UK trans advocacy group Mermaids under investigation by Charity Commission

The United Kingdom's Charity Commission has announced the launch of a statutory inquiry into the trans advocacy group Mermaids after an initial investigation by the commission raised "newly identified issues about the charity’s governance and management."

Mermaids, a charity that defines itself as supporting "transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse children and young people," found itself facing intense public scrutiny after it attempted to strip gay rights charity LGB Alliance of its charitable status earlier this year. Following an investigation by The Telegraph that revealed a member of staff had been conspiring to send a 14-year-old girl a chest compression device against her parents’ wishes, and chat room moderators had been dishing out bad medical advice and encouraging teenagers to medically transition, a regulatory compliance case was opened by The Charity Commission in September.

Then came the revelation that a member of the Mermaids board of trustees had spoken at a pro-pedophile rights conference, and just last week it was announced that CEO Susie Green had left the charity after six years.

Green, who took over the leadership role at the charity in 2016, took her male child, Jackie, to Thailand for sex-reassignment surgery as a 16th birthday present. When discussing the child's penile inversion with friends, she joked about how "there wasn’t much there to work with" because Jackie had been on puberty blockers from a very young age and hadn’t developed sufficiently. Green had obtained the puberty blockers online from a doctor in the US because at the time they were unavailable in the UK.

The Charity Commission said in a statement that it "will investigate the regulatory issues to determine whether they indicate serious systemic failing in the charity’s governance and management."

The commission added that while trustees had "fully cooperated with the regulator’s case," their response had not provided the "necessary reassurance or satisfied the Commission at this stage."

"The regulator will seek to determine whether the charity’s governance is appropriate in relation to the activities the charity carries out, which involve vulnerable children and young people, as well as their families."

Celebrities who have publicly given their support to the now-disgraced charity over the years include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Harry Potter star Emma Watson, and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.