A SADDLEWORTH councillor has welcomed the decision to remove details of a charity that supports trans gender children and young people from Oldham Council’s website.
The local authority has also confirmed it doesn’t actively promote Mermaids which is the subject of a regulatory compliance case by the Charity Commission.
Saddleworth North councillor Luke Lancaster wrote to OMBC chief executive, Harry Catherall, following a number of media reports into the charity including concerns about Mermaids approach to safe-guarding young people.
Cllr Lancaster said: “I am relieved Oldham Council has heeded the warning about promoting Mermaids.
“I would expect, should the Charity Commission uphold any complaints against Mermaids, the Council will never see fit to provide them with promotion again, particularly given the degree of public concern around safeguarding in our borough.”
NHS staff in the West Midlands have been advised not to promote the charity while The National Lottery Community Fund has paused funding until the outcome of the CC review into some of the charity’s policies and procedures.
Separately, Mermaids has filed ‘serious incident reports’ (www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-report-a-serious-incident-in-your-charity) to the regulator. They have also described complaints as “vexatious”.
Mermaids’ website address and phone number had been listed on Oldham Council’s website under the general heading of ‘sexual health support for specific groups.”
However, a spokesperson confirmed: “Oldham Council does not actively promote the Mermaids Charity to residents, as we have a trans navigator role within our own Sexual Health and Substance Misuse Service which provides support for young people.
“The charity’s details were recently listed on our website, however, in light of an ongoing investigation into safeguarding concerns, we have taken the decision to temporarily remove their information.
“This decision will be reviewed following the outcome of current investigations.”
Earlier this month Mermaids, established in 1995 closed its helpline and web-chat service for several days after what it called “intolerable abuse.”
They added: “We do not make this decision lightly, but our duty of care towards staff and volunteers necessitates a harm reduction approach to protect our dedicated staff and volunteer team.”
In a statement on its website Mermaids said: “We’re in the midst of a targeted, cynical attack on Mermaids and the services we provide, which seeks to distract us from the important work that we do, and to discredit the organisation.
“While aimed at Mermaids, we believe this to be an attack on the trans community as a whole, and an attempt to undermine the rights we have fought – and will continue to fight – so hard for.”
Good Call.
Many people and not just people a religious persuasion share these concerns, particularly about their involvement with schools and with education.
Mermaids, (not unlike like for example Stonewall, which once long ago did great and admirable work promoting gay rights and raising aware of gay issues,) like so many charities has become more about money than about anything else
This kind of stuff doubtless seemed really cool to people at university, but back here in the real world it’s not merely irrelevant to most people, it’s increasingly resented.
Anyone should be free to express themselves however they choose to; but equally other people should also be free of having what is really just a personal lifestyle choice shoved down their thoats at any and ever opportunity.
Just say you’re transphobic…
Let’s not.
Because nothing could actually be further from the truth, but marks nonetheless for being both trite and utterly predicable.
I’ve explained why in some detail but it didn’t post I’m not typing it all out again.
But even if I was transphobic as you try to misrepresent me as being, I’d still be in respectable company, “transgender activists are telling Lesbians that if they’re not willing to have sex with fully intact men who identify as women that they’re transphobic.”
Daft or what ?