To be unsurprised at todays's Charity Watchdog finding, Trans charity Mermaids was mismanaged and gave dangerous advice to desperate children who deserved better

[Zahariel]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/poor-governance-at-mermaids-amounted-to-mismanagement-inquiry-reveals

tl;dr - the whole thing was a disaster, giving out dangerous outdated advice that would literally physically hurt children, including breast binding and irreversible puberty blockers

Gender questioning children deserve far better, evidence based, holistic support and care to help them through these difficult periods in their lives. Mermaids did not give it.

and yet, the charity is allowed to carry on regardless, which is utterly bizarre.

The bbc report really lets the charity off the hook. It's all about them getting too big too quickly, they were overwhelmed, wah wah, so it was "mismanagement". The paedophile sympathiser they employed is swept almost completely under the carpet by the bbc - mermaids were too busy to do appropriate checks on him or something so it's not their fault.
It's a children's charity. If they can't prioritise children's safety, what on earth are they doing?

What happens next? The report is published, and is further action being taken, do we know, or is this basically a "tap on the wrist" for them? If a school failed in basic safeguarding this badly, they'd be put into special measures and the head, if not the whole SLT, would be swiftly replaced. If a childcare setting failed like this, they would simply be shut down. Why is it seemingly different for a charity? Or do we need to watch and wait for this to play out?

A chlldren's charity -

• Employed a paedophile sympathiser without exercising due diligence (which would easily have revealed this fact).
• Sent out breast binders to teenage girls without their parent's knowledge.
• Encouraged children / families to seek puberty blockers using emotional manipulation 'better a living daughter than a dead son' without any factual evidence base for doing so.
• This list is not exhaustive....

Yet is STILL allowed to operate as a charity. Disgusting.

Very disappointed in this report by the Charity Commission, barely amounts to more than a slight telling off and has disregarded ALL of the substantial points. It's a massive missed opportunity.

YANBU. The only “U” part is that the Charity Commission didn’t find more failing on their part - they’re all there to see.

Mermaids became a Susie Green vanity project to justify transing her own child because of homophobia. How could any organisation be run well or have child safeguarding to the fore when that’s its beating heart?

Lush shops used to have a chest binding scheme. Have they stopped that? I haven’t seen posters about it recently.

What a complete waste of time.

If I know what the genitals of one of your staff looks like, after they posted collages of their anus, balls and penis online, then that is indeed a safeguarding failure. This is unbelievable. How can they publish this utter ineffectual nonsense?

This is a safeguarding failure in itself. Who polices the police?

I dunno, I yhink being ordered to accept and implement the Cass Report findings is pretty huge.
It turns every process Mermaids has used over the years on its head.
Acceptance without question is over.
No debate is over.
Here have some sweeties oops puberty blocking drugs that will give you osteoporosis is your 30s is over.

I think Mermaids being ordered to follow national guidance, and them being WATCHED to make sure they do as ordered, is a good thing.

Stunned this did not make it to the BBC reporting, though it REALLY should

The paedophile links all over the people who have been writing trans guidance in many countries is just too big to ignore now

being ordered to follow the Cass report recommendations is surely incompatible with the continuation of Mermaids, isn't it?

Well, given that so many people will be reading their website and emailing the charities commission every time any thing does not line up with Cass, yes

everything they stand for clashes with Cass, no idea how they can continue and follow Cass recommendations

Surely, it should be closed down and its leadership banned from ever working with children and young people.

What am I missing?

Cass still allows kids to be put on puberty blockers as long as they are on a trial.

So they can continue to refer kids to rhe gender abbatoirs as long as they are keeping a list.

I cannot believe how bad this is right now.

Reporting today's Times:

www.thetimes.com/article/039a5a34-d863-41bd-ae8c-c531327b9bc3?shareToken=78889be4c8791a2418857a226d769f43

Have any of you been onto Mermaids?

I was some years ago as my child is trans.

I'm not sure what it's like now, but back then you had to fill out a form and then have a call to get accepted.

I found it a but much, I wanted support and got encouragement and tips and tricks to get my child medicalised ASAP.

Maybe a year after I was on there things drastically changed, more and more people started coming on for advice for their very young children, 3 and 4 year olds, and were getting, imo, dangerous advice.

In the end I started contributing about just waiting and seeing what happened. I was called transphobic (I'm not at all).

I was also called transphobic for not allowing my child to have puberty blockers and told I was killing my child.

How it's managed to get the status it has, I really don't know. Its an awful place and doesn't provide support ime.

Agree why not?

I am just waiting though for all the posters to come and tell us that the Cass Report should be denounced in its findings that the evidence that has been the foundation of the treatment plans is weak.

And yet the Charity Commission has stated that going forward Mermaids needs to follow the Cass findings.

But apparently, Dr Cass’ team, PLUS the research teams of Finland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Danmark and I think the Nederlands all independent to Cass, found the same findings!

I think any person so confident of their own research based conclusions should surely be sending their conclusions to all those teams and to their publishers to get all those reviews pulled. And if they don’t do this, or that the research publishers don’t withdraw the work, well maybe those posters making these over confident declarations need to stop spreading what amounts to misinformation.

Either way, MM have and will be reverse ferreting on some important issues that they were irresponsibly cheerleading. And they really cannot expect much help from
Stonewall at the moment. I mean, stonewall is struggling to keep people in their programmes and to maintain their support.

What might we expect from an organisation led by someone who preferred to have a neutered child than a gay son?

I am so sorry. I have had a friend tell me something similar.

It could have been a real help for so many, instead it sought to become a cultural icon and thought leader. But I have seen little thought just unquestioning application of WPATH doctrine.

YANBU. The report was cowardly and toothless.

Yes. Let’s see how this gets through on ethics. It is very dispiriting.

There is a lot to this. The woman in charge cannot possibly ever back down - she literally flew her 16. year old son, on the day of his birthday, abroad to be castrated. What a monster.

And she was terminated from the role. It will be interesting to see what changes have really been going on.