Aaron Hughes is a trans activist, PhD student and lecturer in French at the University of Oxford’s Balliol College

Being a transgender child isn’t easy. Childhood and puberty are immensely complex and disorienting stages in our lives; this is even more true for young people who identify as a gender different to the one they were assigned at birth. These young people are extremely vulnerable. They need love and recognition to stay safe, healthy and happy.

The charity Mermaids does invaluable work in this respect. They empower the families of these children to best support them with extensive resources and information. They raise awareness of trans identities and experience in society more broadly. Indeed, they have been instrumental in improving the lives of trans children and young people in the UK.

This is why it was so encouraging to hear that they have been awarded a substantial grant from the Big Lottery Fund. It’s also why it was so crushing to find out that the Fund has undertaken a review of its decision to award the grant in light of criticism it has received.

Their change of heart is disappointing, but not surprising. This is far from the first time that commentators and public figures have played on the climate of misinformation and fear surrounding trans identities to undermine the vital work done by trans activists and organisations to improve the lives of trans people.

In the Times, Mermaids was termed as a “child sex-change charity”, and said to be “aggressive”. Elsewhere, writer Graham Linehan encouraged people to express their opposition to the decision on the grounds that the charity pushes an “extreme ideological agenda” and adopts an approach to trans and gender non-conforming children which is “experimental” and “non-evidence-based”.

None of these claims are grounded in fact. Mermaids primarily exists to support the families of trans and gender non-conforming children, not to coordinate their transition. It has no agenda, “extreme” or otherwise, beyond improving the lives of trans people and their relatives. Its approach to gender non-conformity in children is far from lacking in evidence, and is in reality informed by a wealth of guidance from the international medical community. Read more via the Independent