineer (all these things are true about them) but they are still female not born in the wrong body just because they challenge harmful gender stereotypes!

Mermaids is an odious organisation. If I could shut it down, I would!

No one is 'born in the wrong body'. Who decided how a boy or girl should behave? Who made the decision that there is a right or wrong way of being? Why are toys gender-specific? Why are girls expected to be pink and frilly with no interest in intelligent stuff, while boys wear bold, non-pastel colours and are encouraged in things like science and engineering? Just whose expectations are these?

Back in the 70s androgyny was a fashion statement, and it was the older people that criticised it. It's now the 21st century and society is more controlled and controlling than ever. It's the younger people that are policing our choices and demanding that we march to their drum. And their allies somehow think it virtuous to support them while failing to recognise the dangers of what has become a totalitarian ideology. We no longer have the right to freedom of speech or thought.

FemaleAndLearning: My daughters can have short hair, play Minecraft, play with Lego, build with wood, like the colour blue, aspire to be a pilot and engineer (all these things are true about them) but they are still female not born in the wrong body just because they challenge harmful gender stereotypes!

Apart from the Minecraft, which didn't exist then, that sounds like me and many of my friends! Glad to see girls still standing up against the 'pretty pink princess' stereotype. It seems so much more enforced these days than in my childhood, decades ago. And we were lucky that no transgender industry existed then.

Can anyone tell me any companies that support or are affiliated with Mermaids so that I can boycott them please?

Virgin sponsor the weekends:

Virgin sponsor the weekends:

Oh well that’s easy I don’t have anything to do with Virgin anyway.

Tesco and Amazon and Starbucks for a start. All donate to and publicise Mermaids.

It’s worth checking your school’s website too, i was horrified when I discovered that my daughters primary school listed Mermaids as a “useful resource” on their LGBT Policy page.

I was advised to go to mermaids for support with my transgender child.

They knew precisely nothing about my situation besides the tiny amount I put in the questions to get into the group.

I was called a day later, again, nothing was said, and it was all affirmation. "You're doing the right thing". They had no clue of the circumstances at all.

When in the group, people were advising each other what to say to get hormones quickly, lies and exaggerations. There were also loads of people joining saying "my son likes barbies, what do I do" and actually being encouraged to call them she and change names.

I didnt give my child hormones and was called abusive for that. I was called abusive for taking a wait and see approach. I was eventually kicked out for suggesting that lying to get hormone treatments for a child was possibly the wrong thing to do.

This is where everyone recommends people like me to go for help. The situation is such that you cannot get help unless you wholeheartedly agree with everything being said, and you cannot get psychological help unless you go down the medicalised route.

There is nowhere for an average parent to go and get neutral help, its ridiculous.

As it is my child is now of an age where this has been going on for many, many years, and they are now old enough to go down the medicalised route, and decide that for themselves. I would never have forgiven myself if I had decided to make my child infertile at the age of 12 on a whim, or for attention (which a lot of people do).

Mermaids are beyond dangerous, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time when this transgender thing became huge and were touted as experts due to lack of anywhere else to go.

Neurotrash
My god Mermaids does residentials? Are they like cult weekends with maximum brainwashing? With or without parents?

I have seen a few videos and tweets from the most active parents involved with this group. They were all women and it struck me how much they were enjoying the attention as mother rather than really thinking through the implications for their child's health and mental well being. I have to say one or two didn't seem particularly bright either but perhaps I'm just being unkind.
I look forward to the day this company is closed and retributions made to all those unnecessarily harmed. In my opinion this has been overlooked for far too long.

Female, look at the links. Iirc age 16 can attend with no parent? Or 14? Need to check that. The idea is to meet with other "professionals" and like minded young people.

Obviously these are people who believe you can be in the "wrong body."

"Events" on the website is currently empty.

This is from the volunteer page:

Weekend residential volunteers:
It’s all hands on deck at the weekend residentials, so we need people with a ‘can do’ attitude to help out with everything from washing up, cooking and shifting furniture to running workshops and entertainment.

I do remember a thread a long time ago about the residentials based on the info on the website at that time. I remember being corrected about an age they could attend by themselves and it was lower than I thought it would be.

Trans your experience is appalling, I'm really sorry to read that.

Volunteers running workshops.

Volunteers speaking.

Yes they're dbs checked but they are not going to be warning children of the dangers of talking.

I know from my own experiences with medical charities that you are motivated to help others when you yourself have struggled and then learnt/ received help.

The issue is that there are different options than confirmation for these children and young people.

*dangers of medically transitioning.

It is disturbing how easy it has been for some organisation to set themselves up as experts.

I don’t think any of the businesses or politicians supporting them, have looked into what this so-called expertise consists of.

It's not even the organisation; it's a couple of individuals who have set themselves up as the experts.

The original mermaids charity many years ago was more balanced and less affirmative.

Hey TransK

Thank you for sharing that, must’ve been a really difficult period. I wish you and your (now grown) child all the best for the future.

My family story is already all over the FWR section of MN, so I won’t repeat it all here - my stepdaughter identified as a bit for most of year 9 but seems to have tentatively come through the other side. School have been a massive pain in the arse though, wanting to change her name and sex on the school register regardless of refusal of consent from the parents, something the deputy head had been taught to do on on a Mermaids ‘training’ course, despite there being no provision for it in law.

We aren’t the only family currently experiencing similar - Susie Green is relentlessly projecting her own extreme family narrative onto anyone who’s child expresses any kind of distress or dissatisfaction with their sexed body or with the limitations of societal gender roles.

The NHS’s cautious ‘watch and wait’ has been steamrollered by the Mermaids ‘affirm immediately’ - children are being fully socially transitioned, inc change of sex on school and medical records before they even see a specialist clinician, let alone get a gender dysphoria diagnosis.

My stepdaughter’s gender distress is real and painful, but that doesn’t mean she’s actually a boy, and she certainly doesn’t meet the ‘insistent, persistent, consistent’ standard that has always been part of the diagnostic criteria for children.

That the school has completely jettisoned all established safeguarding in favour of the inaccurate and dangerous advice peddled by Mermaids is almost unbelievable, until you start to realise how many other families are similarly caught up in it, up and down the U.K. (and also in AUS/USA/Northern and Central Europe.