This article in The Times sets out some of the issues with Mermaids:
Transgender lobby groups are encouraging vulnerable young people and their families to push for medical intervention regardless of whether specialists agree it is the best course of action, according to clinicians who have resigned in protest from the NHS’s leading gender identity clinic.
...frontline clinicians who assessed the thousands of young people coming to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) for help, said they felt families were “systematically” demanding to be referred for life-changing hormone treatment on the advice of campaigners.
“Mermaids are always saying this is a matter of life and death. ‘Would you rather an alive boy or a dead girl?’ That Mermaids narrative is everywhere [within the service],” one former clinician claimed. “Mermaids sell themselves as a support group,” said another. “They are not. They are lobbyists. During sessions they would sit in the waiting room outside.” She accused Mermaids of exploiting parental anxiety to promote their own agenda — claims denied by Mermaids.
This was borne out some years ago on this very board when the mother of a gender questioning child sought our support.
She had joined Mermaids as the obvious thing to do, only to be dismayed by what she found. The other parents spent meetings sharing details of private doctors and websites where they could obtain medication they weren't getting from the NHS.
Having researched drug treatment, she wasn't prepared to medicate her child. Puberty blockers and cross sex hormones are heavy duty meds with serious side effects, but these Mermaids parents were on a mission.
So she left Mermaids but that wasn't the end of it. She was pursued by members telling her that if she didn't medically transition her child they would kill themself and it would all be her fault.
Then, while she was posting here, several Mermaids members appeared on the thread and started trying to bully her in plain sight. It was almost incredible. They couldn't have done more to demonstrate the truth of her claims.