Police investigate online abuse against Mermaids charity

[HandmaidsNightmare]

Did anyone see this in the Guardian yesterday?

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/27/police-investigate-online-abuse-charity-transgender-children-mermaids?CMP=share_btn_tw

I was disappointed by The Guardian's shoddy journalism. Seems a bit of a non-story. Folks on Twitter are saying they've been blocked by Mermaids when they have never interacted with them. Is this some sort of backlash from Mermaids?

I'm on the list and blocked by mimmymum even though I have never heard of her.

I think that Mermaids need to consider what abuse actually is, asking questions is not abuse.

I worry that they will use their block frenzy as a badge of honour, state that they have had to block hundreds of people when they have chosen to block people who believe that kids are fine as they are and don't need to take drugs to be happy.

Me too; mimmymum seems to have blocked a lot of people who are unaware of her existence!

Not sure I see the point in blocking - it's the equivalent of the playground sending to Coventry. I don't block anyone and I've started a second twitter account just to follow all the people who have blocked my main account, so I can still see them.

Apparently the police are interviewing mermaids today to see what action they can take so I await with baited breath what will transpire.

BetsyM00

I'm willing to bet the police will only get one side of the story. It's a shame there is not a way of letting them know.

Can someone tell them that any 'abuse' was in the form of questioning why mermaids are trying to recruit vulnerable children with no parental support with puppies and sweets?

The trolling and online abuse of the Grenfell residents has been sickening.

One particularly bad abuser has had a Twitter account suspended only to open another one.

Radio silence over this though.

Apparently tweets questioning what abuse they have received are uninformed and hateful.

I think I'm probably a lot better informed than they appear to be

Lord. So asking questions is abuse. And asking questions about those questions is also abuse.

www.familylawhub.co.uk/default.aspx?i=ce5479

This case was the first time I'd ever heard of Mermaids and I have to say they did not come out of it well....some of you may remember it, case called Re J, where the mother was convinced her son had gender dysphoria. Psychologists and judge thought otherwise, removed him from mother's care and placed him with father. Very sad case all around. Mermaids remain utterly convinced the kid is trans and that this case violates all of his rights.....

Mermaids remain utterly convinced the kid is trans and that this case violates all of his rights.....

They called the judge ignorant and uninformed on fb. Despite him being the foremost expert in transgender law and having written the forward for a book on same-sex families.

Meanwhile, they don't have a medical qualification between them.

I'm on the list too. I'd almost have been offended if I wasn't.

MrsBendyBaker

Thanks for the link
I've just read the case notes. What an unsettling and sinister situation. It reads like a film script but it's actually a poor boy's life, happening now.

The worst aspect is that numerous professionals were bullied into joining in on the mother's delusion to the detriment of the child. Care for the child was an after thought. The image of the poor child being documented as dirty and being isolated from others and taken away from school is so disturbing.

How can Mermaids have gained such traction when they are medically and indeed psychologically unqualified and pushing such an untested and dangerous ideology that will affect such very young children

The common assumption is that if an org is a charity they must be doing good work. This is not always the case. Charities commission only usually investigate if there are financial irregularities. Increasingly charities are doing jobs that used to be done by govt. departments and with far less oversight. This should concern us all.

Increasingly charities are doing jobs that used to be done by govt. departments and with far less oversight. This should concern us all.

Spot on.

It's like the Kids Company scandal never happened. It's like Jimmy Savile never happened. Shit, it's like the Home Children (wholesale theft of working class children) never happened.

How have we assigned such an unassailable authority to charities when we actually know, we know that they can be used to do terrible things? It's like we have this hole where 'unquestioned authority', should reside and, lacking faith in god or the queen or whatever we've collectively plopped unddifferentiated 'charity' into the gap.

It's the result of years of government policies of austerity and privatisation. Funding for the NHS and social care have been cut and cut again. They always intended to move provision from the public sector to the voluntary sector.

The narrative is that Kids Company happened because Camila Batmanghelidjh is mad or bad. There was never any discussion of more regulation or oversight, because the government would have to fund it.

Absolutely @amaliaa - I work with a children's charity and so much of what they do has been funded by local government/social care/education in the past and isn't any longer.

The Charity Commission is absolutely toothless, the government knows and doesn't care.

I'm blocked too! 😂 hooray! Oleena dear you really must try harder!!

Sorry Olenna

I agree completely Zoloh.

Reading the mermaids recent tweets, it would appear that charities come from a strong emotional point of view of stopping the thing that they are against/afraid of happening at all costs. It is not a reasoned view point. If they are doing the work of government departments, they need to have a much more dispassionate overview and see all sides to serve everyone properly.

Government seems to be relying on their opinions and research without looking further.

Emotional involvement is a good thing for raising money, but not for policy formation.

It is the same with a particular cancer charity, built on the death of one person, that wants to prevent that particular death from happening to anyone else. This is now used by the health authority for education resources etc and now tries to influence policy where it disagrees with the well considered government stance. They do not see that their view is not good for everyone and won't listen to critics.

I can think of other examples.

Mermaids started as a support group for parents. And I agree, parents of children with gender dysphoria will need support. It must be invaluable to share stories and experience.

Where they lost it for me was in a shift from support, to promotion. YouTube videos, camps, sweets, puppies, all of it. That's not support, that's advertising.

They should absolutely not be advising the government. They've lost their neutral integrity (should they ever have had it, in the first place).

@Datun - I'm also really disappointed in the fact that they provide no support to parents who are wary about transitioning their children.

As I'm sure you know, there have been a number of posters here who have found themselves utterly alone when dealing with a child with professed gender dysphoria because they haven't toed the Mermaids line.

Totally JigglyTuff

They promote transitioning. Why else fudge the suicide stats, go to Pride armed with inducements, or block people for asking questions?

And yes, despite what they say, the ex members on here beg to differ. If I remember correctly, a whole bunch of Mermaids' current members flooded the thread with outrage and promptly outed those ex members. With highly identifiable and confidential information.

No other charity would do this.