Mermaids UK

Mermaids is a British charity supporting transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families.
Mermaids seeks to educate and inform on gender identity, and help professionals to accommodate gender-diverse young people. Mermaids supports young people until their 20th birthday, and offers web chat support to students up to the age of 25.
==History==
It started in 1995, as a group of parents.
Susie Green, the charity's chief executive, first phoned the Mermaids helpline after her child requested to medically transition. A grant from allowed her to become the chief executive at the beginning of 2016.
In August 2017, investigated abusive and threatening online comments against Mermaids. The comments may have prevented young people coming forward for support.
In June 2019, The Sunday Times reported a data breach of emails from 2016 and 2017. The Times reported that the emails contained "intimate details of the vulnerable youngsters it seeks to help." Mermaids maintained that they were between executives and trustees about their work. In July 2021, it was fined for "failure to implement adequate technical security measures to keep its users’ personal data secure."
In July 2020, Mermaids and other trans organisations were removed from a BBC page on gender identity, after audience complaints. The charity responded that the decision was "in direct contravention of the BBC’s duty of impartiality," as described in an official policy.
In June 2021, Mermaids appealed against the ’s decision to register the , an anti-trans group, as a charity. Mermaids stated that the LGB Alliance has “repeatedly targeted” other registered charities, and offers "no positive benefit to the public." A hearing on the Alliance's charitable status is set for September 2022.
===Fundraising and grants===
In December 2018, the charity was told it had won funding from the , allowing them to set up new local support groups, and fund training and policy officers. The Lottery reviewed the decision after criticism from , but said it did "not see any reason not to fund this." In February 2019, it was announced that Mermaids would receive a grant of £500,000 over the course of five years. The Sunday Times was criticised for transphobic fear mongering.
===Hbomberguy livestream===
In January 2019, Hbomberguy launched a Twitch livestream marathoning , to fundraise for Mermaids. This raised around $360,000 (£275,000). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, , , and were involved. Hbomberguy wanted to support the charity after comedy writer 's opposition to Mermaids, reportedly due to spite, and was concerned about misinformation in media discussion about transgender people.
==Trivia==
*The website contains an exit button, allowing fast movement to another webpage. Mermaids’ exit button links to the Wikipedia homepage. This prevents someone being accidentally outed whilst looking at the website. This feature is also found on the websites of other charities.
==References==
Category:British YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2017
Category:LGBT YouTubers