And I am glad to report that quite a few men come on the Women's Rights threads to see the arguments presented knowledgeably and succinctly. We of course welcome all constructive contributions!
There is an academic monograph on this by Prof Sarah Pedersen: "The Politicization of Mumsnet" (SocietyNow).
Just a little story, I had forgot this ever happened.
Some years ago I was out with my mum, a retired teacher. We bumped into someone she taught, now a teenager out with their grandparents. My mum was very confused as they were now a teenage girl but had been a boy when my mum taught them. She thought it was his cousin.
My mum went in to tell me that poor boy, while at school at been removed from his parents care by social services, some horrific abuse had happened, and placed with grandma. The child was deeply troubled (obviously) and poor grandma and the staff at school really struggled with his trauma. He started identifying as a girl in late primary school. Grandma turned to the "experts" and got "help". Turns out this "help" for this distressed young person came from mermaids/tavistock, puberty blockers and cross sex hormones prescribed. I know of two traumatised young people who have fallen fowl of mermaids/gendergp. I dread to think how many more young people have been affirmed and fed this bullshit, rather than getting the years of counselling and care they need
If this teenage "girl" ever wants to detransition and sue the Tavistock a class action lawsuit has been started by Pogust Goodhead. They are appealing for plaintiffs and parents at "Tavistock Compensation Claim": https://tavistockclaimlawyers.com/
As Private Eye should say, but is actually NOT saying: "This one will run and run".
Woo hoo! You Mumsnetters have been great in all this.
I was just listening on the radio about the contaminated blood scandal here in the UK. Absolutely dreadful. Lots of people barely know about it though - the wrongful transing of kids will be much, much bigger, right? And also different because so many people have been cheering it on (often in ignorance) but still. The transgender lie will shake the world, right!?
And there are many, many more LGBTQIA+ youth orgs out there promoting the same dangerous shite. It's a multi headed hydra and we need to chop it at the roots.
We shall see, this is the second time the Lottery has had Mermaids flagged up as problematic. The funding was paused, contact was made to question their 'doings', loosely, the Lottery then said they were satisfied with the response and released funds 😳🙄. I'm a pessimist by the way ..sorry! I hope I'm wrong 😬
Yeah, I hate feeling cynical but I'm not taking anything for granted when it comes to this. I just have a nasty feeling it will take more to bring Mermaids down. I really, really hope I'm wrong.
It's just gone right around Australia - syndicated in every state newspaper. So it's started in London and gone to the other end of the planet. WELL DONE. Quote: " Famed author J.K. Rowling has launched a thinly veiled swipe at Harry Potter actress Emma Watson after a transgender charity she supports was linked to a paedophile rights group. The British writer, 57, responded to a story in The Times which reported that Dr Jacob Breslow, a Trustee for UK-based children’s transgender charity Mermaids, stepped down on Monday after it emerged he had previously attended a conference for B4U-ACT, an organisation which supports paedophiles. B4U-ACT’s website calls for an “understanding about people in our communities with an attraction to children or adolescents” and for them to have the right to live “in truth and dignity”. Mermaids, which was founded in 1995 and has been supported by Watson, 32, as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, said it had been “made aware of Dr Breslow’s historical participation in a conference that is completely at odds with our values.”
Rowling, whose controversial comments about trans people have widely been deemed transphobic, hit out at “certain celebrities” who have backed Mermaids despite “red flags”.
“We’ve now learned that Mermaids appointed a paedophilia apologist as Trustee and that their online moderator encouraged kids to move onto a platform notorious for sexual exploitation,” Rowling wrote in a tweet. “This is a charity that’s achieved unprecedented influence in the UK.”
I really wish the press would get this right. JK Rowling has NEVER said anything " controversial" about "trans" people. Speaking the truth ,that sex is binary and it matters is considered "transphobic" by these ideologues because it disrupts their narrative.
How any sane individual can't see how, within ten years, that a 4,000 per cent rise in children wanting to change sex, primarily girls, is anything other than an appalling epidemic, rather than as a positive trend, is extraordinary. That this irrational epidemic is supported and sanctioned with corporate 'social responsibility' cash from the National Lottery, Lloyds, Barclays, NBC, Channel 4 and Starbucks which pays for the production of a slick public face for Mermaids is incredible given the awful stats and revelations which are coming to light with increased regularity. That the Cass Review's interim report revealed the extent of potential damage to children from an “affirmative approach” in an ill equipped setting suggests a wider ranging inquiry extending well beyond the NHS particularly to the 'information' about childhood gender dysphoria, from medics, schools and charities is clearly necessary. That Mermaids - "recognise however, that [Cass] is an interim report – those claiming this as a “win” or “lose” moment, do so prematurely" - suggests that IMO as more and more evidence of possible abuse and coercion of minors is revealed, the call for a thorough investigation into every facet of the issue is vital as the safeguarding of young people is the ultimate aim.
oh hurrah! lets hope that mermaids fails to wriggle out of it... remember behind them are Gendered Intelligence also a great proponent of 'trans camps'.
Then Stonewall. Then the entire cult of "gender ideology" including adult "Gender Identity" services. These are offering drugs and surgeries to vulnerable ADULTS with GD, which is an obsessive mental disorder. The adults are also incapable of giving valid consent to physical interventions for a mental disorder. Doctors were and are utterly wrong, arrogantlty abandoning their Hypocratic Oath to not intervene when they are not sure of successful treatment.
This is completely true. My then husband was 34, our sons were the age he was when his father physically abused him. He went to non-professionals and charlatans, asking them to tell him what he wanted to hear, that yes, you must go out on your own several nights a week, lie to your wife, pretend your family doesn't exist. So, he did.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
My now dead Trans ex-H left us when our two children (boy and girl) were 12 and 10. Gender dysphoria is an obsessive, infantilising mental disorder: the patient regresses to a childlike state of uncertainty about the fixed, binary nature of their biological sex. And he sought to be a sibling ("brother"!) to his own children. The precise age at which an individual understands that they are stuck with their sexed body varies: anywhere from about 7 (end of belief in magical thinking and Father Christmas) to 12-13 with the first real signs of puberty in mind and body.
We are sisters in a rare and difficult life history. I hope you thrive; iwhile the healing may take the rest of our lives, we can recover. Feel free to contact me through my blog if you wish to connect with another trans widow. Please consider posting your testimony at transwidowsvoices.org.
I have been in contact with Joanne (no surname) who is TinselAngel on Mumsnet and runs Tranwidowsvoices.org. I have written a piece for her.
Transwidows are so few that it is difficult to be invited onto a platform somewhere. I am trying to address the LGB Alliance conference on 21st October, but, with their present difficulties with Mermaids, this may have to be postponed. I will find your blog. Best wishes to you and family.
Thanks, Una-Jane. I appeared on Women's Declaration International YT channel (Female Erasure by Ute Heggen) after quite a bit of lobbying to include voices like ours. Several falsehoods mistakenly cause our stories to be ignored, especially that our stories will bother the women who've been coerced into staying. We experienced the mental health practitioners' presumptuous excesses and our then-husbands' narcissistic behaviors. Oprah Winfrey, who continuously cheered women who stayed in these hollow marriages, has much to answer for. I don't believe that we are so few, actually. But then no one keeps data on us. I hope we do connect and I thank Graham Linehan for this opportunity to find other trans widows.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
Though the scrutiny is now directly on a "body" who is hoisting themselves on their own petard, lets not celebrate too much....the investigation is not a statutory one by Charity Commission. Its just the early investigation which *may lead* to a statutory investigation. We don't know if the CC can look at all these other threads if they are outside of their remit.
Popcorn can be brought out to watch....
But when all is said and done, *even if this "body" does fall entirely* - it will be a Pyrrhic Victory.
Too many lives have been harmed, too many families have been harmed. The guilt, physical and mental pain will be felt by those individuals and the families for years to come. ~
Lets keep those people at the forefront in light of all this.
I agree we shouldn't crack open the champagne yet as it's far from a foregone conclusion that this will bring down Mermaids. However, all of these cases shine so much light into these dark murky corners and I can't see how, at the very least, this one won't be a massive contributer to that.
The Rational Lottery.
Hmmm, if this decision was prompted by the investigation then how come it wasn't announced when the Charity Commission revealed action would be taken?
The Lottery people probably have to contend with TRA pushback within their ranks like everybody else.
Knighthood for Mr Linehan incoming. 'Services to safeguarding'. Well done
Hell yes!
Mumsnet is the most sane site I have ever had the pleasure to peruse. Intelligent, common sense comments on there prevail.
And I am glad to report that quite a few men come on the Women's Rights threads to see the arguments presented knowledgeably and succinctly. We of course welcome all constructive contributions!
There is an academic monograph on this by Prof Sarah Pedersen: "The Politicization of Mumsnet" (SocietyNow).
Now to see them put behind bars...
Just a little story, I had forgot this ever happened.
Some years ago I was out with my mum, a retired teacher. We bumped into someone she taught, now a teenager out with their grandparents. My mum was very confused as they were now a teenage girl but had been a boy when my mum taught them. She thought it was his cousin.
My mum went in to tell me that poor boy, while at school at been removed from his parents care by social services, some horrific abuse had happened, and placed with grandma. The child was deeply troubled (obviously) and poor grandma and the staff at school really struggled with his trauma. He started identifying as a girl in late primary school. Grandma turned to the "experts" and got "help". Turns out this "help" for this distressed young person came from mermaids/tavistock, puberty blockers and cross sex hormones prescribed. I know of two traumatised young people who have fallen fowl of mermaids/gendergp. I dread to think how many more young people have been affirmed and fed this bullshit, rather than getting the years of counselling and care they need
Mermaids are evil.
If this teenage "girl" ever wants to detransition and sue the Tavistock a class action lawsuit has been started by Pogust Goodhead. They are appealing for plaintiffs and parents at "Tavistock Compensation Claim": https://tavistockclaimlawyers.com/
As Private Eye should say, but is actually NOT saying: "This one will run and run".
"Jimmy Saville meets thalidomide meets Kids Company" (credit: Lady Gargoyle commenting in ToL https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lottery-pauses-cash-for-trans-charity-mermaids-during-investigation-f5gw3cprf)
This may need repeating on many social media platforms please. These real life events need to be shared. There will be many, many …
Woo hoo! You Mumsnetters have been great in all this.
I was just listening on the radio about the contaminated blood scandal here in the UK. Absolutely dreadful. Lots of people barely know about it though - the wrongful transing of kids will be much, much bigger, right? And also different because so many people have been cheering it on (often in ignorance) but still. The transgender lie will shake the world, right!?
Not over yet, they'll fight like cornered badgers to keep the income stream.
Maybe the Lottery could give it to LGB Alliance instead then say, "Sorry, we spent it."
And there are many, many more LGBTQIA+ youth orgs out there promoting the same dangerous shite. It's a multi headed hydra and we need to chop it at the roots.
Let's hope this really is the end for Mermaids.
We shall see, this is the second time the Lottery has had Mermaids flagged up as problematic. The funding was paused, contact was made to question their 'doings', loosely, the Lottery then said they were satisfied with the response and released funds 😳🙄. I'm a pessimist by the way ..sorry! I hope I'm wrong 😬
Yeah, I hate feeling cynical but I'm not taking anything for granted when it comes to this. I just have a nasty feeling it will take more to bring Mermaids down. I really, really hope I'm wrong.
It's just gone right around Australia - syndicated in every state newspaper. So it's started in London and gone to the other end of the planet. WELL DONE. Quote: " Famed author J.K. Rowling has launched a thinly veiled swipe at Harry Potter actress Emma Watson after a transgender charity she supports was linked to a paedophile rights group. The British writer, 57, responded to a story in The Times which reported that Dr Jacob Breslow, a Trustee for UK-based children’s transgender charity Mermaids, stepped down on Monday after it emerged he had previously attended a conference for B4U-ACT, an organisation which supports paedophiles. B4U-ACT’s website calls for an “understanding about people in our communities with an attraction to children or adolescents” and for them to have the right to live “in truth and dignity”. Mermaids, which was founded in 1995 and has been supported by Watson, 32, as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, said it had been “made aware of Dr Breslow’s historical participation in a conference that is completely at odds with our values.”
Rowling, whose controversial comments about trans people have widely been deemed transphobic, hit out at “certain celebrities” who have backed Mermaids despite “red flags”.
“We’ve now learned that Mermaids appointed a paedophilia apologist as Trustee and that their online moderator encouraged kids to move onto a platform notorious for sexual exploitation,” Rowling wrote in a tweet. “This is a charity that’s achieved unprecedented influence in the UK.”
I really wish the press would get this right. JK Rowling has NEVER said anything " controversial" about "trans" people. Speaking the truth ,that sex is binary and it matters is considered "transphobic" by these ideologues because it disrupts their narrative.
Breslow didn't just attend the B4U-ACT conference though. He's written papers apparently promoting sexual activities with children. As we know.
How any sane individual can't see how, within ten years, that a 4,000 per cent rise in children wanting to change sex, primarily girls, is anything other than an appalling epidemic, rather than as a positive trend, is extraordinary. That this irrational epidemic is supported and sanctioned with corporate 'social responsibility' cash from the National Lottery, Lloyds, Barclays, NBC, Channel 4 and Starbucks which pays for the production of a slick public face for Mermaids is incredible given the awful stats and revelations which are coming to light with increased regularity. That the Cass Review's interim report revealed the extent of potential damage to children from an “affirmative approach” in an ill equipped setting suggests a wider ranging inquiry extending well beyond the NHS particularly to the 'information' about childhood gender dysphoria, from medics, schools and charities is clearly necessary. That Mermaids - "recognise however, that [Cass] is an interim report – those claiming this as a “win” or “lose” moment, do so prematurely" - suggests that IMO as more and more evidence of possible abuse and coercion of minors is revealed, the call for a thorough investigation into every facet of the issue is vital as the safeguarding of young people is the ultimate aim.
I didn't realise that the lottery gave money to this dreadful situation. How embarrassing for them
This funding should never resume.
With the daily horrors emerging since the investigation it is unthinkable they could recover.
oh hurrah! lets hope that mermaids fails to wriggle out of it... remember behind them are Gendered Intelligence also a great proponent of 'trans camps'.
Then Stonewall. Then the entire cult of "gender ideology" including adult "Gender Identity" services. These are offering drugs and surgeries to vulnerable ADULTS with GD, which is an obsessive mental disorder. The adults are also incapable of giving valid consent to physical interventions for a mental disorder. Doctors were and are utterly wrong, arrogantlty abandoning their Hypocratic Oath to not intervene when they are not sure of successful treatment.
This is completely true. My then husband was 34, our sons were the age he was when his father physically abused him. He went to non-professionals and charlatans, asking them to tell him what he wanted to hear, that yes, you must go out on your own several nights a week, lie to your wife, pretend your family doesn't exist. So, he did.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
You have put an idea in my head, thank you.
My now dead Trans ex-H left us when our two children (boy and girl) were 12 and 10. Gender dysphoria is an obsessive, infantilising mental disorder: the patient regresses to a childlike state of uncertainty about the fixed, binary nature of their biological sex. And he sought to be a sibling ("brother"!) to his own children. The precise age at which an individual understands that they are stuck with their sexed body varies: anywhere from about 7 (end of belief in magical thinking and Father Christmas) to 12-13 with the first real signs of puberty in mind and body.
We are sisters in a rare and difficult life history. I hope you thrive; iwhile the healing may take the rest of our lives, we can recover. Feel free to contact me through my blog if you wish to connect with another trans widow. Please consider posting your testimony at transwidowsvoices.org.
Ute
https://wordpress.com/post/uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com/4778
I have been in contact with Joanne (no surname) who is TinselAngel on Mumsnet and runs Tranwidowsvoices.org. I have written a piece for her.
Transwidows are so few that it is difficult to be invited onto a platform somewhere. I am trying to address the LGB Alliance conference on 21st October, but, with their present difficulties with Mermaids, this may have to be postponed. I will find your blog. Best wishes to you and family.
Thanks, Una-Jane. I appeared on Women's Declaration International YT channel (Female Erasure by Ute Heggen) after quite a bit of lobbying to include voices like ours. Several falsehoods mistakenly cause our stories to be ignored, especially that our stories will bother the women who've been coerced into staying. We experienced the mental health practitioners' presumptuous excesses and our then-husbands' narcissistic behaviors. Oprah Winfrey, who continuously cheered women who stayed in these hollow marriages, has much to answer for. I don't believe that we are so few, actually. But then no one keeps data on us. I hope we do connect and I thank Graham Linehan for this opportunity to find other trans widows.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com
Can you please check the address of your blog? It isn't directing properly. Thank you.
Though the scrutiny is now directly on a "body" who is hoisting themselves on their own petard, lets not celebrate too much....the investigation is not a statutory one by Charity Commission. Its just the early investigation which *may lead* to a statutory investigation. We don't know if the CC can look at all these other threads if they are outside of their remit.
Popcorn can be brought out to watch....
But when all is said and done, *even if this "body" does fall entirely* - it will be a Pyrrhic Victory.
Too many lives have been harmed, too many families have been harmed. The guilt, physical and mental pain will be felt by those individuals and the families for years to come. ~
Lets keep those people at the forefront in light of all this.
I agree we shouldn't crack open the champagne yet as it's far from a foregone conclusion that this will bring down Mermaids. However, all of these cases shine so much light into these dark murky corners and I can't see how, at the very least, this one won't be a massive contributer to that.