Mermaids sending free binders to teen girls

[rogdmum]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/25/exclusive-trans-charity-mermaids-giving-breast-binders-children/

Can also be found in the usual place.

“A transgender children’s charity is giving potentially dangerous chest-flattening devices to 14-year-olds against their parents’ wishes, an investigation by The Telegraph has found

Mermaids, which receives funding from the taxpayer and runs training for schools and the NHS, offered to send a breast binder discreetly to a girl they believed was only 14, even after they were told that she was not allowed to use one by her mother.

Evidence obtained by The Telegraph shows that the charity’s staff have offered binders to children as young as 13 who say that their parents oppose the practice.”

We sometime get the odd poster here denying Mermaids does this (or saying there is no evidence that it happens) despite people with direct experience stating that it does. And yes, it does happen.

The problem is that the charity commission can only investigate breaches of charity law. Personally I do feel that mermaids do act outside of their charitable objects but it would be hard to prove. The CC will look st what falls under the Charities Act & if any of that is not met.what it should do or have done is pass any concerns along to the appropriate regulatory body

Should also add that this Government have been on a mission over last 10 years to politicise the CC by appointing successive Tory supporters to Chair it who know nothing about charities & stripping back its budget. Funnily enough it’s no longer fit for purpose…..

You can report them to the Charity Commission if you think they are causing serious harm.

forms.charitycommission.gov.uk/raising-concerns/

I'm going to report them.

If it's a child protection issue should it be the NSPCC who are involved? In the hope you're not talking to someone wearing rubber pants?

I am so angry about this I can barely type. We have all said for years that Mermaids is a danger to children. We have complained repeatedly to various official bodies (including the Charities Commission and the National Lottery when it gave Mermaids a grant), we have talked abut it on social media, we've alerted journalists, we've written to our MPs and councillors. And basically all we've been met with is at best a wall of silence and at worst abuse. I am utterly sick of it. At what point do these people acknowledge that public money is going to an organisation that abuses children? When the fuck are they going to do something about it? If not now, then when?

I am going to write to Cass, my MP (as useless as she is) NSPCC and Charity Commission personally tonight.
I have to do try again there is further evidence. I wonder if Panorama would do a full piece on it or dispatches?? Anyone got connections

Hear, hear, RoyalCorgi. I feel the same

How is it not the same as breast ironing? Could any MP answer that?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47695169

"One woman, "Simone", told the Victoria Derbyshire programme she was breast ironed aged 13 when her mum found out that she was gay.

"According to her, maybe I was attractive because of my breasts, so if she can iron them and I'm flat, then maybe I'll be ugly and no-one will admire me."

In her case, the breast ironing went on for months.

Like many young girls, she was also made to wear an extremely tight strap around her chest to suppress them even more - which caused her difficulty breathing."

Maria Millar said

“It’s not only an issue of funding, it is also an issue of political will to tackle something that historically has been accepted as a cultural practice,” said Conservative MP Maria Miller, who also chairs the women’s and equalities select committee in parliament."

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/26/revealed-dozens-of-girls-subjected-to-breast-ironing-in-uk

The government has said it is “absolutely committed” to stamping out the practice. But activists and social workers say that little has been done thus far.

No shit, Sherlock.

MERMAIDS DON’T CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO CHILDREN AS LONG AS THEY TRANSITION

I’m sorry to shout and I know you all know that, but argh, it’s so frustrating. And bearing in mind the consequences of ‘transitioning’ it’s also nightmarish

I so wish someone would sue Mermaids and get them shut down. They’re despicable. While children suffering with gender distress might need support, it most definitely shouldn’t be the kind of ‘support’ provided by Mermaids. It’s like an eating disorders charity posting out industrial quantities of laxatives. No care at all - just recruits for the cause.

Shameless ghouls, this is their tweet from just now:
"Celebrate our gender euphoria and accept the happiness of being ourselves"

twitter.com/Mermaids_Gender/status/1574326667333570560

I've seen more than enough "gender euphoria" on the dark recesses of Twitter and Reddit, thank you very much 😡

All this business about Mermaid having rules for forum users & making children they send binders to agree to harm-reduction measures is nonsense.

Their forum moderation is clearly woefully ineffective to say the least - the conversation referenced above should have been shut down at once & a link provided to NHS info on hormone treatment. Thread locked if subject pushed.

As for the idea a girl desperate for a binder wouldn’t agree to/say any old thing just to get it?! And they’re a child; they can’t enter into a contract, so it doesn’t absolve Mermaids of responsibility. They’ve no idea if the girls they’re sending binders to have measured themselves properly or are guessing or are ashamed of their size so have knocked a bit off. As PPs have said, they’ve no idea why a parent would be saying no: asthma attacks can be fatal; there are multiple skin conditions where binding wouldn’t just irritate the skin but it would leave wounds; & there are even girls who would be risking rib fractures were they to use a binder. Those risks are specific to certain populations, yes - but Mermaids have no clue that they aren’t merrily posting binders to girls within them; particularly given how common asthma is.

Mermaids are a menace. Children experiencing gender dysphoria absolutely need & deserve specialist support - Mermaids have repeatedly demonstrated they couldn’t collectively run a bath, let alone a [children’s] charity; so for the love of GOD would the Charity Commission & other relevant bodies not take action before they do even more damage.

I was waiting with bated breath when the BBC and other apparently reputable organizations started dropping their name like a hot stone. That was three summers ago, and there was quite a bit of excitement on this board at the time with people fully expecting the other shoe to drop. Then nothing. Nada. I was so disappointed when the rugsweeping clearly commenced and it all went unaccountably quiet.

For a charity, this organization is unaccountably powerful. Hopefully those long overdue questions are starting now. In the wake of the Tavistock, I can't see there being much choice.

I could cry. This is grooming.

It is the same.

The National FGM Centre, which is funded by the DfE, Barnardo's and the Local Government Association, has a whole leaflet on breast flattening/ironing:

nationalfgmcentre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/About-Breast-Flattening-Leaflet-.pdf

The impact of breast flattening is similar to that of binding (pain, tissue damage etc).

Of course, you won't get any acknowledgement of this from Barnardo's, which is fully signed up to trans ideology.

"The most comprehensive study of the impact of binders to date has found that more than 97 per cent of people who use them suffer health problems as a result. The study did not look at the impact on under 18s."

In a statement setting out its position on binders, Mermaids said that it took “a harm reduction position

Harm reduction is an important and defined term in terms of safeguarding, as far as I'm aware. They're not qualified. By their own mouths they have no medical experience. Zero. It's a pivotal point in their case against the LGB alliance.

What studies have they got to prove there is less harm to an under 18 who uses a binder, than not. Physical, emotional, psychological?

And in terms of their relationship with their parents, for goodness sake??

Hear hear.

public money is going to an organisation that abuses children

This scandal has broken years ago, yet nobody seems to have paid any attention. It's hugely depressing how little anyone seems to care.

I look at the faces of the board of the school in Canada that are standing by and protecting the right of an adult male to wear his fetish costume to teach children, and I feel exactly the same.

And the NSPCC defending their employee who filmed himself masturbating at work.

The exact people who are supposed to grasp safeguarding, the people who are supposed to protect our children, are not only failing to do so but actively enabling and colluding with abusers.

I’m trying to imagine any prescribed medication, or vaccination, or even recreational drug that had a 97% chance of debilitating side effects that there wouldn’t be a public outcry against, let alone be given to vulnerable teens without parental consent, and I can’t.

In a way it is a huge relief that the mainstream press are taking a serious interest in Mermaids at long, long last. I was horrified when I realised that this organisation which was a far fringe untouchable in the 1990s, has now become a different kind of untouchable - one whose practices and beliefs can't be questioned. It has only expanded its activities since the 1990s, not fundamentally changed them. Even the name is a give-away from the old days. Mermaids has been hiding what it promotes in plain sight.

So this article is a victory worth having. But it is a bitter success because it is the right wing Telegraph pursuing the story and not the liberal lefty Guardian.
The Guardian must have had the chance and passed it by, Guardian journalists must have been told about this since forever but the story didn't suit the paper's priorities. It's all denial and heads in sand. And no doubt Mermaids can (and will!) still claim that it's just the evil trans-hating right wing are after them, and well-meaning liberal-minded Guardian-reading rights-supporting people will still believe them and help them carry on doing what they do.

And the damage this will do to all the other charities and organisations who have trusted and recommended and taken training from Mermaids, and to trans-identifying children and their families who have trusted those organisations. They're being forced into a terrible choice. Do they still trust Mermaids, and if they don't then how do they trust the other people and organisations who supported them so much but who also believed Mermaids? Or do they just decide it's rightwing trans-hating conversion-therapy pushing nonsense? Because the latter would be easier.

mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/statement-in-response-to-a-telegraph-article-published-sunday-25-september/

Response from Mermaids includes:
Puberty blockers

Puberty blockers are an internationally recognised safe, reversible healthcare option which have been recommended by medical authorities in the UK and internationally for decades. They have been used to treat precocious (i.e. early) puberty in children and adults, as part of treatment for some hormone-dependent cancers, and for conditions such as endometriosis. They have been prescribed to trans young people since 1988. As noted by GIDS and medical experts, blockers are physically reversible when treatment is stopped. Puberty blockers allow a young person to consider their options while exploring their gender identity, as well as alleviating the distress of gender dysphoria.

Interesting. That's not what the NHS says any more is it?

This is what the NHS now says:

Puberty blockers (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) pause the physical changes of puberty, such as breast development or facial hair.

Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria.

Although GIDS advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be.

It's also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children's bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations.

And this is what the Cass Review interim report says (have attached screenshots of relevant pages - full interim report is here: https://cass.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Cass-Review-Interim-Report-Final-Web-Accessible.pdf)

The most damning piece of evidence in this which mermaids has neglected to mention is that over 90% of children and young people on puberty blockers go on to take cross sex hormones. Which are most definitely not reversible.

The NHS pages were changed early June 2020:

The NHS has quietly changed its trans guidance to reflect reality www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3932371-The-NHS-has-quietly-changed-its-trans-guidance-to-reflect-reality

I happened by accident upon a few TRA responses this afternoon.

They reckon the 'story' here is adults pretending to be children on the mermaids forum. And also that these kids must have bigoted and probably violent parents, hence the need for anonymised friendly addresses to send the binders to. Oh, and binders are just 'underwear', dontchanknow

I just can't believe this bullshit is still going on. This is CHILDREN being sent fucking chest binders, ffs and nobody cares? It beggars belief.