Quoting myself to add an extract:
By Victoria Smith:
Then again, I know that’s not what you mean. What you and others are suggesting is that unless Mermaids and fellow organisations such as Gendered Intelligence are permitted to proceed as they see fit, minus any oversight whatsoever, trans children are being made unsafe. You might think of this as covering your own backs. I think of it as terrorising vulnerable children for political gain.
It’s a tactic familiar to anyone who has studied domestic abuse and coercive control. Make the people whose unquestioning compliance you seek — in this case, unhappy children — believe that the rest of the world is a greater threat to them than anything you could do. Convince them you are keeping them safe. Make them think that without you, they’d die.
The adults who claim to champion the cause of “trans kids” have taken this approach to extremes. The world is “trans-hostile”; young people are being threatened with “conversion abuse”; the treatments Mermaids promote are “life-saving”. This sits alongside broader messaging which suggests anyone critical of, say, puberty blockers or breast-binding is supportive of “trans genocide”.
Young people are told they are surrounded by adults who want them dead — if not by killing them outright, then by denying them the treatment they need to survive. Feminists want them dead. Their parents want them dead. Hell, even their favourite author wants them dead. This inflicts terror on children at one of the most turbulent stages of their lives.