Football club fundraising for Mermaids

[MARYCAT8]

I am part of a women's football club for over 30s. It is for all abilities and over the past 5ish months it has become a weekly activity I thoroughly look forward to with a diverse group of women who have really bonded. We've been invited to play with another club (first time!) visiting the area. There is a fee to cover costs (pitch hire etc). All good until the final line...."with the excess (fees) going to Mermaids." The other club is for women and non binary people age 16+ and much bigger than ours but still a charity. Why doesn't the money just go to the club? I don't want to support this. It is the first time I have seen Mermaids being funded by an event I might otherwise have attended. I am aware there was a lot of fundraising previously but I thought with the recent investigations into the charity this had changed. It isn't my club so won't affect me other than this event but I am still a bit shocked that a women's football club is funding a charity like this rather than investing in their own club.

Do you feel brave enough to gently query this?

Perhaps you could point out that Mermaids has a huge income and several corporate and celebrity backers - so a community football club probably needs the money a lot more! We are probably talking tens of pounds, aren't we? A couple of hundred? That's nothing to Mermaids but could be really useful to a grassroots club.

Somehow you need to raise the question as to why they're donating to a controversial children's sex change charity that's in the middle of a charity Commission investigation about their lack of safeguarding - including a paedophile / porn scandal?

This. But it depends whether you think they will believe you and whether the people at both clubs will reflexively be loyal to what they are still under the impression is a progressive and worthwhile cause, or not.

This exactly, this is a very valid reason to not want to contribute to a particular charity.

I would ask innocently - given the terrible scandals around Mermaids, and the implications for the lack of safeguarding of children. Surely as the other club specifically includes non-binary, they would be even more aware of how very vulnerable gender non-conforming children are & how important it is that they have somewhere safe & supportive - ie not with people involved in porn and MIP signposting them to unregulated spaces….
ok, that’s probably too ranty 😊

The high priests enbis in that club are most likely looking out for heretics terfs.
Any gentle questioning will turn into a witch trial bun fight.
Find out who their safe guarding officer is and email them the details surrounding mermaids. Add in cc the regional safe guarding officer.
Or speak to your club's safe guarding officer and see what they propose.

I do wonder what women's football clubs mean when they say they are for 'women and non-binary people'. It's becoming more common.

Say that you’re worried about the club’s image if it gets out

I'd be concerned I'd be up against male opposition and the physical risks that might bring.

It's happened to me and it was no fun.

Thanks for all the comments. I think I will say that I am not going and give the reason that the charity is not one I want to support because of its ongoing safeguarding investigation. I really don't want to fall out with the other women in my own club. I'm happy to agree to disagree with them but I am nervous about falling out if we get into a long discussion about it. I wish it was easier to discuss without fear of rejection.

As it isn't my club, the mixed team (women and non binary) is not really an issue. If my own club changed its rules I would have questions about how that would work for sure.

This other club actually includes: "All women, non binary and transgender people". According to gender ideology that covers the whole of the gender spectrum so I am left wondering how they get away with excluding men. 🤔

They won't exclude men. Most women's football teams and all leagues as far as I've seen will include transwomen and there's nothing you can do about it.

Yes, I assumed the club includes transwomen but their wording implies they might also include transmen but can't be sure.

I've seen far fewer transmen in women's football. None at amateur levels. They could be self-excluding or it might just be that football is still a relatively uncommon sport for females, but very common for males so transwomen players outnumber transmen. Testosterone is also a banned performance inhancing drug at all levels, but there's no testing outside elite levels.

www.gov.uk/government/news/regulator-announces-statutory-inquiry-into-mermaids

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trustee-of-the-transgender-charity-mermaids-quits-over-speech-to-paedophile-aid-group-jkjn2jrk9

www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mermaids-charity-commission-investigation-transgender-b2237829.html%3famp

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/02/mermaids-transgender-charity-formal-investigation/

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/02/mermaids-transgender-charity-formal-investigation/&ved=2ahUKEwiL8L_ipeH9AhXrUqQEHVCQBhsQFnoECCQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2_yMZZYmHB0qMTnSkOskIv

Forward on the articles linked to above especially the first two. First one being the notice by the charity commission of its investigation. n
The second one is the Times newspaper article regarding the Mermaids pedophile apologist trustee.