Mermaids response to piece in Mail tomorrow

[EweSurname]

Looking forward to seeing what drops

www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/press-enquiry-from-the-mail-on-sunday-25th-may-2019.html

We are very proud of the training we offer to schools and we have a proven record of helping teachers to support vulnerable children who simply want to get along with their lessons like any of their classmates.

We are disappointed to find that a school governor has made a covert recording of our training because our presentations are not held in secret and all of the scientific and legal information we offer is publicly available and well-tested.

We are surprised to see that a Church of England rector is complaining about our training when we are included in the CoE guidance on support for transgender people, which can be found here.

Part of the work of Mermaids is giving training talks to schools. These talks are well received and are an important part of how we promote an inclusive and informed approach to trans children and those who support them.

We have been contacted by the Mail on Sunday who are doing an article about one such talk. This post is our response, in accordance with our policy of posting our replies to media queries for the benefit of anyone interested in our activities.

Zeugma, yes, I shouldn’t have commented perhaps, until I’d listened to the rest.

But overall there's a very nasty stench of the one dissenter (the 'troublemaker') being pressured to shut up and stop making waves

This is absolutely true, but I found myself wondering how many of them knew perfectly well that it was all bullshit, but are so ground down and felt the whole charade was so utterly pointless that they just wanted it to end. They will, at the end of the day, support the child as best they can, but discussing it with Jan wasn’t going to make a blind bit of difference. Especially if the head was the one who brought Jan in.

I was shocked recently to find a good friend of mine, who is involved with girl guides, seems to be just going along with all this and it did get me wondering. If faced with a child who is in your care only for a brief period each week, whose parents are fully on board and who are backed by doctors, what exactly can you do?

John, if you’re reading this, keep reading. Maybe take your objections to Twitter, if you’re feeling courageous. I know it’s a cesspit, but it has honed my responses to TRA lines of questioning. For example, the correct response to “what about intersex?” is “We’re not talking about intersex. We’re discussing whether a physically normal male child can really be or become female.”

I think the recording's gone from the Mail, Zebras I saw it on there last night, but didn't listen. I just went back to the site and it's not there any more. I wonder if Mermaids threatened to sue the Mail over putting an unauthorised recording on the web.

Gasp0 I was thinking the same as you. What expert are you going to get for NMW

it's the path of least resistance, isn't it?
It's much easier to just nod and agree with the jelly baby gender crap, knowing that to argue against it is to open a tsunami of fire from transactivists. That's the no.1 reason TRAs behave the way they do: being scary, litigious and threatening intimidates most people into walking the path of least resistance and letting them do and say whatever they want, however dangerous or ridiculous. Believe me, there's a huge number of people working in public services who have major, unreported concerns. They know. Sadly it will probably take a generation for the fallout to be understood and for the backlash to truly kick in.

"here comes the sun, diddley dee dum, here comes the sun, and I say..."

Mermaids got a foothold in schools and elsewhere because of fears

1. that children were dying and further deaths had to be prevented

1. that it is unlawful to segregate children by sex, and lawful to segregate by identity

1. that there is a risk of police involvement and prosecution for getting it wrong.

1. being out of step with current research, because Mermaids had the full confidence of Government Departments, the Big Lottery, Children in Need, the Police, councils and even Princes William and Harry.

The first three have been exposed as untrue.

The fourth factor is still in play. Until the state does a u-turn, Mermaids have credibility. The Mail has done a good job of exerting pressure and not leaving it to individual parents, governors and teachers

Thanks for the salary info, Everard. It's still not a lot, given the complexity of the subject.

Just refreshed the page and the video is there, but now with subtitles. Maybe they took it down temporarily to add them!

The video is still there for me and plays on my phone

Ha, someone else just said the same thing

@CodenameVillanelle I'm not part of the community so I don't know what's happening there. I'm hoping that the Parkers are feeling the support on the ground.

Hopefully this is a link to the petition to stop Mermaids in schools.
chng.it/Gj8wtSbXwK

I just don’t think it’s useful to say, well some teachers aren’t too bright so what do we expect? The vast majority of teachers are not stupid.

I was a secondary school teacher, myself.

I'm not trying to be " useful". I'm simply staying facts; and that is that many teachers, including some at quite academic schools, are nor particularly academic themselves. And what is pertinent here is the willingness, or lack of, to question or hold up to scrutiny that which is placed in front of them.

It's going to be very much 'school culture' if the head is like that.

And if individual teachers don't question the status quo - naivety, ignorance or hoodwinked by the fact that they believe a charity's quotes of science as it seems too far fetched that a charity's ideology is harmful - these are the results.

It's probably unfair of me to query intelligence, it's the way I see people towing party lines because "everyone is doing it like this" rather than challenging it. I personally however have seen slt's begin to have a more authoritarian approach than I was aware of over ten years ago, and nothing to do with trans issues.

I've had several years of this in relation to curriculum things; a lot of it has happened since the Tory/ Lib Dem revision of schools, curriculum and structures etc.

"everyone is doing it like this" has been a common phrase I've heard in relation to a wide range of things as schools struggled to accommodate areas of the new curriculum, Ofsted etc plus there was much more freedom granted.

I also taught in secondary schools, and I agree with Justhadathought. Many teachers are not very academic, and many of them don't want to think. Having a degree, or even a PhD, doesn't make someone academic or able or willing to think deeply and critically.

Honestly, don't want this thread to get derailed. I was just stating facts and making observations - and in the context of the tape we'd just listened to. I know teachers have a hard, emotionally demanding job - that was not my point. School communities & cultures and the individuals within them are no different to other communities.

And what is pertinent here is the willingness, or lack of, to question or hold up to scrutiny that which is placed in front of them.

Agree. Can you see though that a lack of questioning doesn’t always mean someone is ‘not too bright’?

There are other reasons for not speaking out about this. People have lost their jobs. It is a problem not just in schools but in councils, universities and many other organisations.

That poor man. I was almost in tears myself by the end of the clip. He's right, it is tyranny. From the quiet discussion at the very end of the clip it sounded like two people had put their hands up when the head (?) asked whether they wanted to hear what Mr Parker had to say.

I think he's incredibly brave to be taking a stand against this and doing so publicly. As a pp said, it's no small thing to resign and leave the CoE if you're a member of the clergy.

Vincent the Vixen - the most alarming thing was that Jelly Baby Jan was not just recommending the book, but that teachers actually get a toy fox and make it a class member from the first day of term, let the children choose how to dress it each day, send it home with different children each weekend ... get them really emotionally attached to the fucking thing before reading the story to them at some point during the year. Blatant grooming.

I'd be very interested to hear a recording of the whole session if it becomes available.

Just listened. That poor man. What an appalling pack mentality pile in bullying.
Shocking. I couldn't sit through a training like that. Well done him, recording it and publicising it.

I'm trying to make out what another person is saying to him at the end. "It's got to the stage where it's too much" ?

Others were clearly in agreement.

And he's right, it's framed as because he's a Christian he's a bigot.

Vincent the Vixen - the most alarming thing was that Jelly Baby Jan was not just recommending the book, but that teachers actually get a toy fox and make it a class member from the first day of term, let the children choose how to dress it each day, send it home with different children each weekend ... get them really emotionally attached to the fucking thing before reading the story to them at some point during the year. Blatant grooming.

This, this, this!

Yes, re fox and grooming. Of the kids and the child as that child will one day learn the bitter truth that you cannot truly change sex and to go down the route of life long drugs and operations carries with it potentially higher risks for many illnesses as well as sterility and sexual dysfunction, and decisions that cannot be reversed. Grooming and brainwashing.

Hence why the Tavistock do not use affirmative approaches as promoted by Mermaids.

Finally managed to listen too, and would urge others to listen right to the bitter end, through all the 'general chatter' as people pack up and leave the room. That's when the vicar sobs but does have the support of one woman - I wonder if she raised her hand earlier when the group was asked if they wanted to hear what John had to say? Anyway. It isn't pleasant listening, nasty yet subtle aggression from Jan the Mermaid.

John, I do hope you have signed up here and can feel our support.

The Q&A is ridiculous.

Does anyone have any questions, feel free to ask anything.
John tries to ask a question.
No, you can't ask that question. Does someone have a Mermaids-approved question instead?
John finally gets to say something.
Jan says she doesn't have to listen. She only had to give the training and she's done that.
John says he wants to talk about biology.
Jan says "But what do you do about intersex children? I've asked you a question." Quite belligerent now.

I thought it was Jan who was supposed to be answering the questions.

Jan comes across as pretty dim.

It's so infuriating that in literally any other situation it would be seen as gooming

If someone was allowed to come in and tell kids they were too fat and if they wanted to make themselves sick afterwards that would help and they wont tell anyone it would be seen as grooming.

If someone told them that it was normal for boys and girls to shower together and sleep together and change together and seeing each other naked then that would he seen as sexual abuse and grooming.

If someone went in and told them to take this toy dog in bondage gear home and have it as a class toy it would he considered abuse again and grooming

What is it about the T that people cant see...

They can use religion and race to make their point, like boys not being able to use a girls changing room is the same as black people not being allowed to go to school. But God forbid we use any other protected characteristic to show how its incompatible....