Quakers and Mermaids and me

Quakers have been slow to realise the dangers of the transgender craze that has been gathering pace for about a decade now in the UK and the West generally. It is mutilating and sterilising physically healthy young people and putting them on cross-sex hormones for life. It is a phenomenon that is as wanton and inhumane as it is unexpected and generally ignored. 

While gender affirmation may be valuable for some rare individuals, it is frightening how many children who do not really need surgery and hormones are being pushed in that direction. The case of Keira Bell, the Cass Report and Time to Think by Hannah Barnes indicate how bad the problem has become.

I have been trying to raise awareness about this for a few years. The blowback has been astonishing. I have had some support too, from one Meeting in particular and from a group of Quakers nationwide who have been trying – unsuccessfully so far – to set up a Quaker Recognised Body (QRB) to advocate for the cause. (The QRB got blocked in bureaucracy and that is another sorry tale for another time.)

Here follows, gentle readers, a summary of my efforts to highlight the unhealthy relationship between Quakers and Mermaids, a charity allegedly "supporting the families of children and young people who are experiencing gender identity issues".

I began corresponding with Sandra Berry, formerly of my Area Meeting and now Woodbrooke director, and her colleagues in October 2022 about the controversies surrounding Mermaids. I am glad to say that this resulted in a message in October 2022 from Simon Best, Head of Learning & Research at Woodbrooke College, that Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) staff had removed Mermaids from their list of 'useful organisations'. I also heard from BYM Clerk, Paul Parker (13 Oct 2022) that: "As far as I am aware, we are not working with Mermaids at present." 

My next objective was to see if Transgender Trend could be added to BYM’s list of useful organisations on gender identity issues. I had little faith in Best’s suggestion that I should write to BYM to ask for Transgender Trend to be included in the Journeys in the Spirit ‘Links to other useful organisations’.

Instead, I wrote to the Quaker weekly magazine, The Friend, and my letter was published on 9 December 2022.

Congratulations to BYM staff for removing Mermaids from their list of 'useful organisations' "supporting the families of children and young people who are experiencing gender identity issues".

I expect they have done so in light of this year’s controversies surrounding Mermaids: their ex-trustee, Jacob Breslow, and his links to a paedophile group; being investigated by the Charity Commission for allegedly sending ‘breast binders’ to young girls against their parents’ wishes; and taking LGB Alliance to court, falsely alleging that its “real purpose is the denigration of trans people”.

I hope that BYM staff will now add Transgender Trend to their list of useful organisations on gender identity issues.

The only response was from Mark Russ, a staff member at Woodbrooke to say, effectively that there should be no further discussion of the matter in case his trans friends might read something that might seem transphobic (The Friend, 16 Dec 2022).

I am used to hearing that there should be no debate or discussion about transgender issues. The reason for this, which has never made sense to me, is that discussion amounts to a denial of trans people's lived experience or even their very existence. I have never denied a trans person’s lived experience or existence. I do assert that men cannot turn into women but that's a different thing and it's also a protected belief under the Equality Act, thanks to the Maya Forstater court ruling of 2021.

So I wrote back to The Friend as follows: 

I do hope The Friend won’t act on the suggestion from Mark Russ of Woodbrooke (letters, 16 Dec 2022) to close down the discussion about the dangers of Mermaids (my letter, 9 Dec 2022). What is The Friend for if not freedom of speech?

Without evidence, Russ labels Transgender Trend (and LGB Alliance) as “transphobic”; this deserves a right of reply. Let us compare Transgender Trend’s and Mermaids’ concern about the rising numbers of children identifying as the opposite sex over the last decade.

Mermaids advocates the ‘affirmative’ approach towards these children, which generally means puberty blockers, followed by cross-sex hormones and/or surgeries like mastectomy and vaginoplasty. By contrast, Transgender Trend calls for caution and talking therapies and ‘watchful waiting’ to minimise the number of children who become sterilised and maimed medical patients for life.

Where Mark Russ sees “transphobia”, other people see a children’s champion. In July 2022, Stephanie Davies-Arai, a long-standing feminist campaigner and the founder of Transgender Trend, was awarded a British Empire Medal for her services to children.

As far as I know, The Friend did not publish my follow-up letter. Shame on them for allowing an unsubstantiated slander to go unchecked.

Fortunately, my Area Meeting has its own monthly newsletter and so I wrote up my account, titled Quakers, Mermaids and me, and it was published in February. I signed it off with a request for any Friends who were as concerned as I was to contact me direct. As yet, no-one has.

Strangely, two days after the newsletter came out, everyone on the distribution list was sent a supplementary email:

Wed, 15 Feb, Dear Friend, I am sending this out on behalf of SEAQM Elders and Pastoral Friends as part of the February Newsletter.<…> Southern East Anglia Quaker Meeting Newsletter of December 2022 was sent out on February 13, 2023. It included an Article titled Quakers, Mermaids and me. Elders and Pastoral Friends felt it would be useful to share Britain Yearly Meetings 2021 Minute Welcoming Gender Diverse People. We are aware this is a sensitive issue and would ask that anyone who would like to discuss this further to contact Elders or Pastoral Friends <…>

I subsequently asked why the SEAQM Elders and Pastoral Friends had felt it ‘useful’ to send out this email that, to me at any rate, reads like a ‘trigger warning’ for those readers who cannot tolerate criticism of Mermaids. I suspect that they don’t exist, but that does not stop SEAQM Elders and Pastoral Friends from showing the same concern for them as Mark Russ did in The Friend. It’s a shame that nobody in SEAQM, neither Elders nor other Friends, seems willing to declare their concern for what I refer to above as the crime of the century: mutilating and sterilising physically healthy young people and putting them on cross-sex hormones for life.  

This blogpost is another attempt to reach out to Friends in my Area Meeting and elsewhere to ask for some support with this issue. Please leave a comment if you care about what is happening to the gender non-conforming children of our time.