It has been a tough couple of weeks for the UK trans charity/advocacy group called Mermaids. It started with a report from the Telegraph that Mermaids had been sending out “breast binders” to teen girls as young as 13, even when they knew the child’s parents opposed it.

Mermaids, which receives funding from the taxpayer and runs training for schools and the NHS, offered to send a breast binder discreetly to a girl they believed was only 14, even after they were told that she was not allowed to use one by her mother.

Evidence obtained by The Telegraph shows that the charity’s staff have offered binders to children as young as 13 who say that their parents oppose the practice.

Chest-binding has been described by parent groups as a form of “self-harm” and it can cause breathing difficulties, chronic back pain, changes to the spine and broken ribs.

Dr Hilary Cass, the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics, who is leading a review of trans children’s services for the NHS, describes it as “painful and potentially harmful”.

That led to the announcement of an investigation of Mermaids by the Charity Commission.

The regulator said it had opened a “regulatory compliance case” after concerns were raised about the trans charity’s “approach to safeguarding young people”….

A spokesman for the commission said: “Concerns have been raised with us about Mermaids’ approach to safeguarding young people. We have opened a regulatory compliance case and have written to the trustees. We now await their reply.”

The news was welcomed by campaigners including Transgender Trend, which argues for evidence-based healthcare for children, which said: “At last, parents’ concerns about Mermaids’ promotion of binders and blockers are being heard.”

That would have been bad news enough but this week things got even worse for Mermaids when one of the group’s trustees, Dr. Jacob Breslow (that’s him above) quit after it was revealed he had previously spoken at a conference put on by a pro-pedophilia group.

Dr Jacob Breslow quit the transgender children’s charity after the Times revealed he had attended the B4U-ACT conference in 2011, as a PhD student.

B4U-ACT calls for paedophiles to have the right to live “in truth and dignity”.

Mermaids says the organisation is “completely at odds” with its values.

B4U-ACT’s website says it holds workshops and gives presentations about the needs and rights of people “with an attraction to children and adolescents”, and runs support groups for both them and their friends and family members.

A published summary of a presentation Dr Breslow is understood to have given uses the phrase “minor-attracted persons” instead of paedophile.

If you’ve followed this story at all then you won’t be surprised to learn the JK Rowling weighed in on Twitter. These tweets in particular mentioned Mermaids’ celebrity supporters, one of whom is Emma Watson, i.e. Hermione in the Harry Potter movies.

We've now learned that Mermaids appointed a paedophilia apologist as Trustee and that their online moderator encouraged kids to move onto a platform notorious for sexual exploitation. This is a charity that's achieved unprecedented influence in the UK. 2/5 https://t.co/7guDJYAalJ

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 4, 2022

Here’s the subtweet at Emma Watson.

So I don't doubt that there are some panicky phone calls being placed to PR people by certain corporations and celebrities right now, but as they remain completely insulated from the severe harm they've enabled, my sympathy can be measured in gnats' thimbles. 5/X

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 4, 2022

Today she added another thread about those who were minimizing the story.

when you shrugged off masked men roughing up lesbian protestors and tried to shout down detransitioners talking about what was done to them by ideologically-captured doctors. Women, gay people and vulnerable kids have suffered real harm and you? You cheered it all on. 2/3

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 5, 2022

“You became part of an authoritarian, misogynist, homophobic movement and you didn’t even notice,” she wrote.

Perfect example. The problem isn't that a man who wrote sympathetically about orgasming 'on or with' a child was made trustee of a children's charity, but that the TERFs might 'twist' his appointment. Then straight back to the self-soothing mantras, with a glow of inner virtue. pic.twitter.com/KwDWSK2B79

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 5, 2022

India Willoughby, who is apparently a transgender television presenter, said someone needed to sue Rowling. Rowling said she’d be the first to sign a petition to do so.

India, I swear to God, if you want to start a petition for Mermaids to take me on in court, the first signature will be mine. https://t.co/1HZ6BbCX55

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 5, 2022

So not a good couple of weeks for Mermaids. It really shouldn’t surprise anyone that people with genuinely extreme and disturbing views turn up at these organizations.

Update: Pink News has a bit of what Dr. Breslow said at the conference.

In a description for his 2011 presentation, which is still available on the B4U-ACT website, Breslow wrote about planned changes to definitions of paedophilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

“Allowing for a form of non-diagnosable minor attraction is exciting, as it potentially creates a sexual or political identity by which activists, scholars and clinicians can begin to better understand minor-attracted persons,” Breslow wrote.

“This understanding may displace the stigma, fear and abjection that is naturalised as being attached to minor-attracted persons and may alter the terms by which non-normative sexualities are known.”

This has just been sitting there unnoticed for over a decade. Did anyone at Mermaids look into this guy?

Update: Breslaw is an associate professor at the London School of Economics. As of today, he’s on sabbatical until January.

At some point in the last 24 hours @LSEnews have updated Jacob Breslow's profile page. The text "Dr Jacob Breslow is currently on sabbatical leave until January 2023" has been added. pic.twitter.com/EsHUoiMyAH

— Jack (@j4ppleby) October 4, 2022