Pro-trans group accused of promoting chest binders to girls

LGBT Youth Scotland has been reported to the charity watchdog for allegedly sharing information on chest binding with a child .

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is looking into the controversial pro-trans group after it emerged that one of its advisers sent a link about the dangerous practice to a chatroom member.

This comes weeks after a regulatory compliance case into Mermaids was opened by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, following revelations that it had been sending binders to girls as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge.

Secrecy

Safeguarding Our Schools Scotland raised a complaint with OSCR, claiming that a worker for LGBT Youth Scotland had promoted chest binders to a vulnerable young person via its chatroom.

According to The Times, the child asked for the link to be sent in the chat, rather than by email, so that it would not be found by their parent.

A spokesman from OSCR said: “We can confirm we have received a concern about this charity, which is currently being examined in the usual way according to our published policies.”

Dismissive

In a separate development, Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman reacted dismissively to NHS England draft guidelines that state gender-confusion may be a “transient phase” in children and young people.

Chapman labelled the NHS statement and its more cautious clinical approach, as “derogatory, demeaning and dangerous”.

She boasted: “I am proud that with Greens in Government we are finally introducing the long overdue reform of the Gender Recognition Act to allow for self-ID and that we are transforming trans healthcare and ending conversion practices.”

Extreme

The Scottish Government is currently seeking to push through its gender self-ID Bill, which would allow 16 and 17-year-olds to change legal sex within three months, and without medical advice.

But Chapman has called on Holyrood to go further and consider enabling “young people under the age of 16” to be allowed to choose their own legal sex.