Mermaids 'deadnaming' Keira on their fb page

[singwhenyourewinningyouonly]

Their legal person did a live stream on fb on the day of Keira's judgement.

It's entitled 'Quincy Bell v Tavistock Decision Q and A'

My understanding is that Keira used the alternative name Quincy when she identified as male.

What on earth are Mermaids doing referring to Keira Bell by this name this week?

Her name is Keira, Mermaids.

[Parmesanfrenzy]

I noticed that the woman GP who specialises in treating transgender people used the male name when talking about the case online. She used both names.

[EndemicPanda]

They are referring to the case. The case is in Kiera's masculine name - presumably she hasn't changed it back yet legally. I cannot see the fuss really. I don't think Kiera's concerned about people knowing that she legally changed her name to Quincy. She's too cool for that.

I've had the same situation in reverse where a claimant in a case that I was dealing with decided to come out as a transwoman a few days before the judgment. The judgment was obviously in their original name as they hadn't changed it. They were angry but what's the court supposed to do 🤷‍♀️

[NancyDrawed]

Question 6
Currently, applicants for a gender recognition certificate must make a statutory
declaration as part of the process.
(A) Do you think this requirement should be retained, regardless of what other changes are made to the gender recognition system?
󠄍 Yes
󠄍 No
Please explain the reasons for your answer.
(B) If you answered yes to (A), do you think that the statutory declaration should state that the applicant intends to ‘live permanently in the acquired gender until death’?
󠄍 Yes
󠄍 No
(C) If you answered no to (A), do you think there should be any other type of safeguard to show seriousness of intent?

[RednaxelasLunch]

This is awful. The nasty hypocrisy.

[NancyDrawed]

There was a question about whetehr GRC holders should be permitted to change back to their original birth certificate details on the GRA Consultation in 2018 IIRC.

I saved my responses somewhere, I'll see if I can find it. Don't think it came up in the call for evidence, though

[PearPickingPorky]

I'm surprised Mermaids don't go all-in and refer to her as "he", since it's the legal position and all.

[PearPickingPorky]

Kiera changed her name to Quincy as a teen and got a GRC with a legal change to male.

She can't legally reverse the GRC, even though it was a mistake she made when she was a distressed teen who wasn't able to give informed consent about the process she was going through. As someone said above, she'd now have to pretend to be a man who thinks he's a woman, get two doctors to pretend that too, live "as Keira" for two years, and then go back before the GRC panel to get them to agree that female Keira is a man who identifies as female. It's insane. Hopefully this will make people realise that the GRA does indeed need reform, to allow people who got one while effectively incapacitated by their psychiatric distress a way to reverse it. Maybe this too needs a test case. But I digress.

Anyway, yes, Mermaids choosing to display her "deadname", when they say that's "literal violence which causes death", is incredibly hypocritical and spiteful of them. Which sums them up, really.

As an aside - I continue to find it completely mind-blowing that Keira is 23. 23! She's a pup, and look what she's achieved. Look how incredibly strong she is. And she is only 23.

I'm in my 30s and can only hope to one day have her fortitude and bravery. I'm totally in awe of her.

[Campervan69]

Petty and childish behaviour. I would expect nothing more from Mermaids tbh. Can't believe how they have so much support from vacuous celebs.

[Biscuitsanddoombar]

Absolutely Sophocles - the people who follow & support Mermaids would have an absolute fit of the vapours at calling Sam Smith “he”instead of “they”, the failure to use someone’s preferred pronouns and indeed for example calling Elliot Page “Ellen”

Luckily it just makes them look petty as fuck but the double standards & hypocrisy are mind bending

[SophocIestheFox]

That’s it exactly, edge.

By their lights, misgendering someone is the most hateful thing you can do to them, and it’s at best naive to suggest they don’t mean anything by it.

[EdgeOfACoin]

I think the majority of people are not distressed beyond all measure if someone refers to them as the wrong name. In Keira's case it might be irritating, as Mermaids knows perfectly well that she goes by Keira, not Quincy. However, most rational people in that situation would just roll their eyes and brush it off.

However, Mermaids probably think that this is probably the most devastating thing they can possibly do to Keira. In their world, this is a literal act of violence.

It reminds me of the time when Trump supporters arranged for a balloon of Sadiq Khan in a bikini to be flown over London in retaliation for allowing a similar balloon of Trump. Trump was so offended by his balloon that his supporters thought Khan would feel the same way. Of course, Khan just shrugged it off. Rational people can cope with such things.

The point is, Mermaids are attacking Keira in a way that they think will hurt her the most. It says a lot about them as an organisation.

[gardenbird48]

@Mumofstanley

I thought dead naming was considered a hate crime. Be a bit awkward for Susie Green if she got a secret criminal record for transphobic hate crime.

Didn’t that lady get arrested in front of her kids (+ baby) and held in the cells overnight for something similar? Misgendering or dead naming are regarding as being on the same level I think?

[SophocIestheFox]

Bit of an overstatement there, highame. Nobody’s jackal like tearing anything here. I’m interested in exploring if there is any intention from Mermaids to suggest that there is something inauthentic about Keira’s detransition. That is all. I do also fundamentally distrust them as an organisation and find their lack of professionalism astonishing.

[PaleBlueMoonlight]

The core of the GRA is to give a change of legal sex to transsexuals who it was expected to have had gender reassignment surgery (even though that is not compelled by the legislation). It was also intended to be a rigorous process that really tested whether it was the right decision and only to be used by a tiny minority of “old school” transsexuals The GRA has nothing to do with gender identity or modern day ideology, it is just so poorly drafted and weak in its safeguarding that it has been easily co-opted for other purposes. To make it possible to change back at will would totally negate the point of the legislation. The fact that Keira has this particular problem is indicative of the weakness of safeguards in the legislation and, more fundamentally, the core problem with the premise of the legislation. It is not possible to change sex. Changing “gender” or gender identity is not a good proxy for changing sex. The idea of the GRA allowing people to switch between the two is disturbing and would make a poor piece of legislation even worse.

[TriflePudding]

Mermaids legal page is correct. It may not be kind but they are not deadnaming

Hold on- one of mermaids central tenants is that you must call people by the name they identify as regardless of any GRC etc, you can guarantee that they wouldn’t call Elliot Page Ellen because that’s Elliots legal name.

Keira Bell no longer identifies as Quincy so to refer to Keira as such looks petty and spiteful.

[NewlyGranny]

Are Mermaids no longer signed up to Stonewall's 'Acceptance without exception' mantra? Interesting.

[NewlyGranny]

This is a new low for Mermaids. They know full well the significance - heck, they practically invented 'deadnaming'. It comes across as vindictive and petty; a sure sign that the argument is well and truly lost and they don't enjoy finding themselves on the wrong side of history.

[highame]

Sometimes I despair. If you change gender via the GRA, you cannot then change back. The reason for this is SAFEGUARDING. Would you really want your average woman harmer to be able to dip in and out of gender change.

Mermaids legal page is correct. It may not be kind but they are not deadnaming.

This has been a major victory - why this jackal like tearing at any old shreds of shock horror.

I am old core feminist to my bones and this is really annoying

Harrumph

[Mumofstanley]

I thought dead naming was considered a hate crime. Be a bit awkward for Susie Green if she got a secret criminal record for transphobic hate crime.

[SophocIestheFox]

The lack of ability to have the GRC reversed came up in the Freddy McConnell case, too. It’s such an oversight- there is no way to reverse or annul them, whether you want to, as in Keira’s case, or whether you ought to as you’ve clearly not continued in the role that you made a statutory declaration that you would, as in Freddy’s.

As to Mermaids doing it, it looks like they’re a) spiteful and petty or b) trying to suggest that Keira has not detransitioned, or that she cannot, which is also spiteful, but a lot less petty, and stonkingly hypocritical.

[PotholeParadies]

@Melroses

Anyone would think the most pressing change to the GRA (apart from self-id of course) is to prevent any spouse from annulling their marriage during the GRC process.

No one ever mentions the lack of provision to revert. There must be a quite a few stuck in this dilemma.

I had no idea about this.

This needs to be remedied and I will certainly be writing letters about it.

[singwhenyourewinningyouonly]

@Melroses

Anyone would think the most pressing change to the GRA (apart from self-id of course) is to prevent any spouse from annulling their marriage during the GRC process.

No one ever mentions the lack of provision to revert. There must be a quite a few stuck in this dilemma.

Totally!

I had no idea about any of this re: impossibility of reverting back without transitions again.

Another reason why talking about it here is important instead of trying to have the thread shut down with talk of frothing (we'll be being called hysterical next by some posters).

[Melroses]

Anyone would think the most pressing change to the GRA (apart from self-id of course) is to prevent any spouse from annulling their marriage during the GRC process.

No one ever mentions the lack of provision to revert. There must be a quite a few stuck in this dilemma.

[BettyDuKeiraBellisMyShero]

Yep. The GRC thing is crazy.
The only way Keira can get her birth certificate back to it’s original state is to do the whole process over in the opposite direction (get another diagnosis of gender dysphoria, this time as an MtF transitioner, and then live, ‘in role’ as a women for two years, sending off her bank statements/utility bills as proof).
As she has no intention of engaging with the whole sorry charade again, she is stuck as legally Male until such a time that the law is changed to add some kind of annulment. It’s a massive and bonkers oversight that this scenario was seemingly never considered back in 2004.

[NoCureForLove]

Interestingly the Mermaids website Legal Q and A refers to Keira Bell and Mrs A.