mermaids and children in care

[Terfmore]

static1.squarespace.com/static/58dcbb6be3df28ace47ce187/t/593928678419c2c9745a4f62/1496918245819/Trans+Youth+in+Care+-+A+Guide+For+Social+Care+Professionals.pdf

This is Mermaids advice for professionals working with children in care who may be trans. It is mind boggling shallow in the way it deals with the topic (not unusual for the trans lobby).

There is no trauma based analysis whatsoever. No consideration why a child who has experienced very difficult circumstances may well want to self identify into something else.
It makes no comment that a child in care is, due to neglect and other factors, likely to be emotionally less mature than peers.
It has little understanding of the legal technicalities that would arise if a child in care (not adopted) was making these kind of decisions.

This is the affirmation model -
"If you transition, what if it’s a mistake? This is a scary myth that many trans people face day to day. If a young person tells you they are trans and want to transition it’s safe to say that they are pretty sure about it. This myth actually tells a young person ‘being trans is a mistake’ which is a very distressing thing to hear. We must be open and curious about a young person’s gender identity and support them through their transition in whatever way we can. Only 0.1% of people who transition have a reversal."

At the end it gives information about how to help the young person change their identity to have a new name and "gender marker".
How fucked up would that be for a child who has gone from their family of birth, probably through multiple placements and then to have the opportunity to have a whole identity of your own. It would be so tempting

Irresponsible and so obsessed with their own agenda imo it is harmful.

'If a young person tells you they are trans and want to transition it’s safe to say that they are pretty sure about it'

How incredibly irresponsible. At an intensely vulnerable point in a person's life, when their identity is not yet fixed, and they have experienced additional trauma, adults should be forcing them down one particular path, which seems to be largely irreversible. Dreadful

Had a quick skim through. Not good.

Kids in care are an easy target for them. Already traumatised and looking for role models.

And no parents to look out for them.

and looked after by social services who are no doubt "trained" by mermaids too.

No blocks in their way at all.

Holy moly the table....just the table alone....

I'm learning German at the moment....how will they take up these pronouns in the nominative and accusative function.

The mind just boggles.

Only 0.1% of people who transition have a reversal.

Says who? How can they have produced that whole document without one single solitary reference to any research or studies?

This is an article I found which deals with the fact that there is very little evidence of transitioning being a good thing in the long term:

"saying transition is a healthy choice does not make it so".

It's quite long but a good read.

pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8a67/da92b326feb553c59fa5f92ab077b535e4d1.pdf

The 0.1% figure is entirely bogus, and is based on older transsexuals (who to be fair had to jump through hoops to get sex reassignment surgery, so were extremely unlikely to seek reversal surgery). It takes no account of the recent explosion in adolescents identifying as trans, nor of the affirmative approach.

It is naïve and reckless in the extreme to ignore attachment issues/trauma/mental health problems and treat gender difficulties as a standalone matter.

The more I read about Mermaids the more horrified I become. They are pushing a very dangerous level of crazy on a very vulnerable bunch. Has anyone got any ideas on how they could be stopped? Because they frighten me.

Mermaids - the most recent in a long line of entities that sees looked after kids as commodities for exploitation.

This is exactly what the Deptford organisation was talking about in the other thread. Ideologues getting in the way of people who understand the reality of power relations in this country and are trying to offer practical help to the vulnerable and marginalised.

Does any institution in this country have any understanding of safeguarding left? Any ability to reflect on the power relationships that structure society and cause inequality?

An extreme pressure group allowed access to the most vulnerable children in the country. For fucks fucking fucking fucking fucking sake. So sick and tired of it all.

Where has that come from and is it actually being used by anyone with responsibility for children? If it has been written for children in care then it seems to have been written by someone with zero knowledge of the law on the issue.

For example, just looking at the change of name section on page 28, they ask whether the parents or the local authority have parental responsibility for the child but it should be clear to anyone with even the most basic knowledge that a care order gives PR to the local authority without removing it from the parents. So for most children in care the answer is that both have it, though that is not an option. That's essential because the consent of everyone with PR is needed to change a child's name. A judge would absolutely wipe the floor with a local authority who followed that advice and sent off a deed poll to change the child's name without checking with the birth parents. The law is quite clear that in that situation the parents should be consulted and if there's not agreement they'd have to apply to court. E.g. this case www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed160394 was about naming a child in care in the first place rather than changing names (though there are other cases making it very clear that even in formal changing of names by foster carers is not permitted). The court was quite clear that if the local authority disagree with the mother they should take the matter to court. This was a case where the mother clearly had a long history of problems, the child was going to be adopted and she wanted to call her Cyanide. Even in that pretty clear cut looking case it was essential that there was judicial approval.

That's only one small part of it but if they are so wrong on that presumably the rest can't be trusted either.

sorry this bit So for most children in care the answer is that both have it, though that is not an option should say ' So for most children in care the answer is that both the parents and the local authority have it, though that is not an option on the flowchart they've produced'.

sorry this bit So for most children in care the answer is that both have it, though that is not an option should say ' So for most children in care the answer is that both the parents and the local authority have it, though that is not an option on the flowchart they've produced'.

My experience of foster carers, is that they would be slow to jump on this band wagon. They don't have the same issues we have as birth parents, so are a bit more sceptical. I'm speaking as a foster parent and birth parent. It's actually easier to accept foster children for who they are, because you don't have the same personal baggage.

Fost r carers are alsoused to supporting a child emotionally, through all sorts of identity confusion. Yes, children in care are more vulnertable to trans cult, but the foster parents ar less so!

Mia85 -
it was the law aspect that struck me as illustration of how ignorant this group is. But maybe not as they also offer legal support if the child isn't "affirmed". I can imagine a bunch of "do gooder" volunteers with plenty of time on their hands and a fixed ideological agenda would push for this if it affirmed them in their rescuer status. Vulnerable child is a great pet project.

It would put the birth parents in an incredibly difficult situation (never mind the LA). Young teenagers are often at the stage when they begin to gravitate back to family. It would be a strong parent who could cope with that at the same time coping with the child who was a boy is now a girl. And a parent in these circumstances is generally not strong.

I saw similar in another trans leaflet (NHS in consultation with GIRES)
to do with consent which stated that SGO carers could give consent without consulting parents. Again not true.
(and even if it was what about basic human decency!)

The leaflet is on the Mermaids website as a resource for professionals, it is prominent in how it is placed so not some obscure bit of old literature

I like the way they chucked in 'your child will probably kill themselves' nice and early on. That whole thing gave me the rage - how do they have the influence they do? If I issued a booklet to a school they would probably ignore it - how did Mermaids / GIRES et Al become these infallible experts who must be obeyed?

In a previous volunteer role I supported several girls who were identifying as trans boys, who had been/were being sexually abused, and described transitioning to male as a way out of it. Graphic descriptions of damage they could do to their bodies to make them less attractive to their abusers. This was in a confidential/anonymous role, these girls weren’t disclosing this to people who had actual safeguarding duties towards them. Responsible adults should absolutely not be blindly ‘affirming chosen gender’ of children - especially those more likely to have suffered sexual abuse - without unpicking where it is coming from.

"If you transition, what if it’s a mistake? This is a scary myth that many trans people face day to day. If a young person tells you they are trans and want to transition it’s safe to say that they are pretty sure about it. This myth actually tells a young person ‘being trans is a mistake’ which is a very distressing thing to hear.

Does anyone ever respond to a child who says they think they might be transgender, or the assertion that they are transgender, by asking them "what if it is a mistake"?
Don't most people ask a lot more questions before they work their way to the possibility that the child might change their mind and that it is OK to say so if they do?
The manipulative framing of everything Mermaids puts out just screams of grooming.

What is the view of the NSPCC on this guidance?

It might be a sobering thing for them to be reminded that if they go along with this shit, many many children will be done untold damage and within a generation, the scandal that will erupt will obliterate any children's charity which did not stand up for gender non-conforming children at the time they most needed them to.

Oh my god. This is so so dangerous. "If a young person tells you they are trans and want to transition it's safe to say they are pretty sure about it". What the fuck?

I don't have time to google, but does anyone have a link to the research done that at least 80% of kids with gender dysphoria grow out of it? What have these people taken to make them believe this ridiculous shit? This is 100% genuine child abuse advocated in this stupid stupid guide. The woman behind Mermaids has single handedly destroyed so many young lives and families. Unbelievable.

Also, with the pronoun table, why do you need 10 additional pronouns that are not he and she? Are we all expected to learn Spivak, whatever that is?

What is happening to the world?

Responsible adults should absolutely not be blindly ‘affirming chosen gender’ of children - especially those more likely to have suffered sexual abuse - without unpicking where it is coming from.

YES. This. We are talking about children who have been removed from their families in horrific circumstances. Many will have suffered emotional and sexual abuse. Of course they will have disturbed thoughts around their gender identity and will want to e.g. delay puberty or fight against signs of sexual maturity. We KNOW this. It does not mean that they are trans.

Makes me want to cry- the authorities are supposed to protect these children, offer them a safe haven. The phrase 'fucked up' does not even begin to describe the lives that some of these children will lead if they are told that they are the opposite sex and are given hormones and told to change their name.

And this:
Transexual: person who elects to change their physical sex through genital reconstruction surgery (GRS)- and/or chest reconstruction surgery.

Oh really? Change physical sex? So that is now possible? How interesting, because it wasn't when I went to sleep last night. Science must have come on leaps and bounds overnight.

"If a young person tells you they are trans and want to transition it's safe to say they are pretty sure about it"

Well, Mermaids, I have a DC who proves otherwise.

This is the advice given to professionals working with young people given by the Tavistock clinic:

"Help to keep options open and maintain safe uncertainty.
Young people’s identities are developing throughout adolescence and into adulthood, and some people decide that they would like to express their gender identity in lots of different ways, which may change over time. Keeping options open is important to allow a young person to feel able to change paths if they want to."

gids.nhs.uk/working-therapeutically

As far as I'm aware, the NSPCC have drunk the Kool-Aid taught to them by pressure groups like Mermaids.

Which is why the girl guides threads are so revealing. The NSPCC are being challenged.

That Tavistock advice seems sensible?

You know what though, at least it is possible that with children in care, their histories might be known to some of the adults working with them. They may hopefully receive treatment for their trauma. Despicable though it is to groom the most vulnerable children, I am almost more concerned about children who are not already on the radar for any services. Children who are sexually abused often don't tell anyone. Their behaviour changes instead. If that change in behaviour involves rejection of being a girl, for instance, then the sign of abuse will be missed when the assumption is made that being in the wrong body is the cause of the problem.