Is anyone else boycotting Tesco's for giving £80,000 to Mermaids?

[loveyouradvice]

Just that really... I was shocked, especially given all the news coverage there has been about the issues recently. I would have expected them to give it to an uncontroversial charity at the very least - and ideally one that most of their customers would like to support

It isn’t remotely comparable. Surely you’re not saying that you can’t understand the glaring differences??

I’m sure plenty of others will answer (I’m off to bed now) but if not I’ll be sure to return in the morning.

I have a young teen daughter who seems to fit the GNC label (as did/do I) and was very much about being overly inclusive and accepting. I showed her the Barbie and Ken spectrum and it clicked.

I didn’t give her my opinion about it I just showed her. She was horrified to think any organization felt this was appropriate.

How can it be supporting children to make them feel they are the opposite sex for merely being themselves?

I also believe from reading some comments from gender clinicians that mermaids also ‘helps’ by coaching kids what to say to the doctors at the gender clinics to get what they want. Is this manipulation acceptable? Nope

The whole "contagion" argument I've seen on here a lot (here being MN for clarity)

I don't know where you've seen it, you claim to 'see' all kinds of negative posting that others don't.

Don't talk to kids about being trans, don't affirm it, and if your kid sees other kids who are trans, that means they might be or are "influenced" to become trans too.

No one has said 'don't talk to kids about being trans', just don't force confused kids into a 'trans' box. Talk to kids as much as possible about their feelings and ideas but don't give kids drugs which might damage them long-term, don't mutilate kids with surgery which they are too young to give informed consent to.

I wonder how many young women who declared themselves male will 'revert' to female and gay /lesbian due to being away from peer pressure during lockdown ...anecdote isnt data I know but I've heard of a couple in my grandaughters peer group (16+)

From The Guardian article:
When Seph was three, he walked into the living room with an armful of dresses and dumped them on the floor. “I won’t be needing these because I’m a boy,” Lindsay, a talkative woman in her mid-30s, said.
My 3 year old doesn't want to wear clothes most of the time. Should I affirm her identity as a naturist? My 2 year old only wants to wear trousers and shuns her sister's princess costumes in favour of "boy" ones. Perhaps I should keep an eye.

When he was four, Seph began identifying with “Catboy”, the silly male protagonist of the Disney Junior show PJ Masks. By the end of preschool, he’d become more persistent in telling teachers and friends that he was a boy. Lindsay had an idea that Seph might be transgender but didn’t want to say the actual words. “He told me that Seph had said, ‘I wish I was never born because no one gets me,’” recalled Lindsey. “No one should feel that way at age five.”
For a child to feel that way at 5 suggests to me that they haven't been supported enough by adults around them into knowing that there is absolutely nothing wrong with going against stereotypes, and that we are all different.

When my niece was about 7, we were shopping and she told me she would prefer to shop in the boys section of the shop we were in. I said ok and took her over there to buy clothes. A few years later and she still buys clothes from that section, and plays football and Pokémon with the boys in her Year 7 class. Noone seems to notice or care.

@LemonadeAndDaisyChains

Interesting Section 28's been brought up - Some parts of the whole debate I see as section 28 too - The whole "contagion" argument I've seen on here a lot (here being MN for clarity) Don't talk to kids about being trans, don't affirm it, and if your kid sees other kids who are trans, that means they might be or are "influenced" to become trans too. Replace the word trans with gay - how is that ever OK?

I recognise that you think they are analogous, but can you recognise that I and others feel the current situation looks too similar to the many, many, many cases where disabled women and girls have been manipulated into agreeing to sterilisation, without just shouting 'you transphobic'?

www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/10/sterilization-women-and-girls-disabilities

Can you understand that when think you are calling out transphobia, I think you are condoning disablism?

Has anyone got a personal experience good or bad about mermaids rather than the pitchfork wielding bandwagon shitty tabloid variety, to share.
I'm curious as to the as to exactly what the problem is other than giving the child info they need to make informed choices. Yes I've researched.

I'm curious as to the as to exactly what the problem is other than giving the child info they need to make informed choices. Yes I've researched

Perhaps you should have included reading the thread in your research? Pp have clearly outlined the issues involved - not about 'giving info' but about encouraging children to keep secrets from their parents, misleading children with fairy-tales about being 'born in the wrong body', advising them that drugs and surgery will help to fix their problems and make them happy.

If trans is a body dysmorphia why wouldn't it be contagious?
Anorexia is a body dysmorphia and thats contagious.
Im a recovering anorexic/ other specified eating disordered person and contagion was a massive thing at the time.
Pro ana sites added to the problem, then it was self harm including cutting.
Nobody cut when i was 5stone, it just wasnt a thing.
Where are all the anorexics now?
Might some of them be turning up to the tavistock via mermaids?
I think so.

The obvious difference being, nobody told me i was born in the wrong body and i should be 5 stone or offered me lipo to get me the body my brain really thought i should have.
The similarities are glaringly obvious to me.
Im gender non conforming, bi, and possibly asd.
I know growing up and living in this world hurts, giving cancer drugs to kids will never be ok to me.

I am delighted that Tesco has supported Mermaids.

Mermaids case - banned by the High Court from any contact with a family

Reported here

metro.co.uk/2017/10/08/charity-advised-mum-to-force-her-son-7-to-live-as-a-girl-6984649/

A transgender charity has reportedly been banned from contacting a family after the mother forced her seven-year-old son to live as a girl. Mermaids UK has also been criticised for advertising ‘same day’ cross-sex hormone treatments for children – a treatment banned by the NHS, because it causes irreversible changes and can compromise fertility later in life for anyone under 16.

And here

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mermaids-uk-charity-ban-as-boy-forced-to-live-as-girl-dvx3j99cn?wgu=270525_54264_15940096293897_12bf05d1f5&wgexpiry=1601785629&utm_source=planit&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_content=22278

A taxpayer-funded transgender charity has been banned by the High Court from any contact with a family after the mother, who was being advised by the group, forced her seven-year-old son to live as a girl.

And here

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4960080/Transgender-charity-banned-contacting-family.html

Taxpayer-funded transgender charity which offered same-day hormone treatment for children is banned from contacting family after mother forced her son, seven, to live as a girl

Full court judgement here

www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2016/2430.html

Stories concerning Mermaids charity

www.peaktrans.org/children/#ftoc-heading-20

Ugh, I prefer when your lot slide over to disguise your hatred as "feminism"! Bob off back over there will ya!

Can someone please link me to exact proof that kids are being told they are trans if they like the opposite gendered stuff? There seems to be a lot of claims that they are being "forced" to transition that I'd like to see the source that proves this is actually happening.

Why would they G5, you contact them if you want support

I'm curious as to the as to exactly what the problem is other than giving the child info they need to make informed choices. Yes I've researched.

So how do you feel about showing the Ken and Barbie spectrum to any child, but particularly young ones?

And the misrepresentation of the ‘irreversible’ nature of the blockers?

And the manipulation by weaponising suicide rates that have been debunked?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-53223765

Suicide levels in LGBT community debunked I don’t think so. It’s well known that even before lockdown being an LGBT teen puts you at a higher risk of suicide.

Charities including Mermaids( who have had to alert police under lockdown due to suicide fears) are being inundated. Thank goodness parents and children have such charities. It is horrendous when you have nowhere to go. There is a problem as LGBT suicides aren’t being recorded properly. I wonder why. The cynic in me wonders if it’s because there would be an outcry and demand for more state funded support would involve more money being spent.

Another shameful thread.

No

Why would they G5, you contact them if you want support

You’ve missed out that they also go into organisations such as schools and the police to deliver “training” to staff without any due diligence being carried out beforehand.

School staff then cascade down their toxic genderism to children. You don’t have to approach them to have your child exposed to their unscientific, damaging opinions.

and what about those school talks posted above? Even if the school informs parents and you have the chance to opt out, there will be peer pressure from other children who have heard the 'barbie and ken' talk.

There was a post not too long ago here on MN from a concerned mother, whose daughter liked more comfortable clothes and shorter hair. She had no issues with her sex or gender, but all 'woke' classmates kept insisting that she must come out as trans.

@LemonadeAndDaisyChains you have been doing great on this thread! I totally agree with what you have been saying about transphobia and you have a hell of a lot of patience to have been able to keep responding to a lot of the posters on here, who clearly are choosing to ignore the points you are making. I've given examples of transphobia on other mumsnet threads before and exactly what you said has happened, posters just say "Nope, not it. Try again" it's pointless really.

I'm still waiting for actual proof that Mermaids are forcing children to transition...

It’s well known that even before lockdown being an LGBT teen puts you at a higher risk of suicide.

Link to peer-reviewed research? Should be easy if it’s “well known”.