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I really hope I'm wrong and the world is turning its back on Mermaids but I've spent way too much time looking into these claims and I just can't find any evidence that it's true. More info below:
Yes Stonewall has blanked it's mermaids page, which could be found under the url branch http://stonewall.org.uk/organisations/ but from what I can see it's blanked all the other organisations too. They seem to have replaced it in 2019 with this page: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/lgbt-inclusive-organisations-you-should-know-aboutrestricted >
That page includes a direct link to the Mermaids website. But now even that page is buried within the navigation (i.e. difficult to find without a direct link). They pretty much got rid of all signposting to other orgs except local groups ("what's in your area?"). >
I think this is likely a strategy to keep people within their site/services, which is not uncommon when everyone's looking for page hits and numbers to impress their funders/get clout. Searches for "Mermaids" on the Stonewall website still bring up quite a few hits (articles).
With Childline, they do not have a list of orgs they signpost to either. So where would the Mermaids link be? I checked their gender identity page using the Wayback Machine and they weren't on it in February 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190216115450/https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/your-feelings/sexual-identity/transgender-identity/
So it's hard to prove the link was ever there. Seems unlikely it'd go up and come down so quickly. Childline do have an "Ask Sam" area where kids can write in and Mermaids are not mentioned in their responses but Gendered Intelligence are. >
I still don't believe this is evidence Mermaids have been scrubbed - probably just organisational preference with regard to referrals. As far as I know there's no way to check this. >
With the NSPCC, they also do not have a list of organisations they signpost to. So where would the link be? I searched for Gendered Intelligence, they don't come up either. Stonewall do but only twice - both mentions in news articles. There's no evidence Mermaids ever featured. >
Obviously I may have missed something and I'd love to see screenshots or wayback links that show a different story because I want to believe this change is happening. At the moment I just can't see evidence for it.
Seeing people say Starbucks have scrubbed Mermaids now too. The menu page for "Mermaid cookies" has never been archived so unless there's a screenshot it's impossible to know if the charity was ever mentioned. >
The partnership with Mermaids has never featured on their "Our Community" pages. It was launched in Feb 20 and the page was archived May 20 here https://web.archive.org/web/20200525200512/https://www.starbucks.co.uk/responsibility/socialimpact/ourcommunities >
Starbucks UK is a very limited site - they do not publish articles or news, all of this is found on the .com site. All the Mermaids stories and articles etc are still up.
Here's a link to their page about the partnership with Mermaids: https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2020/whatsyourname/
