Scandal-hit LGBT group asked self-harming kids to use ‘clean blades’

LGBT Youth Scotland has been accused of normalising and encouraging self-harm by asking young people if they were using “clean razor blades”.

According to a Freedom of Information request obtained by The Times, a former volunteer reported the trans activist group to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), after managers claimed that if a child were “using self-harm as a coping mechanism”, then “we can’t take that away from them”.

The controversial group receives around £1.2 million a year in taxpayer funding, including almost half a million pounds from the Scottish Government and £330,000 from the NHS.

‘Appalling’

The group dismissed the concerns in October 2023, a response the whistleblower found “shocking and callous”.

“I think it’s reckless to suggest to a mentally ill young person that they should be using clean razor blades — this could easily be misunderstood as a sign of encouragement that they should be engaging in acts of self harm. This is what is being taught to members of the public who volunteer for their organisation.”

Scottish Conservative MSP Tess White urged ministers to stop funding the group, saying: “Parents will be alarmed and outraged that this taxpayer-funded organisation is giving such appalling advice to vulnerable children and young people”.

But a Scottish Government spokesman stated that it remains “committed” to funding LGBT Youth Scotland, as the OSCR dropped its inquiry into the group after “they reviewed their policies”.

Abuse

Last year, Rosie Millard resigned as chairwoman of BBC’s Children in Need over its £466,000 funding of LGBT Youth Scotland and its failure to take seriously concerns she raised about the group.

Reflecting on why Children in Need only suspended donations to LGBT Youth Scotland in May, The Times said: “It is possible that, like many organisations, the BBC was fearful of offending a powerful lobby of LGBT activists.”

In October, The Scottish Daily Mail revealed that a man sued the group for more than £100,000 over claims that it failed to prevent child sex abuse. Two months prior, a co-author of one of the group’s publications for gender-confused children was convicted of grooming and sharing indecent images.