Following a string of newspaper articles and reports concerning the transgender communities in the UK, the community-and its representatives- have come under immense pressure and backlash from critics. Mermaids, a charity dedicated to helping young transgender people, came under immense backlash which forced the organisation to seek help from the police.
CEO of Mermaids, Susie Green, told PinkNews that between March and August this year, 29 abusive calls were reported, none of which required police intervention. However, following the publication of investigations from The Telegraph, the organisation reported a steep increase in abusive and threatening messages with 80 being so severe that they reported them to the police.
Most of the abusive calls were made through the charity's vital helpline, open to aid young transgender people who might be in critical situations. The charity has made the difficult decision to close lines each Wednesday to try to give their staff a break.
"We’ve had staff who are having nightmares after having received those messages, their information has been put up on social media, we’ve had pictures of staff posted online, with really unpleasant, horrible comments underneath," Susie said.
"There are members of our staff team and our volunteer team that have never been exposed to that hostility on such a personal level,” she added. “It was and continues to be deeply traumatising. The worst thing about it is for our staff and volunteers, who do this because they care deeply about trans kids and deeply about them being able to live in autonomy with respect, to be abused in that way, when they’re there to help.
“It does make you wonder where people’s heads are at when they think it’s an acceptable to do phone a children’s charity and abuse people who answer the phone. It does boggle the mind somewhat.”
Alarmingly, complaints are regularly being made to Mermaids which is impacting their funding. The charity is releasing its own "fightback fund" aiming to raise £25,000. The money will be used to ensure that the phone lines remain open and that safe spaces are available to trans kids and their parents.
“I had a conversation with a parent who was saying to me: ‘Am I going to be considered to be a child abuser now? Because I’m supporting my kid who is now so happy that they’ve got a binder, they are absolutely delighted, and I’ve never seen them so happy. Am I now going to be accused of being a child abuser, because I’m supporting them to be feel better about themselves?," Susie continued.
“And for the kids themselves, this is just more and more about invalidating trans youth, invalidating their existence and invalidating the right to be themselves, to make themselves happier, to feel more comfortable. Our allies were saying they were absolutely outraged that this is happening. It is an outlet for that, and a mechanism for people to show that support and to be able to put themselves forward for something publicly that supports us.”
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