Scandal-hit Mermaids loses bid to strip trans-critical group of charitable status

Trans-activist group Mermaids has lost its attempt to force the Charity Commission to revoke the charitable status of gender-critical group LGB Alliance.

A First-tier Tribunal at the General Regulatory Chamber in London dismissed the case, saying Mermaids has “no legal right to operate free of criticism” or challenge the Commission’s decision to register LGB Alliance as a charity.

The LGB Alliance opposes trans ideology and has publicly challenged Mermaids’ work, branding it ‘undeserving of public money’. Mermaids is considering an appeal.

‘Anti-democratic’

The judgment noted that “the fundamental rationale of the democratic process upon which our society is founded is that when competing views, opinions and policies are publicly debated and exposed to public scrutiny, the good will over time drive out the bad and the true will prevail over the false”.

“Only when differing views are expressed, contradicted, answered and debated will the legislature be able to obtain the fullest picture of the views held by those they represent in order to create laws that are reflective of and required by society as a whole.”

A Charity Commission spokesperson welcomed the ruling, stating that “it is not the Charity Commission’s role to regulate public debate on sensitive issues on which there are deeply held, sincere beliefs on all sides. Our role is to apply the law, and we consider that we did so in registering LGB Alliance as a charity.”

Kate Barker, CEO of LGB Alliance, added: “The notion that one charity should seek to silence or shut down another charity because they disagree with them is absurd and anti-democratic and the tribunal were right to say that LGB Alliance should retain its charitable status.”

Tavistock

Earlier this year, documents revealed that Mermaids enjoyed a ‘special relationship’ with NHS England’s notorious Gender Identity Development Service.

The Tavistock clinic found the ‘missing dossier’ only after the Information Commissioner’s Office threatened it with possible court action for failing to disclose correspondence it had with the scandal-hit Mermaids group.

Among more than 300 pages of correspondence are email exchanges between former head of Mermaids Susie Green and the clinic’s director Dr Polly Carmichael.

Scandals

Mermaids’ ‘governance and management’ is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission, after it emerged the group had been sending chest binders to girls as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge.

In October, Dr Jacob Breslow resigned as a trustee of Mermaids after attention was brought to a paper he delivered in 2011 that attempted to normalise sexual acts with children.

Mermaids claimed it was the victim of a smear campaign, but feminist writer Dr Julie Bindel said the charity’s appointment of Dr Breslow further illustrates its “history of disregarding the safety of children — and promoting an ideology that sexualises them”.