Workplace cake sale to raise money for Mermaids

[Cucumbersalad]

To celebrate International Women's Day a charity bake sale is being held at my workplace to raise money for Mermaids UK, "to show our support for the transgender community".

Has anybody come across a similar situation in the workplace, and if so, did you raise any concerns? I'm cowardly about speaking out, but I feel I should say something! How to do this delicately/ sensitively?.I don't want to rock the boat though, as it's work! And ultra-woke...

Point people towards the lunacy of Mermaids and let them decide

What insulting nonsense. What does Mermaids have to do with IWD? Really, there's no connection. Even if you bought into woke gender ideology, I can't see the connection.

I do like the idea of the jellybabies cake.

Rowan makes a very good point. Women's aid shelters etc are defunded and at risk, probably more local and more useful.

I would be in favour of explaining to whoever is organising this that Mermaids is a political lobby group. They have plenty of money.

Thank you @endofthelinefinally - you've just answered the question I was about to ask (i.e. when you question the motives of a particular organization, always consider who is funding it). A search threw up only quite vague results, although the half-million pound lottery grant was mentioned and I found the feature run by Pink News on how Mumsnet opposed the awarding of this grant (and a thread started by Graham Lineham).

Mermaids seem to have gained so much traction and, seemingly, political credibility. How? Their name pops up everywhere. They're constantly running 'training' in people's organizations (funded by whom? And why would the mainstream public need indoctrination into one group's interpretation of the murky, nebulous, ambiguous concept that is gender? At the same time, initiatives like International Women's Day appear to be losing momentum as fast as organizations like this one are gaining it (possibly at our expense). Mermaids touts itself as a charity for children, so other times/places might be a more appropriate platforming for its fund-raising initiatives.

This is just one symptom of the insidious, slow-but-sure sidelining of women's events, women's issues, women's recognition platforms, women's public lavatories, even women's categorization. It's an attitude propagated so often these days it's sadly almost becoming mainstream. (Obvs, I wouldn't recommend saying this to an employer who has bought into the Woke virtue spiral to this extent. But it is incredibly frustrating). Who would have thought it was feminism and women's rights that would end up recategorised onto the side of conservatism? Betrayal of this magnitude always stings more when it emanates from the supposed left.

Mermaids cover both females and makes who are trans identifying. So even the terminally woke might see they aren't a women's organisation.

Maybe do a nice display to pop up next to the cakes?

Some photos of post-op people. Stats on the actual suicide rates (higher after transition than before). Accounts for these charities. Crime stats for offenders. Some photos of some of those the sale would go to benefit.

If all else fails you can tell them they are being transphobic by raising money for transmen on international Women’s Day.

Maybe stickerwoman could let you have the artwork for the Starbucks campaign and you could make some nice cake toppers for your own bake sale.

Mermaids touts itself as a charity for children, so other times/places might be a more appropriate platforming for its fund-raising initiatives.

Mermaids changed their charitable aims a few years ago to include lobbying.

Its in their Charity Commission papers (linked previously)

May 2018 James Kirkup Spectator
'Why are some MPs trying to shut down the transgender debate?'
(extract)
But her words might be relevant to a charity called Mermaids. Mermaids is a charity that describes itself as “a support group for children and young people with gender dysphoria and their families”. Its CEO, Susie Green describes herself as “parent to a daughter who was born male.” Mermaids is a relatively small charity (it had income of £127,000 in the year to March 2017) with a big reach. It has prominent backers and its advice and recommendations have been absorbed and adopted by many public bodies. (continues)

Despite its influence, it is worth noting what Mermaids is not. It is not a research body. Its activities are support (for families) and advocacy: based on its contacts with those families, it argues for what it sees are better policies and practices by the NHS and others. It does not carry out or commission clinical or academic research. Its most recent annual report lists among its charitable activities “campaigning and advocacy” and says: “Mermaids has also become more active in lobbying”.

There is regular dialogue between Mermaids and the GIDS, but the two sides do not always agree. An example is on the time the GIDS team take to give referred children the hormone-blocking drugs that stop their bodies developing the physical characteristics associated with their birth sex.

In evidence to another Commons inquiry in 2015, Mermaids argued that GIDS should make such drugs available much more quickly. The GIDS team has generally resisted that call, more than once saying that “any decision around hormone treatment needs time and considered thought.”

And in evidence to that earlier committee, Dr Bernadette Wren of the GIDS said this:

“I know that Susie and Mermaids would like a fast track so that young people who are already well into puberty and feel that they know that they want to move forward into physical intervention would bypass our assessment process and move straight into physical intervention. We feel that is not an ethical way to practise.”

Here’s another summary. A transgender charity that says it is engaged in lobbying lobbied politicians and doctors to change the way children are treated by doctors. The doctors declined to make that change because it would be not be ethical to do so." (continues)

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/05/why-are-some-mps-trying-to-shut-down-the-transgender-debate/

income of £127,000 in the year to March 2017
income of £715.3K in the year to March 2019

What was the case again when the judge ordered them to stay the hell away from a child and his family?

Sorry

but I keeping reading this as

Wokeplace cock sale to raise money for Mermaids

Sorry

Thats a good name for a stall.

This is all so helpful - keep it coming people!

Oh I do hope the people who are working in this organisation protest. I mean, quite apart from the toxic nature of Mermaids, every fucking day is Trans Day.

What was the case again when the judge ordered them to stay the hell away from a child and his family?

2016 Julian Vigo for Feminist Current:
'When lobby groups like Mermaids dictate policy and discourse around gender identity, kids lose'
(extract)
Last week, The Guardian reported that “a seven-year-old boy who was “living life entirely as a girl” has been removed from his mother’s care after a ruling by a high court judge. At first read, it was unclear who the actors in this case were aside from, obviously, the mother (M), the father (F), and child (J). The judgment of this case, which includes a critique of the section 37 report prepared by Social Services, which Justice Hayden describes as “very disturbing reading,” though, begins to clarify things.

Justice Hayden writes that J’s mother caused “significant emotional harm” to her child and critiques the local authority social services staff responsible for the youngster’s welfare.

He goes on to detail the acts of a controlling mother towards her child, M’s personal diagnosis of J’s alleged gender dysphoria, and a system which failed this child. Together, these various failures demonstrate a pattern of abuse and a mother who, Hayden writes, “deprived [her son] of his fundamental right to exercise his autonomy in its most basic way.”

What the judgment shows is that reports made by the Local Authority’s Housing Department, J’s school, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), and Social Services gave M’s behaviour towards her child (including her approach to J’s “gender presentation”) a pass simply because she was receiving support from Mermaids, a UK-based charity that claims to support parents of children who identify as transgender. Observations like these show major conflicts of interest between Mermaids and the government agencies named in the judgement." (continues)
www.feministcurrent.com/2016/10/26/lobby-groups-like-mermaids-dictate-policy-discourse-around-gender-identity-kids-lose/

Judgement:
B e f o r e : MR JUSTICE HAYDEN
Between:
Re J (a minor)
www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2016/2430.html

That was the one. I’m sure it wasn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last.

There's a worrying case from last year which takes an affirmative approach. It concerns foster carers in Lancashire who have a number of children who have identified as transgender in their care.

Im not sure whether Mermaids are specifically named but I would imagine they were delighted with the findings.

I would definitely email and say that this firstly has nothing to do with women so is objectively a very strange choice and secondly that mermaids specifically is a very controversial charity and is the organisation aware of the politics surrounding it.

Then you could add that in any case Mermaids is already well served for fundraising and for public profile and point to the Starbucks link etc.

If they go ahead with the beneficiary charity being Mermaids, could you hold your own collection, bake sale, sponsored whatever for IWD and raise money for womens causes that way? That will give a chance to talk colleagues about the women’s causes and not to have to talk about Mermaids on IWD.

Mermaids chose to spend some of the money given to them employing a permanent legal advisor.
Its a small staff team & so interesting priorities.
(this may well prove a slightly more secure position than those running the helplines & online forums)

Mermaids seem to have gained so much traction and, seemingly, political credibility. How? Their name pops up everywhere.

It's baffling. They have credibility atm because orgs such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission still promote them. I would love to know why the EHRC has lost the plot so badly. It all seems to lead back to Stonewall.

I think the Fistula Foundation is a great woman-centred cause OP: fistulafoundation.org/
We also donate to CAMFED: camfed.org/
Funny how no one has trouble understanding who is female when girls and women are excluded from education and making a living as a direct consequence of having female bodies.

March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month:

"Ovarian cancer is the biggest gynaecological killer of women in the UK women, with UK survival rates among the worst in Europe.

Three quarters of women are diagnosed once the cancer has already spread, making treatment more difficult. This is why awareness is so important, to drive forward improvements in diagnosis, treatment and survival.

As ovarian cancer charities in the UK, we are all working to increase awareness of the disease, with women and GPs, in order to save lives."
ocam.org.uk/

eveappeal.org.uk/

ovarian.org.uk/

www.ovacome.org.uk/

www.targetovariancancer.org.uk/fundraising/ovarian-cancer-awareness-month-2020

I think you need to out- woke the woke.

As a transgender charity 50% of Mermaids funding goes to MEN. Trans men are men.

It is therefore completely inappropriate and potentially hugely insulting/offensive/triggering for trans men that money should be raised for them on International Women’s Day.

How would trans women feel if money was raised for them on International Men’s Day?

It all seems to lead back to Stonewall.

No it goes further back to Press For Change, GIRES & Beaumont Society in UK.

I've sent my email @Cucumbersalad. I kept it short - disappointment at not choosing a women's charity, and surprise that of all the trans charity they could have picked, they went for such a controversial one. Let's see what the response is...

For all of you working at this company who have 'met' on this thread, can I make a suggestion? It's always much more powerful to hear from lots of individuals rather than e.g. one email signed by lots of people.

Good luck.