State of this.

[AbsoluteStateOfThis]

I’m in a local ADHD Facebook support group. A student has asked people to compete a questionnaire for a dissertation. I responded that asking about sex would be helpful given the different presentation that and can have in the 2 sexes. And got this absolute shite in response from a moderator. Who is apparently an expert. (Not sure how a PhD in the microbiology on earth 650m years ago is relevant.)

She then said I couldn’t use the term “natal” in relation to sex as it is offensive to those who believe they’ve been trans since birth. Apparently she’s been advising the govt on gender for the last 10 years, so at least we know one person responsible.

FFS.

Identifies as an expert, eh?

JFC.

I mean they are right in the sense that rubbish like this may well mean that some people no longer know what sex is.

Just so depressing.

Have they actually done any studies into whether trans people with autism present more like their natal sex or chosen gender?

If you claim transwomen have periods then you don't know what a trans woman or a period is.

Which is quite an embarrassing thing for them in this context.

I pointed out that transwomen don’t have the plumbing for periods or menopause……

How is it that so many supposedly adult people have totally taken leave of their senses? I just can’t understand it.

I remember years ago seeing TRAs and transwomen airily waving away the idea that bleeding was the key feature of having a period. All about the hormones, apparently, and of course also feeling tired and weepy and wanting to eat lots of chocolate. A slight nod to the physicality by talking about having stomach issues. I may have explained at some length that the bleeding is not an incidental detail and that uterine cramps are a very different thing from all other pains I've experienced.

If you have to tell people you’re an expert then you probably aren’t one

I am an expert and everything I've said above is correct.

I don't think I'd ever trust a word spoken by someone who said this (and it wasn't a joke).

“I’m an expert and everything I have said here is correct” is brilliant and how I’m going to end all my conversations from now on.

I told her about my history in cancer care and blood health (present day, not 650 million years ago) where it matters what sex you are. Transfusing female blood into a male could kill them. Men don’t need smears, women prostate exams.

And that by definition “trans” means “not”.

Not the right kind of expert, apparently.

(Not sure how a PhD in the microbiology on earth 650m years ago is relevant.)
I would love to know who that is, I might know them.

But why didn’t you just put “I’m an expert and everything I’ve written is correct” at the end?

PMed you.

If I stay in the group I’ll make sure to end every post with it.

A word salad spewed out by a clueless fuckwit.
What is wrong with these people.

A PhD from the university of my mum's basement, most likely.

I read that far, and there didn't see any point in reading any further. How can anyone take these fools seriously?

Unfortunately there has been a real creep of identity obsessed politics into the online ADHD "community", although I get the sense the autism circles are even more toxic. People with either condition, and women especially, are being reprimanded for using their own words to describe their lived experiences. A lot of this eggshell walking relates more to the disability side of things (eg people with higher support needs being policed and spoken over), but gender politics has taken over too.

'Many transwomen have periods and go through the menopause'. Crock of shite. No they don't. Not one. Not a single one.

I was just listening to Michael Schellenberger (he of the WPATH Files fame) who said that anyone correcting your speech like this is not defending a poor beleaguered minority but are imposing their ideas on you. They are gaining the upper hand in the conversation, getting one over on you.

That’s exactly how it felt. She deleted one of my posts then turned off commenting, saying that I was free not to use the word “cis” but couldn’t use words like “natal” as it was hurtful to some people.

Ah, bless. But yeah, it's bullying through language.

I got to ‘many transwomen have periods’ and stopped reading. If a transwomen was bleeding from the cavity created to resemble a woman’s vagina then they need medical attention.

A PhD from the university of my mum's basement, most likely.

No, the PhD is real enough, I had a look, also a few publications, but you can be very good in your small area of biology and still lack understanding of how it all fits together and how everything has to somehow make sense within the refines of evolution.