Mental health charity Samaritans reported to Charity Commission after showing support to trans people
The Women’s Insitute remains ‘proud’ to accept trans members, despite an exclusionary petition calling for the organisation to halt trans women joining. (DBenitostock/Getty)
Suicide prevention charity Samaritans has found itself having to fend off so-called ‘gender critical’ activists after tweeting to mark Trans Day of Remembrance.
Samaritans’ 20 November Twitter thread stated simply that Trans Day of Remembrance “can be a difficult and upsetting time”.
The charity highlighted “social media in particular can be a tough place for trans and non-binary people” and restricted replies to the thread because it was about honouring and remembering those who’ve died, “not a time for debate”.
However, it did not stop people bringing transphobia to the quote tweets – including one user claiming “not a single person lost to transphobic hate crime in the UK, which I’m sure you will clarify Samaritans”.
Other so-called ‘gender critical’ activists targeted Samaritans for being “captured by gender ideology”, encouraged it to be reported to the Charity Commission for “lying”, and many trying to say trans women are not women.
The Charity Commission confirmed to publication ThirdSector that it has received a complaint about Samaritans’ social media activity.
“We are assessing the information to determine whether there is a role for the Commission in this matter,” a spokesperson said.
The charity pushed back on the transphobic tweets, citing research shows trans people have higher rates of self-harm and suicide than cisgender people.
“Suicide and self-harm data on gender identity aren’t routinely collected, so it is vital that recording of this data improves so we can build a complete picture of suicide amongst the trans community and prevent more deaths,” it said in another tweet.
On the other hand, many people came in swinging in support of the charity’s simple mention of trans people.
One user said a Samaritans worker was the first person they came out as trans to and they were “endlessly grateful” for the organisation’s help.
Another said it took “courage to face into the kind of abuse and pile on saying anything supportive of trans people generates these days”.
