Resource thread, autism and transgender issues.

Sorry, it's Socfem19!

This is a fantastic post from Socfem18, I hope you don't mind me adding your thoughts to this thread as I feel you explain so well.

(I) am so scared for autistic children and young lesbians at the moment. From my lots and lots of experience in the autistic community (as an autistic person) I can say that most autistic adults are either trans or gender critical. Tend to be at two extremes.

This is because we do not absorb a lot of the social information about sex stereotypes so can be convinced as kids (or as adults) that non-conforming means we are not our sex. We already feel different from everybody, especially our same-sex peers, so this is easy to believe in many ways.

The alternative is when we get good, strong, logical messages to counter this and to tell us that we are actually the vanguard in breaking down sex-stereotypes which is a Good Thing. That our function in this world is to challenge cultural binds which hold people in their gendered place.

Unfortunately, there are modern trans activists who are getting to kids (and some adults) first, like with this poor kid in the article, and convincing them non-conforming is not a gift of autism but a sign that their bodies are wrong. It's abusive and sickening. I wish I was in a position to make positive videos or articles for autsitic young people which counter this narrative.

That young lesbians tend to fall into either "can" (but, as with autistic youth, increasingly the trans one..) is a very similar issue. You grow up thinking "I'm different to the other girls" and this can easily be targeted as actually being not just different and non-conforming, but to actually being different, fundamentally, to other females. We aren't.

Again, lesbians have always been at the vanguard of questioning sex-baaed stereotypes. We should be raising young LB women to be proud of this. Instead modern trans movement gets in there and convinces them they have always felt different because they are in fact boys. It is so regressive and heterosexist!

This is a call out to all those who are autistic, les/bian or who love those who are - let's talk louder about autism and lesbianism as a gift which helps everybody to question patriarchal cultural assumptions. Let's build up our youth not allow them to be abused, confused, and broken down.

Thanks Fallingirl that's really interesting. This part struck me particularly-

Gender identity issues could arise from autism spectrum people’s predisposition toward unusual interests, or gender dysphoria in ASD could represent OCD rather than genuine gender identity issues. The cross-gender behaviour in ASD minors could also rather represent non-normative sexual interests or unusual sensory preferences [28]. Our clinical impression is that a long-standing feeling of being different and an outsider among peers could play a role in ASD children developing gender dysphoria in adolescence. In our clinical sample of gender dysphoric adolescents, autism spectrum disorders by far exceeded the prevalence of 6/1000 suggested for general population [32], and almost three-fold that in the sample of deVries et al. [28]. Autism spectrum needs to be taken seriously in considering treatment guidelines for child and adolescent gender dysphoria.

Donald-

I also got a message from another mner who had seen a leaflet about a series of meetings aimed at autistic adults some of which were focusing on gender identity.

This could, of course be hugely helpful but as the guest speaker is a transgender woman it may be more affirming than questioning. This mner suggested we keep an eye out on notice boards for similar leaflets in our areas.( Maybe while posting some leaflets of our own?)

Donald Wow thanks
If you could go and report, that would be amazing !

I'm also along long way from Leeds. Thanks for posting.
Is anyone else here interested?
I know that the autistic Mums are amazing and could push this forward with a little help.

All Mums are amazing, but the autistic Mums get pushed even further, we need them and they need us.

Thanks Left

I think a lot of teachers are afraid to speak out or don't think it's their area of concern. That is why it's so important that this is seen as a safeguarding issue, as safeguarding has to be the primary concern of everyone that works in a school.

Thanks to Rowan, I got this story from today's thread about the fantastic Times articles today.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6401593/Whistleblower-teacher-makes-shocking-claim-autistic.html

If anyone else has anything to add, or are members of any sen support groups they'd like to forward this to, I think today would be s great day to do it!

Thanks Nellie, nice to know I'm not just posting to myself!

I do think it's important that families with autistic children are aware of the narrative being put forward, especially on social media.

Perhaps if you are a member of any support groups you could forward the thread or some posts to them.

This is from research at Cambridge University

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110505103241.htm

Another interesting article, from the telegraph. www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/10-years-ask-did-allow-trans-lobby-hijack-childhood/

www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/04/22/the-trans-child-as-experimental-guinea-pig/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6401947/How-NHS-childrens-transgender-clinic-buried-fact-372-1-069-patients-autistic.html?ito=emailsharee_article-factbox

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngFueUBbIA0#fauxfullscreen

Fingers crossed that this works. He drafts to talk about gender issues about 33 min in.

Thanks left, great video.
The other video you're remembering might have been from a thread last week, "help find post on gender identity from autistic poster." If I knew how to add it I would!

It is really annoying about the NAS, they could have been a great ally.

Thanks for the suggestions, I've spent most of the day chasing the dog(!) but I'm still figuring out how to link. I'll get there!