Mermaids UK

Mermaids is a British charity and advocacy organisation that supports gender variant and transgender youth. It also provides inclusion and diversity training. Mermaids was founded in 1995 by a group of parents of gender nonconforming children and became a charitable incorporated organisation in 2015.

History

Formation and leadership

Mermaids was founded in 1995 by a group of parents of gender nonconforming children, originally acting as a small helpline. It aims to provide support for transgender youths up to 20 years of age. Mermaids became a Charitable incorporated organisation in 2015.

Susie Green was the chief executive from January 2016 until 25 November 2022 when she resigned. Previously she worked as an IT manager at the Citizens Advice Bureau in Leeds. Green was a trustee of Mermaids for four years from 2011. Her daughter is one of the youngest individuals in the UK to have transitioned surgically.

Lauren Stoner is interim chief executive since December 2022.

Lobbying the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service

In the years from 2000, Mermaids alongside another campaign group, GIRES (Gender Identity Research and Education Society), lobbied clinicians at the NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) for early interventions on children. After taking her child to Boston in 2007 to receive puberty blockers, Susie Green worked to make them available in Britain from GIDS. In response, GIDS began prescribing blockers from 2011 onwards, making them widely available in response to demand from families. Clinical psychologist Kirsty Entwistle, on the GIDS staff from 2017, said: "Those who'd connected with Mermaids were terrified, because they'd been told that their child was going to kill themselves if they didn't get blockers." GIDS describes suicide as "extremely rare".

In July 2022, NHS England decided to close GIDS and replace it with regional healthcare centres, following the publication of the independent Cass Review. In response to the decision, Mermaids CEO Susie Green was "cautiously optimistic", but expressed concerns that priority would be given to mental health over medical care. She said: "We would not want any further barriers to be put in place in terms of access to medical intervention."

Harassment of staff

In 2017, Mermaids reported that it and its volunteers had been the victims of online harassment. CEO Green stated that she had been falsely accused of forcibly castrating her transgender daughter, Jackie. Her daughter maintained that "If my mum had not helped me, I would not be here today" and transgender journalist Paris Lees wrote: "Susie Green is saving lives and I wish my parents had known about Mermaids when I was growing up". Green raised concerns "that the social media backlash may put people off coming to the charity for help."

National Lottery funding

In December 2018, the charity was designated £500,000 in funding by the Big Lottery Fund, to create a national network of local groups. However, the funding was put under review after criticism of the charity, including by anti-trans activist Graham Linehan, who created a post on Mumsnet calling for members of the forum to email their concerns to the National Lottery. In response to this, on 18 January 2019, YouTuber Hbomberguy began a livestream attempting to 101% complete the video game ''Donkey Kong 64'', with a goal of $500 to be donated to Mermaids. The stream became popular and raised over $350,000 USD for Mermaids. Among other guests, the stream featured an appearance by American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. On 19 February 2019, the National Lottery concluded its review into the charity and announced that it would follow through with the promised donation, stating that "did not find any grounds to withhold the grant.". However, in October 2022, National Lottery funding was paused due to the investigation by the Charity Commission.

Media

The 2018 ITV drama series ''Butterfly'', about a young transgender girl, was substantially informed by Mermaids and its CEO, Susie Green, a consultant on the series who worked with creator Tony Marchant. Marchant and cast members Emmett J. Scanlan and Anna Friel also met families involved with Mermaids to inform their creative processes.

In July 2020, the charity complained that the BBC
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