Here’s a Mermaids fuck-up to brighten your Sunday morning...

[AngeloMysterioso]

So in a tweet yesterday Mermaids (shock horror) MISGENDERED non-binary Owen J. Harcum, saying that HE had been elected Mayor of Bangor.

A while later they deleted the tweet, reposted it using “they” instead of “he” and issued an apology, basically blaming their accidental hate crime on Grammarly, which I believe is a proofreading app.

Grammarly then responded calling them out on their blatant and quite possibly libellous lie, and so Mermaids deleted that tweet too.

Hope Grammarly sue their asses.

[kidsatuniemptynester]

If they can self identify as Welsh, could I self identify as Mayor of Bangor?

[ChattyLion]

Just for anyone else not already aware of this back story, which I just noticed on the BBC news website, probably nobody will be surprised to see that a middle aged female Plaid Cymru Senedd politician, called Helen Mary Jones, got it in the neck over her querying of aspects of GRA and speaking up at an A Woman’s Place meeting. And that she has now committed publicly to her own ‘education’ on this area and left her personal social media account.

It looks like the person who is now Mayor Hurcum made a resignation after this to become an independent candidate. At the time, Hurcum spoke out about this, I’m quoting from BBC article linked to below)

‘Trans activists say Helen Mary Jones used transphobic tropes when she spoke at an event by campaign group, Women's Place UK. At the event she questioned whether a rise in the number of "women and girls wanting to transition to the opposite sex" has been caused by pressure to look a certain way fuelled by social media. This is an argument many trans people find offensive.

A Woman's Place UK campaigns for women only spaces and a "respectful and evidence-based discussion" on proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, which aimed to make changing one's legal sex simpler.

Owen Hurcum, who uses the pronouns they and them, was on the party's north Wales regional list and said the party should begin a disciplinary process against Helen Mary Jones.
They added: "I want Helen Mary Jones to apologise in a way that is not 'I'm sorry you're offended'.
"I want a sincere apology and I want her to make an effort to learn about the community and understand why she's perpetrating transphobia.
"If she doesn't resign, she at the very least needs to make it very clear that she's sorry and very clear that she's learning and Adam Price as the leader of the party needs to make it very clear not just that Plaid have a great set of policies for if they're in government, but are also tackling transphobia within their own party immediately.
"If Adam Price can make a public statement that disciplinary procedures are starting, that would be appreciated."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-56352615

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56276997

[WarriorN]

There used to be gendered language around mayors too, mayoress isn't used anymore I don't think, but something on tinternet said they refer to women as the honourable?

What on earth is this mayor going to use?

[toffeebutterpopcorn]

Why do people always have two pronouns? Why not just the one?

[DdraigGoch]

@Theeyeballsinthesky

In all seriousness how did the councillors of Bangor decide that this was the person best fitted to represent their town?

A pretend Welsh person who vindictively pursues women who fail to observe the trans purity whilst happily forgiving Mermaids for something they’d be looking to have other people at the very least ‘re educated’ for

Are they all students or something?

Looking through the list on the council's website, far from it. I know someone who did two terms as Mayor there (I don't know how long ago). He's about as unwoke as you can get - just before lockdown he was ranting about Chinese people being allowed in, using all sorts of racist terminology.

[Hufflepuffmamma]

Mermaids quite frankly are dangerous - I speak from personal experience and I am sick of how they get away with all they do . They are unbalanced. Vey Bias and likely co thing to do very real harm - I am glad they have been outed. I hope more comes - it is time that the truth outed.

[Erikrie]

What on earth is this mayor going to use?

Hmm, that could be problematic. Maybe we could come up with some suggestions for they. Something new, bold and utterly modern to fit in with theys Identity. ☺️

[DdraigGoch]

@ChattyLion no one will also be surprised to hear thtt despite HMJ being forced to publically convert to the new religion, this didn't prevent Plaid from moving her to the bottom of the regional list, ensuring that her chances of reelection were next to none.

[ChattyLion]

Oh Ddraig that’s appalling. I am so sorry to hear that. So even though Helen Mary Jones did all the right apologising and committed to her own re education in exactly the terms required, she gets a permanent professional sanction (effectively) just for being female and at the same time being outspoken and caring about transmen and female non binary people and the pressures they may be/ have been under around their gender?

Whereas Mermaids misgender someone in the public eye when they basically exist to be affirming on people’s gender as their full time job, and then they apologise and that’s all completely fine and nothing to see here..

[OldCrone]

Helen Mary Jones was actually second on the regional list, as well as constituency candidate for Llanelli, a seat she had previously held. She was also second on the regional list at the previous election in 2016, so I don't know whether being placed second this time was to do with what happened in March.

She didn't win Llanelli this time, and Plaid didn't get enough votes on the regional ballot for her to get a seat representing the region, so she's out of the Senedd again.

[phodopus]

@kidsatuniemptynester

If they can self identify as Welsh, could I self identify as Mayor of Bangor?

There's no logical reason why not since nationality has much less of a biological basis then sex and is after all a social construct, "assigned at birth", if you will.

[OldCrone]

Whereas Mermaids misgender someone in the public eye when they basically exist to be affirming on people’s gender as their full time job, and then they apologise and that’s all completely fine and nothing to see here..

Don't forget that Maya Forstater's misgendering 'crime' was to refer to Gregor Murray as 'he', not knowing that Murray identifies as non-binary.

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/gregor-murray-king-troll

What Mermaids did seems far worse, since they knew that Hurcum identifies as non-binary, so it wasn't a simple case of not knowing a person's self-declared identity as it was for Maya.

And yet Mermaids are instantly forgiven by the same people who are baying for blood when any women make a similar 'error'. Strange that.

[MarieIVanArkleStinks]

This was theys response.

Chortle

[MarieIVanArkleStinks]

@Hufflepuffmamma

Mermaids quite frankly are dangerous - I speak from personal experience and I am sick of how they get away with all they do . They are unbalanced. Vey Bias and likely co thing to do very real harm - I am glad they have been outed. I hope more comes - it is time that the truth outed.

I was waiting for the shoe to drop last autumn, when a tide of bad press accused them of dangerous misinformation at best (wilful disingenuousness at worst). At that time several high-profile organisations, the BBC included, quietly dropped their association with Mermaids and deleted links from their web pages.

The shoe's still hovering in mid-air and we've never yet heard the thud. Wonder why?

[BlackForestCake]

for accidentally missgendering me in a tweet

Is that when you accidentally use female pronouns?

[Hufflepuffmamma]

@MarieIVanArkleStinks I know. I thought it would happen then.

I have been waiting yet nothing- fear probably - you can’t go against mermaids or you are transphobic - which is insane.

I wait and wait... they need to be held to proper account. I despair for the generation of children mislead by their self serving antics ..

[Cailleach1]

@BlackForestCake

for accidentally missgendering me in a tweet

Is that when you accidentally use female pronouns?

No. They used male pronouns on a male who says 'they' identify as 'non-binary'.

Therefore the crime was using the third person singular (masculine), and not the third person plural. In short, the crime was referring to a human male as 'he'.

[youvegottenminuteslynn]

@Cailleach1

I took it as the poster noting that instead of misgendering the tweeter said "MISSgendering"

[CardinalLolzy]

I think it was a play on 'miss'gendering.

[Cailleach1]

Ah! Completely MISSed the pun.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Presumably the new mayor of Bangor will specify Welsh pronouns too?

I tried English to Welsh Google translate on 'they' and got nwh, but also hwy, hwynt and nhwy . 'Them' gave those plus eu and 'u and also, bafflingly, 29

[NiceGerbil]

I'm ok with they etc. It's the norm in my sector and has been for years to avoid sexist stereotyping.

EG the administrator generates the form. They pass it to their manager. The manager reviews against their records and signs it.

That sort of thing. I went to a talk a few years back that used he/ she and it was really jarring!

I'm also fine with being and using they, it gets rid of all this shit and I couldn't care less really. I'd rather do that than all this what are everyone's pronouns stuff.

And it would irritate a lot of people

[NiceGerbil]

On pronouns and this piece. Does that mean checking every single time you refer to someone?

There are loads of pronouns and non binary people can be he/ him etc. And they can change. Frequently.

And some people are sometimes in girl mode and sometimes in boy mode. So how do you handle that?

Also some people go she/ they etc.

I keep saying. In a massive international workplace how are people supposed to handle this? Look up the pronouns of everyone before every conversation, meeting, minutes?

And what of colleagues in countries where this is not done?

None of this has ever been answered.

[Puddycatfan]

I might put "29" in the box next time they ask me for my pronoun. That should confuse the fuckers!

[ChattyLion]

Thank you OldCrone for the extra background and you’re absolutely right about the Maya point. Women (especially if they’re in mid-life), can’t win with this can they? But no sexism to see here.. it’s all cool and progressive and breaking down all the barriers 🙄 and really good as a substitute for experience for some peoples CV’s.