CI disputes claim Mermaids’ dogma is ‘harmless’

The heartbreaking stories of detransitioners should serve as a warning about the dangers of following Mermaids’ advice, The Christian Institute has warned.

In an interview with GB News, the Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert dismissed LGBT activist Peter Tatchell’s claim — that the effects of puberty-blocking drugs were reversible — as “demonstrably untrue”.

Last month, the Charity Commission launched an investigation into Mermaids’ activities following revelations that the group had been sending chest binders to girls as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge.

Regret

Speaking on GB News, Peter Tatchell suggested that the work of Mermaids made “kids happier, and better, and more fulfilled” and most interventions the group endorsed were “not irreversible”.

In response, Mr Calvert said: “We need to hear from the voices of detransitioners, the people who have followed the Mermaids type line and deeply, deeply regret it, and can’t go back.

“They’ve had the hormones, they’ve had the surgery, and they can’t undo it, and anyone who’s heard those stories will know that it breaks your heart.”

‘Social contagion’

“We have to focus on listening to children and on providing them with the proper advice and, where appropriate, therapy to help them to accept themselves and to love themselves the way they are”, Mr Calvert continued.

This, he said, was preferable to “telling them that they need to pump their bodies full of drugs, have irreversible surgeries and make themselves lifelong patients in order to try to get their bodies to match their feelings”.

‘This is about human rights, human dignity and respect for young people and their parents.’

LGBTQ activist Peter Tatchell and deputy director of The Christian Institute Simon Calvert clash over whether celebrities should be endorsing trans charities. pic.twitter.com/jjoKF0EsuF

— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 9, 2022

GB News presenter Calvin Robinson, who conducted the interview, branded Mermaids a ‘political organisation’ which promotes a “highly contested ideology”.

Commenting on what he described as a “social contagion” — of “kids identifying as trans” — he asked: “Should we be allowing people to put their children through irreversible procedures by affirming their delusions?”

Questionable practices

Writing in The Telegraph, Nikki Da Costa, a former Director of Legislative Affairs at 10 Downing Street, echoed Mr Calvert’s concerns. She said: “on Mermaids website and forums, staff without medical qualifications declare puberty blockers totally reversible”.

She added this is despite “increasing concern that puberty blockers affect brain and bone development and lock children on to a medical pathway”.

Da Costa also highlighted how Mermaids was facilitating medical misinformation and undermining parental authority, saying: “Online, children are allowed to advise other children on treatment and surgery, while Mermaids staff despatch breast binders, without parental knowledge”.

She concluded: “Taken together, Mermaids’ practices are questionable. Combined with an evangelical approach, and the brushing away of concerns as ‘smears’ or ‘transphobia’, Mermaids is a siren for the unwary.”