An open letter from Mermaids on World Suicide Prevention Day 10th September 2019 Change now to save transgender children from suicide Mermaids has been supporting transgender children and young people for nearly 25 years. We know that there is nothing more devastating than the loss of a child or young person to suicide. We see, first hand, the terrible psychological trauma suffered by some of our service users because they live in a society that seems unable or unwilling to understand and accept them. Overall, the number of suicides in the UK fell between 2017-2018 but the number of under…

Last week, Phoebe Waller-Bridge revealed in an interview on the American network, NPR that she ‘desperately wanted to be a boy’ when she was younger. Cue the inevitable reaction from certain members of the press. Within hours, articles appeared implying the actress and writer was lucky to have grown up before the days of trans awareness because…well…she would have been forced to take medication and identify as a boy for the rest of her life against her will, right? One of our young people, Sarah, wanted to explain that, then as now, it’s actually just about exploring who you are and there’s…