Mermaids being investigated by the Charity Commission - thread 2

[ResisterRex]

The first thread, towards the end of which there was a discussion about having a second thread but it wasn't added:

Mermaids being investigated by the charity commission
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4644323-mermaids-being-investigated-by-the-charity-commissionn_

There's been a new development so maybe a second thread would be useful:

Lottery pauses trans charity cash during investigation

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c959a286-44e4-11ed-8885-043c27446b97?shareToken=6d482edb1a386656502f33453da5c230

Miriam Cates MP asked a question about Mermaids and safeguarding at PMQs.

Liz Truss batted it away.

Still, keep asking the questions and plugging away at this.

She did mention the breast binders, the lack of safeguarding, the trustee and the digital engagement officer porn. Lots of 'yay' from other MPs. She asked for a police enquiry and Truss did say it needed to be looked at.

Baby steps. And of course SKY news completely brush over it.

Further to what @TheClogLady wrote, Mermaids billed their forum as a moderated, safe space for vulnerable children. Yet the moderators did not step in when the discussions might lead to these children being put at risk whether, eg, from strangers (by moving their discussions off the forum to an uncontrolled place) or themselves (as with the posts about DIY HRT).

In this specific case, regarding the Discord server referred to in the Times article, a Mermaids moderator did step in – to say that it was a “great idea”. This is a active rather than a tacit safeguarding failure.

The only thing that chat mod was interested in safeguarding was Mermaids legal liability!

Re special DBS checks for trans people:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4641046-new-report-from-kpss-on-dbs-checks-where-name-gender-are-changed-the-safeguarding-loopholes-that-creates

I just watched this. I think the PM would need to take care, not to be seen to be directing the police. She did also reiterate the importance of protecting under 18s.

I thought Miriam's question was a good one. Covered a lot of ground and it'll be in Hansard.

Here's the PMQ question. It starts at approx 33:35 minutes in:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001d3qs/prime-ministers-questions-12102022

Really good question by Miriam as it very succinctly got the key facts in and asked for police investigation.

As a pp said the PM can’t be seen to direct the police. However, there is nothing to stop No 10 asking the police if they are planning to investigate.

The good thing is the met police have this on their website www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/caa/child-abuse/breast-ironing-flattening/

Oh hey my comment pointing out that they didn’t verify their forum members were children and that they made the email addresses of forum members accessible to other forum members, got deleted.

I assume I got deleted for speculating what kind of person might design a system where adults can easily get access to the private emails of dozens of emotionally vulnerable children. So I won’t speculate about that, but it seems important to at least mention that their system had this significant weakness.

As a pp said the PM can’t be seen to direct the police.

I think this is an important point.

I get the impression that sometimes people don't understand why the PM or a minister just does not tell bodies like the police, or schools, the prison system, etc, that they need to do x, y and z.

There are good reasons that there is not direct political control over all of these kinds of groups. That many of them have something like a commissioner, or a professional body, or boards of trustees or something like that, who are responsible for the institutions, sometimes down to quite a low level. It's meant to prevent inappropriate political influence, and in some cases to allow for a lot of local community input into institutions.

It makes it hard to push in political change, but it's also an important protection.

Good to hear this being raised in the HoC, and by the sounds of it, Cates' question receiving a lot of support.

This is a really good point. And, even though I don't think it should be necessary, it's a direct challenge to those who somehow can't see what's wrong with a bloke in a mini skirt barely covering his penis, working for a children's charity.

A list of all the charities, and exactly how many of their trustees post pornographic images, or go to paedophile promoting conferences, would be very revealing.

would be very revealing.

Yikes, it certainly would!

Telegraph coverage:

twitter.com/safeschoolsuk/status/1580209812104572928?s=46&t=48x0QIzxedAA_TBlJnXlhWw

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/12/liz-truss-supports-calls-police-investigation-mermaids-trans/

Bravo Miriam.

Very good to have got on record and I'm delighted to hear that police involvement is now being openly spoken about.

You cannot blether on on your site about how seriously you take safeguarding in providing services for children, and then flip over onto the 'well people make their own decisions and it's on them if it all goes wrong' line to try and avoid responsibility.

Although this is very much the response distressed destransitioners receive. And is the very dark side of 'consent' and 'autonomy' for children.

Thanks @GeraniumKF and @TheClogLady

Thsts worse than I thought. Bloody hell. I got pulled up in using the word encouraged as the Times quoted tacit approval and randoms on twitter were arguing that “tacit approval” was ok. They would not agree that even tacit approval was a failure. But this example is blatant encouragement.

I’ve also been told that breast binders are ok to send out, and it’s a caring thing to do to make sure they fit properly. That porn is ok to do in your spare time as a children’s charity employee, and it’s not mermaid’s fault that they didn’t know about their pro-paedo trustee and as they sacked him immediately they found out so that’s fine.

The people arguing with me are determined not to look at mermaid’s failures. It’s all smoothed over with minimising and semantics. You’d think they’d want the very best for vulnerable children, but they are absolutely wedded to the ideology.

How people argue like this on twitter all day every day I’ve no idea. I’m exhausted. Need to delete twitter snd go and look at some pictures of kittens or sunsets.

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/orlando-fraser-kc-speech-to-the-charity-commission-annual-public-meeting-2022

A speech by the chair of the charity commission in which he introduces a 5 minute guide to political activity

www.gov.uk/guidance/political-activity-and-campaigning-by-charities

The Pink News take on PMQs today (archived copy): web.archive.org/web/20221012152000/www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/10/12/liz-truss-mermaids-trans-the-telegraph/

They're trying to do slightly better journalism more (I think?), just not very well.

How people argue like this on twitter all day every day I’ve no idea. I’m exhausted. Need to delete twitter snd go and look at some pictures of kittens or sunsets.

I try to only use Twitter to read and rarely comment on anything. Save your energy for the people that can actually make changes, even small ones.

Write to your MP - Baroness Nichols suggests always cc’ing someone else in (and making sure they all know someone else can read it) so email your MP and if you can find out anything re: likely opposition candidates, add them, and maybe your local cllr and the leader of your council.

if you email a head teacher, add a governor and a local cllr in.

fill in all the relevant government consultations as they happen (there is usually at least one on the go).

and talk to friends in real life. That way if something comes up at say, your kids school, you already have a loose network of other parents who will consign letters or attend meetings.

Twitter is a cess pool. Only good for screenshotting the dangerous crap the other side spouts.

The adult who encouraged the discord chat can presumably access it, along with anyone else who sees the chat log or gets the digest email -only takes a shared link on the Mermaids forum then anyone with the link can join the discord completely anonymously. Would be very easy for an adult to impersonate a child

obvs I’m not saying that actually happened, but the discord app is rated as 17 up, so any responsible chat monitor should’ve said ‘sorry chatters, you are all too young for discord so you’ll have to shelve that plan for a few years - luckily you can all talk here, where IDs are verified and properly trained adults can look out for you’

Proof from the Apple App Store that Discord is rated 17+ (one straight screen shot and one with the age rating magnified)

Just sent her an email thanking her, I think it's important to show we appreciate it.

I think Pink News is shitting itself right now as it tries to figure out how to handle this Mermaids stuff. As much of a idiot as he comes across, Benjamin Cohen is probably an intelligent man and he knows when things have gone too far, and he doesn't want to look like he is undermining safeguarding of kids (unlike Owen Jones or Jameela Jamil who apparently still don't give a shit).

I will be really interested to see what Pink News do with all this going forward.

Also, slight aside, but is Miriam Cates really the MP for Penistone, or is that a typo?!

It’s pronounced Penny-stun.

Also, having looked at Twitter the last few days I really think we need to strap ourselves in because I think things are about to get really ugly. We are going to see just how low TRAs are willing to go, and also how much they really really don't give a shit for the safety of women and children.