Thread by @AidanCTweets

I would kindly suggest, if you are really concerned about safeguarding of trans kids, you don't report those concerns to a guy on the internet who was let go from Childline because he was practicing a form of what some consider to be trans conversion therapy on the phonelines. 1/

Obviously, other people, like those at Christian Concern, who ask "when will this trans madness end?", and at the famously pro-LGBT+ Daily Mail, read his actions differently. To Christians and the Right-Wing media he is a hero.

With "friends" like these etc... 2/

James is a former barrister who was re-training to become a therapist, but he was expelled from university. He is now taking a case against the university and has raised the usual 10s of thousands the gender critical movement is able to raise for personal cases like this. 3/

He has also formed Thoughtful Therapists" (even though, he is not AFAIK a qualified therapist?) which seeks to add some caveats to legislation to ban trans conversion therapy, which would allow people like him to continue to fight against the affirmation of trans kids. 4/

At best, he is a controversial figure, and at worst he is a completely unqualified internet crank trying to directly "save" trans children, elevated to prominence in a transphobic UK-based conspiracy theory cult. Either way, IMO, not an authority to report "concerns" too. 5/

If you are a trustee of any organisation who professes to help children, and you have legitimate safeguarding concerns which are dismissed in-house, there are actual authorities you can report those concerns to that aren't "some guy called James on the net with a portfolio." 6/

Clearly, James, and the wider gender critical movement, have an overall agenda against the core mission of Mermaids, a UK charity that has existed for 25 years.

Going to the GC movement with "safeguarding concerns" immediately undermines the legitimacy of those concerns. 7/

It's almost three years since the gender critical movement took a serious crack at Mermaids. Back then, they managed to get a 500k Lottery grant withheld pending an investigation by the Lottery. They were exuberant, until... 8/

...@Hbomberguy, streaming himself playing Donkey Kong, raised 340k, while also getting people like Alexandra Occasio Cortez to appear on the stream. It was a PR disaster for the GC movement, compounded when the Lottery concluded their review and gave Mermaids the 500k grant. 9/

After the Keira Bell decision against the Tavistock was rightly overturned, and an appeal is unlikely to be granted, or to be successful (and Keira has been spotted out on anti-vax protests now) it seems they are gearing up to take another serious crack at Mermaids in 2022. 10/

I really do feel for the people who work at organisations who are just trying to help transgender kids, while also having to constantly deal with social and mainstream media panic about transgender people getting support at an earlier age (which is a good thing.) 11/

It is also literally impossible for any organisation at all to profess support for trans people, or use trans inclusive language online, without being piled on by this well-funded internet mob.

I really hope that this trans panic begins to disappate in 2022. 12/