Mermaids inquiry

Two months after the Charity Commission announced an investigation into the charity Mermaids, it has opened a full statutory inquiry, after what it called “newly identified issues about the charity’s governance and management” and a trustee response which “has not provided the necessary reassurance or satisfied the Commission”. For any charity, such an indication of trouble would be worrying, but for one which works with children on that most sensitive of issues, transgender identity, it could hardly be more serious.

The inquiry will only fuel the concerns of those who fear that Mermaids, far from being an innocuous counselling service, has become one of Britain’s leading proponents of extreme gender ideology. The Telegraph has previously reported that Mermaids offered harmful breast-binders to girls as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge and that a trustee had links to an organisation that offers assistance to paedophiles. There are further revelations about the charity in this newspaper today.

Such stories, and the Charity Commission’s forthcoming inquiry, will help to shine a light on the workings of an organisation which, like the Tavistock clinic before it, has managed to assert what its critics claim is an extraordinary grip over mainstream health policy. Yet that light will prompt many to ask why questions were not asked earlier. Indeed, those who have allowed it to play such a leading role in the transgender debate should also be required to reflect on their actions. For too long, rational discussion about this issue has been shut down by activists who label anyone voicing concerns as “transphobic”.