Change of CEO at mermaids…

[backaftera2yearbreak]

mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/susie-green-leaves-mermaids/

Reading Twitter there are a few dedicated Susie fans who flat out refuse to accept that her taking her son to Thailand aged 16 to have his genitals removed which is medically known as castration happened despite the Ted talk being posted where she admits it.
I just cannot get my head around the fact that they can deny she did this.

You cannot put pictures of a kid self harming on social media to promote the problem because of the accepted social contagion issue with other forms of self harm.

It absolutely beggars belief that it is fine to promote self harming even if it causes social contagion if the child says they are trans.

There are so many girls in my daughters peer group (autistic and unable to be at school) who are now identifying as transboys or non binary and all of a sudden it's acceptable to post all of this stuff on social media and everyone is saying they are stunning and brave (or words to that effect).

it's no wonder they, and their families, are happy to embrace it as they literally turn from invisible children who no one gives a shit about into a special category. Suddenly it is very wrong to discriminate against them, everyone is a bigot.

SG may be ok in the US for a bit but I do think there will be a backlash. As I say it won't be a moral rights-based backlash it will be a capitalist panic. A lot of corporations are wokewashing and that doesn't work if detransitioners start to bring successful cases or links to paedophile apologists are found.

The thing that has ultimately damaged Mermaids is the withdrawal of funding because of the safeguarding scandals. Similarly, large corporations will just walk away from all the trans issues if it looks like they might get tainted by association. You only have to look at how corporations have jumped on the pride bandwagon - how many of them really adjust their service model to support LGB rights - I bet they still deal with homophobic countries.

except it is being spun as withdrawal of funding after a hateful campaign by TERFs, rather than because of safeguarding failures

The problem comes back to CAHMS not being fit for purpose and the criteria for referral being bollocks.

One issue I'm facing with my son and a possible adhd referral is the fact he is meeting all his targets.

It's only because he's exceeding in certain things and he's got clear ability that's not necessarily getting met that school are doing anything at all now. Whether that will continue I don't know. Dh has a history of behavioural issues at school which started from exactly the same age so we know how it could pan out.

Its bonkers. You might have a genuine problem but until its demonstrably a problem in the eyes of others, no one fucking cares and even then there's no guarantee you can access services.

And the good law project go for getting medical help for trans kids as a separate and singular group rather than merely representative of a wider issue over poor diagnostic services and access to support at an early age.

Looking at Twitter very few other than the faithful are really believing the spin - they hired a paedophile apologist as a trustee of a charity helping vulnerable children. They have a major newspaper investigating them sending breast binders to children. It will be interesting over the next few days to see if something more comes out.

@RedToothBrush has he got an EHCP, a parental request for an EHCNA is worth it. I had to do that for my daughter. She now has theraputic needs met via her EHCP which goes some way to mitigate how awful CAMHS are.

You may have already done this of course .

But I agree that GLP is massively missing the mark, but hasn't JM got a personal interest in affirmation, which possibly explains it.

But you are right, autistic and ADHD kids just aren't interesting enough, unless they also ID as trans. Which I believe was in the interests of CAMHS because they could then signpost to GIDS (not sure if they still do this now in the light of CASS) or Mermaids. Case closed. Waiting list reduced.

However it's spun does not change the funding crunch though.

Unless Mermaids can get a big US benefactor with a vested pharmaceutical interest, its got a problem that can't be spun away.

Especially in the midst of a cost of living crisis where many of its allies are going to seriously strapped for cash.

The fashionable charities to donate to are now more likely to be things about food banks not gender identity too.

Mermaids as a charity in trouble needs a safe pair of hands with a salary to match to get out of the problem. No one with ability is going to go for the poison chalice for peanuts.

So whoever they get next I'd argue is going to be coming from a limited pool with limited good experience.

It makes you wonder if the deafening silence amongst the usual suspects regarding SG 'leaving' Mermaids is because they know something else is coming out.

I find it strange that none of those who praised SG to the skies are posting good wishes for her future, thanking her for the work she did and lamenting her loss to Mermaids or indeed outrage that she has gone and loads of it's all the fault of....

Definitely a fishy whiff in the air.

I can’t see Green being investigated by the police unless it’s for financial fraud.

Not only did she effectively capture her local force and have a lot of friends there (which is how myself/KJK got ourselves investigated by the police), but it wouldn’t be seen as being in the public interest.

I know this board would disagree on the public interest front, but we aren’t the police and the case is way too complex for the average copper. It would have to be driven from on high.

Green was a lynchpin in all of this. She was an extremely effective campaigner, using her own personal story to drive change, so it isn’t a case of throwing a useful idiot under the bus.

I agree though, it’s not enough for Mermaids to fall. A statutory inquiry is what is needed here, for wider questions to be asked.

In years to come, sadly, there will likely be something like the inquiry into institutional child sex abuse to examine how many people were physically snd/or emotionally harmed by the way in which Mermaids and transitioning of children embedded itself into society.

I feel sore over what happened to my family as a result of Green (my DH got yeeted as a governor of the Catholic school our DC attended on the morning I made the front pages over Green, because in an antediluvian decision, they decided to hold a priest accountable for his wife’s Catholic and now mainstream views). We were caused so much hurt and lost a lot of friends for pointing out that transitioning children was wrong.

But at least, unlike these poor kids, we still have our bodily integrity and our mental health.

Schadenfreude is so natural but we have to still keep putting the children and vulnerable front and centre.

Mermaids and their ethos has to exist to endorse the concept that middle aged men have always been trans.

Mermaids being told that going forward they must be accountable to these people.

Taking this opportunity to improve accountability to trans communities would be a powerful signal that service users can maintain confidence in the future direction of Mermaids as a world leading trans support and advocacy organisation.

We are no where near that stage yet. But it looks like the school have been saying there was no problems with his behaviour (despite me explicitly asking) for a year.

Shit has recently hit the fan because DS was put with a child who had bad behaviour because DS had good behaviour (but still clear adhd) and things have rapidly gone downhill.

To be told that they may not be able to refer despite it being clear there's an issue, because he is smart enough to get by is fucking depressing enough.

We will need to go through due process but the system at its very basic entry is not fit for purpose on any level.

If DS was solidly average he would not be getting the attention he currently is and that boils my piss tbh. He clearly was close enough to exceeding at his Yr2 SATs for it for them to be a case worth trying to argue. That's just wrong.

Has anyone actually rung Mermaids? I'm really curious and might give it a go, just so I can gently overturn what they tell me. It really doesn't take much to do it, I'm perversely interested to hear a helpline worker try to convert me to their ideology. It would at least block that person from talking to someone less informed, or indeed, a child.

There's such a long list where this organisation is concerned. Rev Parker resigned in 2019 over Mermaids training and child protection in a CofE school.

This link includes his interaction with Bishop Cotterill who is now the Archbishop of York:

christianconcern.com/comment/a-bishop-a-vicar-and-mermaids-whos-misleading-whom/

It was covered in the Mail as well:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7070773/Vicar-resigns-schools-plan-eight-year-old-pupils-sex-change-secret-parents.html

Going back even further to 2017, a judge told a mother that her child must have no further contact with Mermaids:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4960080/Transgender-charity-banned-contacting-family.html

Hence that Telegraph byline is so important. Things were known. There were massive red flags. But no action was taken by those with the power to do so in government, and those with the public clout in public life to stand up and say no have been very limited indeed.

The byline:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/26/mermaids-chief-susie-green-steps-six-years/

Chief executive of Mermaids, Susie Green, has left the transgender children’s charity after six years that have included public scrutiny

It may not be a specific criminal offence, but it's most certainly unlawful to remove a child's healthy body parts, whatever their sex.

It is. The problem is that if you do it in another country, you're not subject to UK laws. If you smoke cannabis on holiday in the Netherlands, for example, you're not going to be prosecuted when you come home.

The reason that parents who take their daughters abroad for FGM can be prosecuted is that a specific law was created to deal with that scenario. Before that law was in place, what they were doing wasn't illegal.

It's mind blowing when you think how fucked up this all is.

Green managed to get Posie Parker threatened with arrest, for saying publicly that Susie Green had had their child's penis removed. And because saying that can't possibly be an offence, she decided to go after the terminology.

And the police meekly complying. it's so fucked up.

The fashionable charities to donate to are now more likely to be things about food banks not gender identity too.

I was at an event the other week where a comedian very popular with that particular crowd was speaking. He mentioned having fundraised for Mermaids in the past and I looked round to see who was applauding - I estimated that it was fewer than half the attendees. Now, it's a mixed demographic, with a genderwoo-ist element, to be sure, but still very varied, and some might not have known who Mermaids are, although the word "trans" was mentioned. However, I'd have expected those who didn't know to have been applauding just because they like the comedian.

When the same comedian mentioned that he would shortly be raising money for the food banks and Shelter, everybody applauded.

The beauty of the trans child is its media friendly and can be clearly visually seen. Whereas adhd or autism is invisible in a photograph, self harm is off limits and sexual abuse has legal implications and issues over the right to privacy.

None of these things exist in the world of the trans kid or the drag artist kid.

Celebrities can't exploit the issues for their own benefit in the same pr friendly way.

RedToothBrush I cannot like your post enough. These are children who are in a great deal of distress and that is hard. It is not pretty, it is not uplifting, there is no easy solution,. They are extremely vulnerable children and what responsible parent would showcase their child in the way that Susie and some other parents do?

I think there is a need for a great deal of publicity about the issue in order for change to be accepted, but ultimately once that happens, I hope it vanishes from the spotlight and these children and families are able to quietly get the appropriate support that they need.

Have thought some more about what might be going on at Mermaids. I think we can be 99% certain that Green has left in a hurry because a scandal is about to break. The most likely thing is that the Charities Commission has unearthed more of what we already know - an absence of proper vetting practices in recruiting staff and trustees; a failure to implement safeguarding around things like chat groups and phoneline support; poor data protection.

While it would be good if the police were finally involved or the charity was about to be slammed by the judge in the LGBA court case, that seems less likely.

Good luck. Remember the bar is quite low for asking for an ECHNA, the only criteria are :

whether the child or young person has or may have special educational needs (“SEN”); and
whether they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHC plan.

Don't forget that the child does not need to be 2 years behind and they do not need to have already spent £6000 both common myths perpetrated by Schools and LAs.

The beauty of an assessment is that it unlocks an Ed Psych assessment and report which isn't diagnostic of ADHD but they are more attuned to varieties in presentations, which can help with the 2 setting criteria needed for the ADHD assessment referral.

Perhaps something to consider in the future if you feel necessary.

New role for Emma Watson?

I found mermaids to be completely fixated with transition . There was no part of mermaids that was designed to support a gender questioning child to explore things in a logical, safe way. no room for any other way but transition. no support of you where a parent who supported their child but ultimately felt the child just needed more time to work things out before making such huge decisions ( which ultimately was the case ) huge amount of parent shaming and coercion ( or attempts )

I hope one day this is widely known publicly as the intent of that organisation is self centred, one sided and harmful. I don’t event think they have capacity to realise this.

The harm they will have caused under the guise of help will be abhorrent when it comes out. I hope for the sake of children that need rational support and guidance that one day it does and soon.

as I understand the set up, mermaids sign post to Gender GP (the Webberleys) who are now based in Spain because he was struck off in the UK and they can still prescribe puberty blockers for UK children from there?

is that correct?

so is her livelihood at stake, if mermaids is less 'trans positive'?

Oh it will be Kids Company all over again where the corporates and celebs are concerned. They will have had no real idea what they were bandwagoning, and they will jump off as soon as the shit really starts hitting the fan. However, since they aided and abetted irreversible damage to children, never mind the harm they have done to a whole generation of children brainwashed by the gender cult, and to wider society forced to comply with all the rainbow washed policies, they should NEVER be let off the hook for this.

What I would like to see now is Mermaids reversing to pre 2015 Mermaids, which advocated watchful waiting and meaningful support to children suffering distress about their gender.

What’s the point? There are so many better organisations already established doing just this.