Mermaids is taking LGBA to court.

[WarriorN]

On twitter: "Mermaids is taking us to court to try to strip us of our charitable status. If successful, it means important films like this will not be made."

m.youtube.com/watch?v=oTf1gPZaBWg

See twitter for digging.

It really does feel abusive - and must be putting such a strain on Bev and Kate. Plus Mermaids appear to be pulling the usual trick of adding extra documents an witnesses so that the potential cost to LGBA is continuing to increase. They are such an appalling organisation.

Memails are not actually taking LGBA to court - they are taking the Charity Commission to court (to reverse their decision to give LGBA charity status) and LGBA are intervenors.

Thanks for the clarification!

Hopefully it'll go about as well as their attempt to take a trans person to court for transphobia.

Ideally this action might prompt the Charity Commission to take a long hard look at Mermaids.

LGB Alliance said in the latest update to their crowdfunder page that now it has gone to litigation, they've had to recruit the top Equality and Discrimination QC, Karon Monaghan and a junior barrister.

I'm really hoping this gets "televised" on Court TV like Maya and Allison's cases so we can see Karon in action. She previously presented evidence to both the Scottish and the England & Wales' GRA panels and was really clever, capable and clear in her communication. I'm really glad they got her on board.

Who's representing Mermaids? Is it Robin Moira White?

🍿

They've got to spend all that biscuit money on something. Can't just waste it all on supporting young people with gender dysphoria.

i imagine the charity commission are less than impressed with all this. I don’t see on what planet LGBA have broken the charities act 2011 whereas I think mermaids are definitely working outside of their charitable objects as defined by their governing document which talks about them explicitly working with people under 19 yet they are constantly involved in work with adults

Governing document

That Barbara Rich Twitter thread is very helpful.

Susie Green was really disingenuous, another interview where I was itching to be asking the questions.

Yes, this is a good summary of what I understand to be happening.

(but I'm also not a lawyer)

For anyone who missed it.

Britain's first transgender hate crime prosecution has been halted by a judge who declared: ‘There is no case and never was a case.’

Miranda Yardley, 51, was put ‘through ten months of hell’ after being accused of harassing a transgender activist on Twitter.

But District Judge John Woollard dismissed the case after a one-day hearing, saying there was simply no evidence.

The hearing at Basildon Magistrates’ Court in Essex last Friday brought into sharp focus the complex and often rancorous divisions within the transgender community.

On one side was Yardley, an accountant, who describes himself as a transsexual and identifies as a man, even though he underwent gender reassignment to become a woman ten years ago.

Despite his own experience, his contention is that individuals cannot change sex – and this has drawn fierce criticism on social media.

Giving evidence via video link was his accuser, Helen Islan, who is married with children and works with the trans advocacy group Mermaids, which campaigns for children who want to change gender.

The court heard that one of her teenage children is transgender. The spat began with a discussion – joined by other Twitter users – about self-identification, which allows people to be recognised as transgender simply by declaring themselves male or female.

Continues on source website

Saw someone argue on Twitter the other day that the charity that is explicitly for the "T" portion of LGBT is totally right to attack the charity that is explicitly for the "LGB" portion of LGBT, because the absence of the "T" is in and of itself transphobic.

When I asked if the "T" charity's exclusion of the "LGB" was therefore transphobic by the very same logic, I was blocked. 😂

It feels so terribly abusive.
A tactic to finish off LGBA with crippling court costs.
Does anyone know if LGBA win will they be able to claim damages.
I didn't think my opinion of Mermaids could fall any lower, but this is such a cynical tactic it actually makes me feel sick.

Sorry I didn't mean damages meant court costs. Tired.

Allison only does criminal defence cases (and won't defend in cases of sexual assault or fraud). But she might be tempted to act for the prosecution against idiots like Mermaids, I suppose! 😉

I made a thread about Mermaids on a different issue the other day when I noticed that the preschooler children’s toy ‘Tonies’ are working in partnership with Mermaids and giving all the profits from their Pride toy (here) to Mermaids.

And what will the money they are raising be spent on? ‘Tonies’ think they are supporting trans, non-binary and gender-diverse young people and their families. Hardly.

So their case is that LGBA opposes the charitable aims of Mermaids and should not be allowed the status of ‘charity’ for that reason?

In that case, is there not an equally good case for the removal of Mermaids’ status as a charity, since they oppose LGBA’s aims?

I don't see how this can be anything but disastrous for Mermaids, so... Good.

Well yes Achilles, that's what I thought!

I've always wondered why the law and social services had nothing to say about a parent who took her minor child abroad to get first cross-sex hormones at 12 and then sexual reassignment surgery on the child's 16th birthday. Both treatments are of dubious benefit and couldn't be provided legally in this country at the time. A parent who took a minor child off to another country to get FGM would (I hope) be prosecuted.

Well quite.

Teachers have to phone the police directly themselves if fgm is suspected.

Paediatric policy and practise was being influenced and led by this woman.

Thankfully no longer.

Yes, hopefully very soon it will be illegal to import sex hormones for use on a minor, or to remove a child (male or female) from the UK for the purposes of gender reassignment surgery (‘top’ or ‘bottom’ surgery). It’s plainly abusive.

The thing is children move into the adult services at 18 and while shutting the stable door to protect children now, there are a lot of young adults at various stages from generally having been brain washed, having had some treatment eg puberty blockers, starting cross sex hormones and going on. What supervision and protection is there for these young people, who will be in the thick of it at university etc? DH has a colleague whose daughter went off to university quite happy and came back at Christmas pronouncing she was a man. The parents are devastated but just can't talk to her about it and she is currently seeking a mastectomy.

It's worth knowing that NHS England is currently funding two new surgical units to provide "masculinising genital surgery" presumably to accommodate an increase in demand. There are two FOIs I have come across about this, and am keeping an eye to see the response to the latest one.

I'll add links.

This appears to be from someone who is concerned about the waiting time to have this procedure.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/provisionoffmasculinisinggenit#incoming-2070993

I will be interested to see the emerging policies of how the new hubs and adult services pick up the pieces of the children seen at the Tavistock. Sadly I suspect some grandfather clausing will probably have to be involved, and it's going to be decades before we really have clear information on what happened to those kids, and the long term impact.

Compensation isn't just going to be justice for the kids harmed by it as the impact becomes clear, but for some it may be absolutely necessary if the harms turn out to be as severe as anticipated and they are living with severe lifetime health issues created courtesy of the tax payer through the nhs because of a lot of adults afraid of a political lobby and wanting to be nice. Those kids will be owed.