Close down Mermaids. Stop consulting with them. Remove them from the list of consultees, providers, experts and referrals. They should have no part in the landscape of Wales.
We call on the Welsh Government, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales and all those authorities talking to this discredited charity to remove them from their circles. We call on the Health and Education Ministers in particular to stop all association – and to remove resources which direct children, families, teachers and clinicians to this charity. We urge the Children’s Commissioner for Wales to join with her English equivalent in ensuring children’s rights are protected and that safeguarding is paramount
Basic safeguarding in recruitment.
The charity, which specialises in services for young people experiencing gender dysphoria (so-called ‘trans children’) is already being investigated by the Charity Commission. It seems the regulator is already concerned by their lax approach to safeguarding, not least providing harmful breast binders to girls without parental knowledge. Yesterday has seen yet another appalling disclosure: that their trustee, Dr Jacob Breslow, has a long record of promoting the acceptance of child abuse.
Dr Breslow vehemently argues that children are sexual agents and that it is society which is wrong for condemning sexual relationships between adults and children.
This LSE assistant professor stepped down from his role with Mermaids just last night, 3 October 2022, after a string of revelations about his interests. He has published many articles and given speeches on his research into ‘queering childhood’ and destigmatising ‘minor attracted people’. (ICYMI, the term ‘MAP’ is the gender-ideologues preferred term for paedophiles.)
Be aware, quoting his work involves some graphic language. In 2011, he gave a speech likening ‘cumming on a shoe’ to ‘cumming on or possibly even with a child’. His own WordPress blog describes his latest book as ‘explor[ing] … the queer life of children’s desires [and] the steadfastness of the gender binary.’ If you would like to see more evidence of his research position, there’s quite a bit of material at https://4w.pub/lecturer-claims-children-perverse/.
All well and good to explore the limits of Queer Theory, you might say. Maybe Dr Breslow is offering an illustration of the utter nonsense which follows when you pursue this no-boundaries, performative philosophy to its logical conclusions. Maybe he is. Should a person who upholds such beliefs about the sexual availability of children and the rights of child rapists be a trustee of a charity? A charity offering services to young people already confused and vulnerable about gender issues (by definition)? A charity already under fire for its approach to medicalisation?
Of course not.
Mermaids is now protesting they had no idea about his views? Either they’re lying or they are incredibly incompetent. Do they just accept any personable individual with an academic title and an interest in young people to join their board? Do they have no concept of basic safeguarding in recruitment?
The Charity Commission needs to know. Young people and families using Mermaids services need to know. Policy makers and legislators taking Mermaids’ advice need to know. And those of us traduced so often for challenging Mermaids have to know too.
Is Mark Drakeford willing to listen? Or Jeremy Miles and Eluned Morgan?
On 10 May this year, Laura Jones MS challenged the First Minister to explain his government’s position on the Cass review of the Tavistock Clinic. You can see the exchange at https://fb.watch/fXHZNesZeV/.
Mr Drakeford says the relevant government committee met with Dr Cass last March. He describes the Review as ‘one source of evidence amongst others’ and adds that Welsh Government are ‘asking for expressions of interest from those in the field for a Gender Identity Development Service in Wales…sensitive to the landscape of services [here]’.
Are Mermaids part of our landscape? Surely not, given all the hooha.
But of course they are. This is Wales, that progressive land where women must be silenced and lesbian or gay voices which don’t toe the Stonewall line cast into outer darkness. We know Mermaids have a lot of pull here. The new Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum relies on resources provided by Agenda and Crush. Both provide clear links to Mermaids. (Of course neither Safe Schools Alliance nor Transgender Trendare listed despite their clear expertise in these matters.)
Any resource, any consultation, any invitation to design or deliver services which includes Mermaids should immediately be withdrawn and completely rethought
Surely this is evidence enough, First Minister? The ideology epitomised by Mermaids and perpetuated by Stonewall is *dangerous*. It exposes our young people to adults who think their bodies, their futures and their rights must be trampled under an extremist juggernaut.
Is a backlash coming?
Let us be very clear about another point.
Child abuse is one of the oldest slurs thrown at gay men. We utterly repudiate that prejudice. Child rape is absolutely disgusting, whoever perpetrates it – largely men trusted in family or professional circles.
The homophobic slur has always been unjustified. We know that most victims already know their abuser, so organisations which break into those circles and encourage secrets kept from responsible adults must be subject to extra scrutiny. Most abusers are male, and girls and disabled children are particularly at risk.
We are deeply concerned that in the rightful public anger at the behaviour of Mermaids and their safeguarding failures, that adult gay men will experience a homophobic backlash. We urge all those organisations concerned about this issue to oppose the revival of such prejudices which will do nothing to protect children.
And finally
We must also make clear that LGB Alliance Cymru is not a part of LGB Alliance UK, and we are not a charity. We are proud to bear the Alliance label and be part of that family. Bev Jackson, the amazing co-founder of LGBA, recently said on the stand that of course our two groups communicate, we share a lot of views, but we are not the same organisation. And as the revered founder of Pride, Fred Sargent, stated recently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzR3Id6yeOc), there are now twenty such chapters across four continents.
This matters: we are free to speak out about this nonsense. It is an unfunny irony that Bev made that comment during a court case in which Mermaids is trying to strip LGBA of its hard won charity status. Yet it is clearer with every new revelation that it is Mermaids which is unfit for purpose.