THREAD: Ethical issues with Mermaids. There's a lot to cover and 280 characters doesn't always allow for level of detail.
They’re a UK registered charity who support trans and gender non-conforming young people and their families. This is an admirable goal. Families and children in a complex and distressing situation ought to be able to access peer support. No-one is disputing that.
What they are not - scientists, child development experts, safeguarding professionals. And yet they are giving advice and providing resources to schools, police forces, youth organisations, the NHS etc.
There’s nothing wrong with a family support group being non-experts. The issue here is that they are passing themselves off as experts and getting their mer-fins all over public policy as if their 'affirmation only' position were backed by evidence.
Then there’s that court case. The Times reported it and then had to print a correction. This is often jumped on as ‘the entire article was a pack of lies and Mermaids were blameless’. Not the case.
The facts: the judge told the mother that Mermaids were to have no more contact with the child, and awarded residency to the father. This was because the mother, with Mermaids support, was raising the child as a girl. He didn’t want to be a girl.
Mermaids response to the ruling: “this is a huge injustice and transphobic practice. Devastating for the child. :(‘
The Times correction was that it was not ‘court ordered’ that Mermaids needed to stay away from the child - it was verbally ordered by the judge. That’s it.
The Times correction was that it was not ‘court ordered’ that Mermaids needed to stay away from the child - it was verbally ordered by the judge. That’s it.
In Mermaids own words: “Following the proceedings, the mother informed us that the judge had ordered the child should have no further contact with the charity.”
There’s more. Mermaids make heavy use of discredited trans youth suicide statistics. This goes against Samaritans guidance on suicide reporting, and the figures themselves are both unreliable and misrepresented. It was a survey about ideation in a self-selecting group.
I have a bit of personal experience with Mermaids. I’m not going to go into much detail as it’s outing, and I keep my Twitter anonymous for personal safety reasons.
I attended one of their talks and asked them how they tell the difference between a trans and GNC/gay/lesbian kid.
I attended one of their talks and asked them how they tell the difference between a trans and GNC/gay/lesbian kid.
They couldn't answer. They also called me something rather offensive when I asked where I sit on their gender ‘spectrum’ as someone who rejected feminine norms as a child (probs due to autism as well as not being straight) but grew up to be a happy, non-dysphoric bi and NB adult.
Autistic kids are massively over represented in those seeking gender ID therapy. When I was younger (showing my age) it used to be called ‘wrong planet syndrome’. Now it seems to have evolved into ‘wrong body’.
Mermaids aren’t experts in autism, or very much beyond their own direct experiences. Are they the right group to advise parents of distressed autistic kids - who often show gender variance as part of their autism?
Those I’ve met in person seem like decent, loving parents, but what they as an org are doing is profoundly unethical and anti-science. They are putting vulnerable children on a lifelong medicalised path because it fits their ideology, not because it’s best for the child.
That's before we get onto the eye-watering sexism and homophobia regularly expressed by their leadership. Gay people are 'deviant' and Barbie is the most womanly woman, whereas GI Joe is the manliest of the male sex.
So here we are. A parents group, largely staffed by decent people, that has gained influence far beyond common sense and sanity due to an ideologically driven leadership. I hope I’ve helped the merscales fall from a few eyes.
