There was a Twitter Spaces this afternoon hosted by Isla Mac and Robbie Travers and Dennis Kavanaugh to discuss the court decision on the Mermaids versus LGB Alliance. The LGB Alliance was taken to court by Mermaids because of the LGB Alliance’s position to represent and serve only LGB people. Today the decision came down and dismissed the case. I listened in for around 3.5 hours I think and heard some great discussion and stimulating criticism of gender and felt my passion reignite. I have felt tired and isolated and defeated stuck in my Vancouver rapunzel tower with woke society clamouring to wall me in and I feel glad to have listened in and filled my cup. Below the line are the notes I took — I tried to make them cohesive but they are really notes and snippets of phrases of the brainy articulate people who spoke.
Before LGB Alliance was awarded charitable status it frequently used highly confrontational language to criticise Mermaids on social media. It criticised the actor Emma Watson for donating to the charity, tweeting: "How embarrassing" and suggested it was time to review the Lottery funding of a group "which actively promotes transitioning of children under 18". It described Mermaids' trans affirmation model as "transing away the gay".
Explaining the decision to launch the case, Belinda Bell, the chair of trustees at Mermaids, told the hearing: "An inevitable consequence of LGB Alliance's charitable registration is that its false claims about Mermaids ... are being taken more seriously, including by those in positions of power and by our potential supporters/partners. Its ability to damage our reputation by making false claims has increased materially."
But the judges found: "Charitable status does not come with any guarantees of funding nor any freedom from criticism or debate. It is no part of the commission's function (nor of this tribunal) to tell people what to think, or to regulate public debate in a context where there are deeply held, sincere, beliefs on all sides of the discussion." (Guardian, 6.7.2023)
The Complaint + Case — LGB Alliance were acting as a political organization acting to damage the reputation of Mermaids. LGB Alliance criticism of Mermaids was political and not a part of the intrinsic work of their organisation. The existence of LGBA threatens of Mermaids’ work because the LGBA’s work to protect and promote the rights of gay and lesbian children damages the reputation of Mermaids. The registration of the LGBA affected a legal right of Mermaids. Mermaids believe it had a right to be free from criticism. Change the meaning of a statutory term as applied to charity regulation. The UK presumes the statute is drafted with care and Mermaids could not apply a gloss to parliamentary drafting. Damages are unlikely according to Dennis.
What would be required for successful appeal by Mermaids —
Standing to be in court on that issue
Consideration of charity registration decision
Causally link the registration of the charity to legal right you have
The Good Law Project, ie (public funds) funded this project, it would not be in Mermaids’ best interest to pursue an appeal, it certainly does not need any more scrutiny. The Guardian called LGBA the new gay rights organisation.
How do we get young queer activists to see LGB activism? Do Gay men need to lose their spaces, Robbie Travers wonders out loud. Perhaps, because gay men have watched lesbians lose their spaces he continues. How do we break the Instagram-indoctrinated young people? Good question. They are quite captured, they do not understand the legal rights of individuals under the law of the land. Gay men won’t really get involved in the activism tract, the rights conflict will be solved in the court room and by appealing to legislation. The young generation is so captured, no on has any idea how to break down that wall of indoctrination.
Rukhsana adds note — perhaps Muslims who have expertise in de-extremifying could provide some intelligent guidance as to how to engage de-indoctrination in a brain-savvy manner.
Isla Mac expressed the fear we all feel about children and pedagogy — how will they fare under the indoctrination forced onto them in schools? Socially transitioning in schools will not be a coherent policy in schools — the burden on Head Teachers is too high. The next battlefield will be the schools. (Rukhsana again, interesting to note that in Canada + the USA the gender battle ground is in the schools because there is nowhere else we can battle, everything is impacted with gender dogmatists). The way to make your voice (UK) heard is to prepare a statement in response to the government review that’s underway. Isla Mac also remains fearful of the capture of the NHS, of pediatric gender affirming care. She does not believe we are over the worst vis a vis pediatric gender affirming care. Her next project involves GC autistic people gathering to change the narrative of autistics and gender.
Robbie advises don’t get trapped in hypotheticals related to the case, focus on the matter at hand. Mermaids are under a statutory investigation and LGBA is trying to do the work to help LGB people around the world remain alive. The Gender Ideologues resemble evangelicals.
The law is on our side. How sure are we about the argument against Mermaids. How are going to get Mermaids out of schools and away from kids, stop them spreading pseudoscience? How do we battle ideology, which has captured the legal system and institutions? Please let’s not get complacent, let’s keep having conversations about this any time we can. Let’s ride the momentum of this decision. We will keep going. We will fight corporate. Law is not the only institution to fight this. There will be an immediate cost to politicians and companies.
Capture within the gay community within professional bodies and organizations is an important thing to consider. The national charities commission is captured like the volunteer community is also. The worrying thing is this invites charities to challenge each other. CEO of Terence Higgins Trust spreading deeply homophobic rhetoric — saying gender affirming care will cure HIV. Report in a co-ordinated response, hold charities accountable when they promote misinformation.
Zahra, a Muslim mother of autistic boys, is worried about her boys learning to hate gay people, children are so vulnerable and exposed to so much information, how can we protect them? The queer activists are promoting a harmful narrative — the association with sexualising children and preying on kids and threatening parents and it threatens all the hard work gays rights have done. How do we approach it with our kids so we don’t mess up with our kids? Sex Matters position on the name change issue concerns parents. Cass Report will be a disappointment, thinks Isla. No compromise on social transitioning! How do we talk to schools without triggering a sh1tstorm?
Kara Dansky, American lawyer, reasons from an American legal POV, that Mermaids is not affected by LGBA existence, therefore no standing, case dismissed. However, the ruling addressed free speech and robust debate being essential to a democratic society and the right of Mermaids to have standing indicates a wider ruling on a narrow issue. This decision could have implications for judiciaries worldwide.
Tracy from Northern Ireland thinks the statement of the charity commission os disappointing, it stops short because promoting dissociation is not in the public interest. Why is any TQ organization receiving public funds? Please keep the pressure up, hold your governments accountable, never stop, keep complaining this is how we will make change. Consent is important, it’s never ok for women to accept a man as a woman. Gender Identity is sex deception it has no place in public policy or society. Compromise in language is concerning.
Gender reassignment is the problem that enables people to hide their identities and escape past lives and it invites corruption. The language we use matters and so does the right of everyone not to be coerced into promoting a falsehood. How do we define transgender? When does a person become a trans person? The issue of identity creates ambiguity issues when it comes to safeguards. What are trans rights, specifically? How do they intersect with the rights of women, children, the disabled? How do trans rights match up with safeguarding rights?
Robbie talks about repealing the GRA — there are two categories of gay men and also gay women. How do we decide which category takes precedence? We need to stop letting people be the opposite sex because that will eliminate the rights conflict. Trans people could marry before gay people could. The head of the Freemasons is woke— these are ruling class elites who are scamming everyone with gender reassignment. Gender and gender identity must be excised from all institutional management. Why is Nancy Kelley at the Conservative Party Conference? Stonewall has control over the political landscape still in the UK. The conservative party is doing nothing they are not going to save sex-based rights. Need to get rid of Goodwin and ECRH verdicts, gender rulings in the ECHR are essentially Andrea Long Chu essays turned into jurisprudence. It is deeply homophobic and an obstacle to women’s rights. Gender ideology is founded upon Marcusian style-dialogue — repressive tolerance.
We need to get rid of affinity grievance networks — “nonbinary asexuals”. EDI is simply another stick with which to beat workers and a vehicle for gender dogma. MI5 “Be your authentic self” EDI. Whitehall building with rooms that are not disability accessible are flying pride flags. That tells you the priority of government and society.
Helen Joyce and the pronoun police — Helen has been correcting the media to clarify that criminals are not women so now why is she taking a different approach with GC moderates? We need to model the behaviour we wish to teach children — to that end pronouns that match sex do matter around kids. When we take moderate positions on pronouns we are enabling the persecution of those kids and female inmates who are punished for correctly sexing — (Rukhsana again — this struck me as analogous to western women who wear the hijab and say it is fard, ie mandatory, and ignore women in Iran and Saudi Arabia who are punished and abused and killed when they refuse to wear the headscarf).
Speak out because the more people who do the easier it will become for others to do so and that’s how we will change the equation. Remember that this case was about Susie Green and Jolyn Maugham, a heterosexual woman and a heterosexual man who tried to prevent gay lesbian and bisexual people from organising.