Mermaids' Corporate Collaborators

On Sunday The Telegraph published a deeply shocking article about Mermaids supplying young girls with dangerous breast binders without the knowledge and/or consent of their parents and the charity’s staff using lies and manipulation to push vulnerable kids into medical transition.

Although Mermaids describes itself as ‘a small charity’, it is making big money. In the financial year ending 31st March 2021, its total income was £1,847,868.

The bulk of that money came from ‘donations and legacies’.

Mermaids is no stranger to controversy and has been subject to numerous allegations of wrongdoing, so just who has been funding this organisation? And why? Listed below are some of the charity’s most prominent financial supporters in recent years.

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY

At the end of 2018 The National Lottery awarded Mermaids a grant of £500,000.

Andrew Gilligan @mragilligan

Delinquent transgender children's charity Mermaids to get £500k from the National Lottery: MP calls for the payment to be stopped pending an investigation.

thetimes.co.ukChild sex-change charity Mermaids handed £500,000 by national lotteryA transgender charity that campaigns for children to be given prohibited sex-change treatment has been awarded £500,000 by the national lottery.The payment to Mermaids has angered MPs, feminists and women’s organisations, who accuse the charity of bullying doctors, promoting falsehoods and using “em

When this decision was met with complaints and opposition, The National Lottery launched an investigation into the allegations being made.

In February 2019 The National Lottery completed its investigation into the concerns raised about its funding of Mermaids. It concluded, “This review did not find any grounds to withhold funding from Mermaids UK. The grant has therefore been approved by the England Funding Committee.”

However, as journalist Andrew Gilligan pointed out, it did so ‘on grounds which are provably false’.

Andrew Gilligan @mragilligan

The National Lottery has approved its £500k grant to Mermaids. Its review does so on grounds which are provably false. When the public inquiry comes, the Lottery will have to account for these falsehoods.

Here are a few examples:

1. Mermaids denied that it “Encourage families to seek treatments from Private Practice that don’t follow UK NHS guidelines”.

But, as we have reported in the past, Mermaids had longstanding links with disgraced gender doctors, Michael & Helen Webberley, and to dubious offshore clinic, Gender GP, which is unregulated in the UK. At the time of the National Lottery review, Mermaids was linking to Gender GP from its own website.

Andrew Gilligan @mragilligan

Even the fact that Helen Webberley has now been suspended from all practice, criminally convicted and fined £12k hasn't stopped delinquent charity @Mermaids_Gender from promoting her services.

Helen Webberley told Gay Star News herself that she prescribed puberty blockers to a 12-year-old who had been referred to her clinic by Mermaids.

Andrew Gilligan @mragilligan

Four days after she was convicted, @Mermaids_Gender continues to promote criminal GP

2. Mermaids denied that it conflates gender non-conformity with transgenderism and that it “Encourages children and their families to prematurely accept/consider that the longerterm outcome for them will be to transition”.

Nevertheless, a Daily Mail article from December 2015 reports on Mermaids lodging a formal complaint about a school in North West England because teachers would not facilitate the transition of an eight-year-old pupil.

Mermaids CEO, Susie Green, told the paper that eight years old is ‘not too young for a child to transition’. She added, “We are finding now about half the schools we are dealing with are actually accommodating and want to learn”.

3. Mermaids denied that it, “Favours and lobbies for a medical treatment pathway as a main route to support for children experiencing non-conforming gender identity”.

However, in November 2016, over two years prior to the National Lottery review, The Daily Mail published an article in which Mermaids CEO, Susie Green is quoted as saying, “Medical intervention is very important, especially for teenagers who are already in puberty. It’s absolutely vital”.

The article goes on to say that Green told the paper, “She has helped more than 200 families whose children have ‘transitioned’ from one sex to the other”.

And remember that this is the woman who took her own son to Thailand to have full sex reassignment surgery the moment he turned sixteen years old.

STARBUCKS

In February 2020, Starbucks launched a fund-raising campaign, marketing a special limited edition biscuit, to raise money for Mermaids.

“Making your cookie taste even better, 50p from every sale will go towards the £100k donation that will help grow Mermaids’ helpline services, which provide support for young transgender people and their families.”

It is unclear if the coffee giant is still currently funding Mermaids but the charity’s most recent accounts, filed in March 2021, state that it has “Now collaborated on a number of large public-facing fundraising partnerships including Starbucks”.

CHILDREN IN NEED

In 2017 BBC charity, Children in Need, gifted Mermaids in West Yorkshire over £125,000 to provide a telephone helpline service.

WAGAMAMA UK

Wagamama UK is currently supporting Mermaids, donating a proportion of the profits from one of its drinks and from a new menu at three of its restaurants.

“We’re honoured to be partnering with the inspirational charity Mermaids. Mermaids has been supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender diverse young people and their families since 1995. Nationwide, we will be donating 25p for every power juice sold to Mermaids. We’re also donating 20% of profits from our bespoke menu which is on offer in Wagamama Old Street, Wagamama Manchester St Peters and Wagamama Portsmouth.”

DR MARTENS

Dr Martens is currently supporting Mermaids’ Youth Advisory Panel.

OTHERS TO MENTION

Mermaids’ accounts for the financial year ending March 2021, the latest information available, list a number of organisations with whom they have “Now collaborated on a number of large public-facing fundraising partnerships” which include Amazon Prime and Tropic Skincare.

The document goes on to say, “Over the past year, we have collaborated with an extensive list of corporate partners, including Lloyds, Barclays, Tesco, Aon, BP, BCLP, P&G and Unilever.”

Let us be charitable and assume that the businesses and organisations which have funded Mermaids in the past did so in good faith, unaware of its hugely controversial reputation and the numerous allegations which surround it.

Perhaps they did not know that they were funding an organisation which pushes vulnerable children into harmful practices, experimental and untested drugs, and a lifetime of medicalistation.

However, all claims of ignorance must end NOW. Any organisation still funding this despicable group have no excuse. They must surely know just who and what they are facilitating.