Change of CEO at mermaids…

[backaftera2yearbreak]

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

Yes that’s a good point. Let’s hope that’s the case

I know that branch of Office Angels. I used them when I needed an accounts assistant and they didn't have any fully qualified accountants at all. The highest level of candidates was AAT which is slightly higher than a BTEC. Surely, that can't be the Mermaids role? I'd have thought the salary would be a lot higher than 65k for such a high profile charity?

It's not a big charity, 60k doesn't really surprise me. The six figure roles usually tend to come with the much larger enterprises.

According to their accounts it not. It’s broadly in line with what you would expect for their income but realistically to get someone good you’d be looking into about £80-85k based on the decent CEO’s I know who could do that job.

Fantastically helpful timeline, Red - thanks.

No one goes on holiday in November, do they? So it seems likely that as the LGBA court case ended, the trustees said something to Susie Green like "You have massively f*ed up bringing this court case" and told her to take some leave while they decided what to do next. And what they decided was to sack her.

What's amusing in all of that is that during that period Green decided to use the Guardian as her own personal mouthpiece to justify her behaviour (it's possible the decision to talk to the Guardian was made by the press office, but I'd put money on it being Green herself) and the ever-gullible Guardian went along with it. At the exact point Mermaids was imploding.

I’ve given a lot of thought to this and I believe the difference in the treatment protocols for XY and XX transitioners result in completely different outcomes.

XX are unlikely to continue with blockers or have gonads removed after testosterone is introduced as it dominates the visible secondary sexual characteristics. So at the same time as desired physical appearance is in place so is puberty linked brain development.

XY have to continue to counter the testosterone implants post introduction of estrogen so blocker continuation or gonad removal is required. No puberty linked brain development is likely to happen.

XX - mid twenties seems to link the brain development to detransition rates.

XY - detransition only seems to happen when the regime of hormone blocking is discontinued.

Implants - impacts 🙄

Really interesting, @BaseDrops - and hopeful for the XXs, at least.

Sadly, we will acquire plenty of empirical data about what happens, over the next few years.

*I'd really like to see some research into the mental maturation of these individuals. Jackie, Jazz, etc.

Are we actually dealing with totally undeveloped children in adult bodies? And is there any way to help them grow up? Because although the full realisation of what's happened could be devastating to them, deliberately keeping them emotionally and mentally immature can't be right.*

They are two very different cases. Jazz has grown up on a TV show and is still at home, seems to have little personal freedom or maybe doesn't seek it due to inability to manage independence, probably more related to family circumstances than the puberty blockers. Also suffering depression and mental ill health.

Jackie, despite what was done in childhood, seems to have pursued an independent path and kept private. I happened to have a look through the twitter account shortly before the mass deletions and although there were a few posts supportive of mermaids/trans ideology, and the infamous ones about surgery correcting "a small birth defect" for the most part there were posts about skiing/mountain related sport and music gigs, overall an infrequent user of social media. Having cleared the twitter account SG remains the single person JG is following. I think Jackie is probably living a fairly good life, in private and quite happy.

The thing about realising what happened to them - if a child is told they are the opposite sex from a tiny age, obviously they soon believe that and know no different, especially when this path has been pushed/enabled with the drugs and surgery. And if they are quite happy then there is no need to question it.

I think the total brainwashing would be hard to come back from and although I have an idea what sort of young man JG would be if he had been allowed to play with his dolls and grow up normally, living as a woman who wears jeans and cowboy boots, goes climbing and skiing, is a life not unlike my DD, and a perfectly happy one that either sex can cheerfully pursue. I might have thoughts if a tall strong woman suddenly started dominating female climbing competitions but that's another debate. I doubt JG will ever detransition.

Of course there may be medical problems in the future...

As to research, I think what I'm trying to say in a long winded way, is there are many other factors that will play into the emotional and mental maturity of individuals not just the puberty blockers. JG finding their own path is possibly a more unusual outcome but a good one in this instance.

I'm not sure we have enough evidence as there were (10-15 years ago) very few children who started blockers at tanner stage two like Jackie and Jazz. We know that stopping blockers doesn't restart puberty - if you carry on taking them until the end of puberty and move onto cross sex hormones, you don't go through puberty.

I would expect girls who started blockers at the start of puberty to have their cognitive development stunted in just the same way. I suspect there is also less pressure on girls to start blockers early as girls who don't go through puberty won't pass as well.

And that's really what it's all about - passing. No matter what anyone says about avoiding the distress of puberty. Adult male transitioners spend a fortune on surgery to change their appearance. Adult females don't.

It never ceases to amaze that we have done this to children without a fucking clue what would happen to them 😞

It's much easier generally for females to pass for males than the other way round.

I'm tall, flatchested and reckon if I had a brutal haircut and wore typically male clothing I could probably pass for male at a first glance.

My partner wouldn't have a hope in hell of passing as female even if he spent a fortune on surgery.

The total lack of responsibility or conscience is baffling isn't it?

I spend a lot of time at the moment wonder WTAF has happened to the world in the past decade.

Well my cv is up to date, I’ve made my insta public and made myself totally googlable. Wish me luck @Boiledbeetle im going in 😀😀😀. Can I put you all down as references?

There's no ethical way to do any of this research, it seems to me. How could you have a control group and a group undergoing PB/CSH interventions and it wouldn't result in a group with the problems as set out by Biggs? These things are known now, you couldn't ethically test for results, could you?

users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/Biggs_ExperimentPubertyBlockers.pdf

Yes, some of the stuff hoping Jackie "wakes up" and sues the parents doesn't seem to realise how traumatic that would be for someone. It's not like the physical changes can be reversed.

Agreed. I'm hoping that this was the right choice for Jackie.

The Charity Commission website says that Mermaids has one employee with a package of £60-£70k.

It does strike me as a low salary for a Charity CEO, I had a look on the Charity Commission website at charities near me (East Anglia) with a similar level of turnover and of the three I could find, the listed packages (presumably for the CEO) range between £100k-£200k.

The stopping blockers and puberty point - while I don’t think full puberty is experienced there is still some circulating estrogen while ovaries are present.

Post menopausal women with identified BRCA1/2 issue are offered ovary removal despite the “inactive” state of their ovaries, which implies that the mere presence of ovaries has an impact on estrogen receptive functions.

It is purely a theory, I wish there was enough actual clinical data to evidence.

Not all medical interventions are tested using randomised controlled trials. Any attempt at evaluation, even just following up the initial patients properly, would have been better than what actually happened in most centres - nothing.

But I agree that nothing ever justified the risks inflicted on these kids. And SG, with her ‘Better a live girl than a dead boy’ lie was at the heart of pushing these experimental treatments on kids.

Of course and as for what to write about you, I've started already:

I've known happy for at least three days. I would trust them with the life of my first born mongoose. I can personally guarantee their dbs check is enhanced, so that's all fine. She will be an asset to your charity as she is very erm....happy?

Her work on the inner thoughts of MAPS is stunning, you would be amazed at what Tanzania is thinking.

Her inner thigh, arm and vulva photo shoot is used exclusively to teach the 2 to 4 age bracket on how to order pizza.

She's my first choice of person to employ. If i was looking for staff I'd hire her myself.

Re. the salary seeming low, wasn't Mermaids run completely by volunteers until 2016 when Susie Green became the first member of staff? I can see that starting salary being on the lower end, given no one else was being paid and that was only 6 years ago.

Thanks @boiled, with that recommendation I’ll be a shoo in. It’s so accurate. I’ll soon have mermaids in a much better place.

Isn't it a bit like the recruitment for that period dignity officer in Scotland where the ad went into the wrong category and so only one a few applicants spotted it and applied?

FWIW we pay our CEO £50k to oversee a staff of 25-30 and about 60 volunteers to run an Advice charity (benefits/debt/employment, I don't recall any gender discrimination issues). We always advertise senior roles in the Grauniad and Charity press (even though it isn't cheap, it gives us a good mix of applicants).

It wouldn't surprise me if that ad was for mermaids, they are a small and fairly amateur organisation, the details also fit in terms of location, salary, the challenges they face.

The real question is how such an amateur self invested organisation managed to get the influence and donations it did.