Resource thread, autism and transgender issues.

[jamrollyolly]

I've been looking for resources about the number of autistic children identifying as transgender. I was hoping to share the information with an online sen parent support group that I am part of. I think it would be good to warn parents of this possible problem so they can be vigilant against it.

I've spent the morning trawling the internet but haven't found anything specifically related to that. Plus I'll confess I don't know how to do the clicks link anyway.

Are there any amazing MN researchers able to help?

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.

I think I will try and go to that. I will take careful notes and report back, if I can make it.
Stonewall know nothing about ASD and I’m amazed they have a representative there. Well, not as amazed as I should be.

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

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?)

I was following links from a TransgenderTrend resource on safeguarding, and came across this article:

capmh.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13034-015-0042-y

The discussion could have been a lot longer, and there wasn’t a lot we didn’t already know or suspect, but the following quote really stood out for me, because I had not actually considered this issue before:

”Given the nature of ASD, particularly ASD children’s and adolescents’ difficulties in adjusting to changes, profound changes in their own bodies with SR treatments may pose a major challenge to psychological adjustment, and ASD adolescents may be particularly rigidly unwilling to consider this in advance.”

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.

Just to say in case people not seen the other thread re this. Mermaids preaching that an ASD diagnosis is a symptom of autism. No words. mobile.twitter.com/Mermaids_Gender/status/1116689347342942208

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.

Sorry, it's Socfem19!

This makes me very sad. The ASD children who struggle to fit in, are being persuaded/suggested that they may be trans? This is so awful and I have no idea how to prevent it/curb it/stem it.

It seems like the most horrific easy option: "oh you're s bit wierd are you? Don't fit it? Maybe you should try being transgender then?".

God. No. Please no. These children have enough problems, just trying to fit in. Without this added shite.