National Autistic Society and Mermaids [Title edited by MNHQ]

[GColdtimer]

My friend just posted this on Facebook this morning. She isn't on MN so I have her permission to share. She would really like more people, especially people with ASD or who have children with ASD, to write to NAS thanking them for their willingness to listen and their agreement that Mermaids is not reputable.

This is really great news so please can we keep this bumped and shared. Thank you.

If posters on the SEN board would like to share that would also be great (if appropriate).

Dear XXXX ,

Thank you for your feedback regarding the Gender and autism page on our website.

I’m writing to let you know that I’ve raised your concerns regarding Mermaids UK, one of the organisations we link to on our Gender and autism page, with a number of teams within the National Autistic Society. In light of the concerns raised in your message, and of other feedback that we have received, we have decided to remove all links to Mermaids UK from our website, while we take the time to consult with relevant professionals and to reconsider which organisations we wish to place links to on our website.

As such, our Web Team are working to remove all links to Mermaids UK from our website as soon as possible. Please do be aware, however, that, as we are currently in the process of updating our website to reflect our new branding and organisational identity, it may take a few days for this to be actioned.

Thank you again for bringing this to our attention, and I hope that you are satisfied with the actions we are taking in light of the concerns that you have raised.

Kind regards,

National Autistic Society

[Edited by MNHQ to remove personal info]

And why the fear of transgender culture is so insanely paranoid that as soon as groups pop up here and there, some people decide to, instead of educate themselves, froth at the mouth and call for the witches to be burned.

What do you think 'transgender culture' is? People here have no problem with people presenting differently from that 'expected' for their sex. Take a look at this thread as an example:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3385912-fionne-orlander

People have a problem with men who declare themselves to be women and demand access to all female spaces. Take a look at this thread as an example:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3320513-Jess-Bradley-first-transgender-student-officer-suspended-after-flashing-photos
Or this one:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3369090-To-ask-you-to-care-that-ANOTHER-paedophile-MALE-who-targeted-girls-who-claims-to-be-a-woman-has-been-moved-to-a-womans-prison-Having-got-a-GRC-IN-PRISON-FFS
Or this article:
metro.co.uk/2018/10/01/trans-woman-41-pretended-to-be-a-boy-to-groom-a-girl-7994533/

Perhaps you should 'educate yourself'. And I think you'll find that we are actually the 'witches' that others threaten to burn. I've seen no threats of violence on here.

I have would not dispute that. I am not criticizing everyone on this site. But I feel that this thread has an element of transphobia about it. Just as I would object to bigoted language on FB and twitter, without accusing everyone on there of the same prejudices.

Spiritual

Thanks for keeping this thread bumped. There's lots of useful factual information on it

I'm so glad this thread was bumped. Thank you.

I had missed its excellent news that the National Autistic Society are prioritising people with autism
and no longer linking to an organisation that may actually cause harm to vulnerable children.

I expect the TRA / MRA mob will pile onto them, but I hope the NAS do their research, analyse the facts and don't let themselves be intimidated by threats.

Like many women with Aspergers, I find it very stressful to be forced into denying scientific fact & logic.

Supporting Self-ID leads to a spiral of logical inconsistencies and batshit conclusions, such as TRAs being prepared to die on #rapehill and state that a man who rapes is a woman, if he says so.

I refuse to pretend that a boy / man can change into a girl / woman, however much they wish to do so
and I certainly won't refer to any male rapist or paedophile as "she"

This is not "transphobic", any more than refusing to accept white people being able to self-ID as BME is "whitephobic"

I vigorously defend the rights of women to retain single sex safe spaces.
Developing countries like India are building more such spaces for women, to increase their safety,
whereas Western society - the "Anglosphere in particular - is going backwards in denying the importance of biology to us.

Spirituallove There is no transphobia here. You’ve not even highlighted a single word or comment to validate your repeated and false claims. You however, are bring extremely and clearly intentionally, ableist.

this is not about trans people, they are not the centre of the universe. This is about autistic people. Fuck off with your faux concern

You’ve spread the word? Go ahead you nasty ableist narcissist. You go ahead taking precious resources from autistic families with your repulsive behaviour. You and your TRA mates can congratulate each other for depriving autistic people of what they need so you can force a dodgy small charity run by a dangerous woman on vulnerable children.

Not knowingly autistic 🙄 thanks for confirming you’re not autistic and this has literally nothing that do with you... I’m sure you’ll carry on harassing NAS anyway. Sick.

The narcissistic Emperor is not happy the autistic community is saying "look at the Emperor..." the narcissistic rage is strong.

Mermaids link to Dr Helen Webberly FFS!!! just convicted for supplying hormones to young children. They still link to her despite her conviction.

Oh but sure, they’re a lovely sparkly charity that are so good for vunerable children.

I hope every autistic person here has written and thanked the NAS 🙏🏻 They really appreciate our messages of support, and donations of course

Joss Prior recently did a thread on the transphobia and hatred of us and WPUK. I wish I could link to it. It was about 15 screenshots of quotes like 'trans people should be able to have a third space. But I'm not going to argue with you, bye!'

Basically, baffling. They were all of women being.. polite.

“I feel this thread has an element of transphobia about it”
I would recommend you try thinking as well as feeling.
The NAS exists to serve autistic people and their families not the trans community who have plenty resources of their own. The NAS is entitled to ask itself and its users whether other organisations have anything worthwhile to offer. That is what they are doing and it is not transphobic.
Nor is it transphobic for a parent of an autistic child not to want s lifetime of medical transition treatment robe added to their child’s other problems. Fuck off with your ignorance and disablism.

Ps I’ve reported you and candidly I hope you get removed from the site. I suspect you won’t but you seem quite malign to me. Sinister.

Joss Prior's everywhere, isn't Joss Prior?

And I do agree. It's really funny when they get all hyperbolic and adjectivey, and then the subject of their rant is some mild factual statement. The more of that sort of self-revealing stuff the better, i say

Is it inappropriate go write if one has no connection to NAS issues

^ that last post was to charliethefeminist

Charliethefeminist I personally think it is, but I know the TRA’s like the ableist one in this thread are contacting them so 💁🏽‍♀️

I’m going to make an extra donation and let them know I did so to help cover their extra costs that trans activists have selfishly imposed on them having to deal with their harassment. I suggest anyone in a position to do so, does the same and let’s them know why.

'self assured, confident and understanding'
Is this a contrast against us autistic people?

I'm autistic and a lesbian. You can be both. I don't bring my children up to be unthinkingly conforming. I would rather they weren't straight due to the increased risk of pregnancy but if they are I'm assuming they will be the kind without the knuckledragging. That isn't a nice comment. It's like saying all football fans are racist thugs. Which generally has a whiff of class prejudice about it.

Totally agree, mums
Penny, I will donate and explain why, good idea

Charliethefeminist Thank you. They’ve been doing really important work and this year did some fantastic ad campaigns that included... autistic women! We never see this. She was a young woman so it was great for my daughter to see it... I hate that they’ll be spending their resources on dealing with other people and agendas who have nothing to do with the NAS.

I can't get my head around parents who would rather their kid grew up to become a knucklescraping heterosexual than having differences and nuances.

I think for some parents having a trans child has become the ultimate status symbol-which says it all really....

Spirituallove given that you are by a considerable distance the most disablist poster I’ve come across on MN (which, by the way, is saying something!) you wittering about bigotry and prejudice is frankly quite funny.

The fact you can not differentiate between children who are trans and deserve support and proper care, from the people using trans rights for their own dangerous, pernicious and frankly predatory agenda is extremely worrying.

Every time you call any of us transphobic for speaking out against these people, you are defending predators and paedophiles. Because you’re so busy being “right on” that you can’t see what is right in front of you.

Is it inappropriate go write if one has no connection to NAS issues

I don’t think so, no. If you’re not autistic or the parent of an autistic child, I think you’re still an ally. We’re all fighting for the same thing.

I would recommend you try thinking as well as feeling

This needs to be put on billboards.