When I got a phone call from Mermaids!

[starfishsunrise]

Mermaids in the news again has given me a flashback to about 6 years ago.
When all this trans stuff was new to me and I got a note from my son to say he was actually a girl (it's in LGBT children section if anyone want to dig)
Mermaids was the first organisation I approached. I must have emailed them a question or joined a chat board to express my shock.Can't remember which exactly.

But I got an unsolicited phone call from them.
The founder( ?) asked if I needed help. It was about as pro trans as you can imagine
I basically said I hoped it was a phase. ( social contagion! ) but I asked where they had found my number. They had used my email address and found me and my job and told me I was easy to find(!) It was all rather disturbing because I wanted to keep my sons situation anonymous.
I haven't heard from them since but I suppose I'm still in their database somewhere.

I found it weird then and I wish I had taken more notice of what was said but at that time I had no idea about them.

Not a great deal of point to my post but I wanted to get it off my chest.
My son is still my son. He's 21 now. Still some gender dysphoria there but that's a post for another day.

Hmm - that would not be regarded as good practice and could potentially be a breach of data usage rules. Eg you probably didn't give them permission to use your email that way.

Is anyone surprised?

Against data protection law then and now to do that. They've already been in trouble with the Information Commissioner for shitty data handling practices.

ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2021/07/ico-fines-transgender-charity-for-data-protection-breach-exposing-sensitive-personal-data/

Probably the least of their governance issues.

That sounds sketchy & unethical.

They should have contacted you via email but searching your phone number is creepy.

Suspect other people are thinking back to their experiences with this Charity & lodging historical complaints now.

Wonder if they are tracking down minors to peddle their shit

That's against data protection, surely? Do you have any records or written follow up confirming what happened?

Fuck me.

I’m surprised in a not surprised way.

(best wishes to your son )

Fucking groomers

Also, you should write to them and ask them to take you the fuck off their database

Maybe do a Subject Access Request first?

Maybe another issue that the Charity Commission needs to know about if you feel able to contact them?

Good to hear that your son is doing a lot better now.

Subject access request is a good idea

This is definitely against current data protection law. GDPR only came into force in 2018 though so I'm unsure what the rules at the time would have been.

ico.org.uk/

Scroll down to the Your Data Matters bit.

You have a right to a copy of what they hold. And you have a "right to be forgotten".

Hope your son is easing his way into adulthood. He clearly has a supportive mum.

@LavenderfortheBees , it was against the old rules too.

They called you at work?

this is well dodgy

Really pleased to hear your son is still a son. My daughter is 13. Had no previous gender dysphoria until PSHE lesson in year 8. The very next day she tells me she thinks she is a boy because she liked Thomas the Tank Engine and trains when she was little. Mermaids have trained Police, Schools, MP's, GP's. It's a crazy world and it's giving me huge anxiety about her future. She's autistic and a perfectly normal teenager, plays with beads and spends time drawing and painting, loves cooking, making up songs. She's never had any problems with being a girl until someone else put those gender stereotypes in her head and then she re interpreted her childhood as male. It's bizarre.

Sick bastards

+1

Pobblenotoes - can you add your story anonymously to the website freetospeak.co.uk which is collecting pupils and parents experiences of gender ideology in schools.

Pobblenotoes you might want to put your daughter in contact with Gender Critical Autistics on Facebook. It’s run by my adult autistic DD, who campaigns against the transitioning and sterilising of autistic girls. She was at the rally for women at Holyrood on Thursday.

This is so dodgy. Please do report to the ICO and the Charity Commission

Second that. That's really inappropriate, as well as being downright weird.

jeez at this stage it wouldn't surprise me

Ok I'm new to this board after recent posts

as other people have said, you must surely be able to legally call them out on how they got your details