The Charity Commission in the UK has launched a statutory inquiry into controversial transgender advocacy charity ‘Mermaids’, which came under fire after it was revealed it gave chest-binding devices to children as young as 13 without parental consent.
Mermaids, which is a registered charity, says its purpose is to cater to “transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families.”, and operated with an unquestioning approach to children seeking its services adopting a ‘gender affirmation’ tactics
On the 25th of November, the Guardian reported that CEO Susie Green was resigning after six years leading the organisation.
Green had facilitated her own son, Jack, in having his male genitalia removed in Thailand at the age of 16.
The charity, which enjoyed the endorsement of Heads Together – an organisation launched by Prince Harry and Megan Markle – also faced scrutiny after a trustee, London School of Economics associate professor, Dr Jacob Breslow, was confronted over a presentation he had made in 2011 discussing attitudes towards minors and sexual consent.
Gript previously reported on Breslow after he tendered his immediate resignation after the controversy arose.
Breslow gave the presentation at a conference organised by an American charity called B4U-ACT. B4U-ACT describes itself as a charity “run in collaboration between mental health professionals, researchers, and people who are attracted to minors.”
At that meeting Breslow gave a presentation titled Sexual Alignment: Critiquing Sexual Orientation, The Pedophile, and the DSM V. B4U-ACT described the presentation as “challenging assumptions about minors and sexuality which currently underlie policymaking and the DSM.
Mermaids subsequently attracted more attention after Reduxx reports it launched “a legal campaign against another UK-based charity, LGB Alliance, which opposes its pro-transition approach for minors, citing concerns about the transitioning of gender non-conforming youth who may in fact be homosexual.”
The charity’s legal documents had also claimed that LGB Alliance had “campaigned to stop Mermaids from advising schools and other government bodies on transgender rights.”
The Charity Commission says its investigation into Mermaids will “investigate the regulatory issues to determine whether they indicate serious systemic failing in the charity’s governance and management.”
It says that Mermaid trustees “have fully cooperated with the regulator’s case, but their response has not provided the necessary reassurance or satisfied the Commission at this stage.”
The inquiry will examine issues including the “administration, governance and management of the charity by the trustees including its leadership and culture.”
Whether “trustees have complied with and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities as trustees under charity law; in particular whether they had sufficient oversight of the charity’s activities and compliance with its policies and procedures and in line with its charitable objects.”
It will also examine whether there has been “misconduct and/or mismanagement by the trustees.”