Calderdale Council removes Mermaids from list of recommended services on its website following controversy

Mermaids is a charity which has supported transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse children since 1995.

A trustee of Mermaids, Dr Jacob Breslow, quit on October 3 after The Times newspaper reported he had attended a group conference promoting support for paedophiles back in 2011. Concerns were also reported in The Telegraph newspaper about Mermaids’ safeguarding.

Since then, the charity has twice closed its online services, an MP asked the Prime Minister to support calls for a police investigation and Prime Minister Liz Truss has said the issues around Mermaids should be “properly looked into”.

Up until today (Tuesday), Calderdale Council was still promoting the charity on its website via its “Transition toolkit: primary to secondary school” section under the Lesbian Gay Transgender Questioning (LGBTQ) heading.

But in a statement, Calderdale Council has told the Halifax Courier: “The reference to the Mermaids charity has been removed from the Council’s website and promotion of this charity is suspended until any official investigation is complete.”

In response to recent criticisms, Mermaids have said they will continue to provide support for trans and gender-diverse people and their families, and that they remain accountable to their service users and the public at large through the Charity Commission and other regulators.