Take part: Autistic Gender Critical Voices

[NeuroPoppins]

Hi everyone, I'm putting together an article for my blog about what autistic ppl would like to say to other autistics about how they've been treated for having GC views.

Like being banned from groups, dog-piled, censored, trolled, branded hateful, shamed etc. About maybe feeling you've had to leave the groups and find a new place. Whatever experiences ppl have had. Maybe even personal guilt for not speaking up sooner, or for seeing others be silenced and not sticking up for them because it would have been too overwhelming for you to do. Help ppl see that you can admit these things and you're not alone.

I'm thinking I'll make an article with different quotes from ppl. Maybe turn some into Slides/Infographics so they're more likely to be shared around to help reach more ppl who might feel the same. Or see it and see the consequences for having been the persecutors damning us.

If anyone has anything they'd like to say or add to it put it here in the comments

Will all be done anonymously so no one will be named etc. No worries if you don't want to add anything, that's fine too.

I can't post a link to my blog as it will get marked as spam but you can just search my name Neuro Poppins and you will find my blog so you can check me out first. I've done Autistic Interviews before where I included questions about gender and published gender critical voices to show that there are autistic ppl who do not agree with gender ideology. I'd like to help raise our voices so I'm thinking up different ways to do so.

(I don't monetise the blog either btw, so I'm not making any money off this. I do it because of passion.)

Feel free to ask me any questions if you need more info

If you find me on Facebook you can share Infographics and Slides I've made too. I'm trying to produce content that breaks away from the Gender Ideology narrative in short, snappy formats that more ppl are likely to view.

Not everyone reads articles but they love images, especially younger generations and autistic ppl

Here are some of the infographics I've made

I've made the quotes into Infographics /Slides. Plenty more available on my Facebook page

Hurray! Thanks! Will have a read 😊

I have now found it and read. Thank you so much for this. It was great (and sadly heartbreaking at times) to read of autistic people's experiences of this. More voices need to be heard. Well done you. Much appreciation.

Thanks for this. Autistic GC woman with a 12 year old Autistic GC daughter here. Placemarking and reading with interest. We talk about this a lot.

It was a pleasure to do :) I hope that other autistic ppl who have been too afraid to speak, or too afraid to think, can see this and feel encouraged to go against the tide. I want our voices to start penetrating the online autism spaces and burst the echo chambers 👌Creating ripples!

I have an autistic son I worry since we are in Scotland. Especially with stories like this:-

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/09/autism-school-pushing-pseudoscientific-trans-ideology/

May I recommend @BonfireLady to any posters here who have not come across her yet for having worked out a brilliant care plan for her autistic daughter so that she is less likely to have people at school etc starting to subtlety suggest to her she might be trans?

Thank you for the lovely comment @ScrollingLeaves
Thank you for the link @BettyBooper

And... thank you for what you are doing and for coming on to MN to spread the word @NeuroPoppins Based on only reading your first and most recent article (so far), you're an incredible narrator and copywriter. Being able to position the human angle and the impact in such an empathetic, curious and informative way is a real talent. I'm looking forward to reading more.

@INeedAPensieve I'm hoping that the article that you linked is the awakening of a questioning in the mainstream press about the "link" between autism and gender identity 🤞🤞

I am a late diagnosed gender critical adult woman, and my brother who is a 10 year younger adult is also going through the diagnostic pathway.

My mother came to the family history interview appointment as part of my diagnosis, and used the fact that I think only men can be men and only women can be women as extreme black and white thinking and my gender critical views as having a strong sense of justice and a refusal to be wrong.

I find this really hurtful that even when I was opening up and being vulnerable to the doctor, my mother who had raised me a feminist suddenly stabbed me in the back.

My brothers partner is a transman, and my brother is the golden child. He's always outwardly displayed his need for care more than I have, so he's always had more of the attention and love and compassion.

I can't make the words that come out of my mouth deceive my eyes, especially not with sincerity, and that may indeed be part of my autism, but it hurts to see my family get sucked into this ideology of the emperors new clothes and treat my opinions as simply part of being disabled.

This ideology is tearing our family apart, and I don't truly believe that the people who support us both mutually believe what is coming out of their mouths however because my brother presents autism in a very male way, and every one is very concerned about his mental health and tries to rally support in any way they can for him which means validating his views and opinions for fear he would try and kill himself again and the mental health follow up care is not there and it's a huge scary threat that manipulates what they're allowed to think or feel, my support needs and mental health go widely ignored and I am made to feel like a horrible person if I correctly sex/accidentally misgender his partner when we're in the same space.

I wish my family knew that I also used to work in an office that had 3 lots of male toilets and so they were all practically empty, and 1 lot of women's toilets, and so many of the times when I would be in there needing to use the loo, or when I was throwing up because I was pregnant, there was a transwoman in their making audibly pleasured noises, however nobody ever took my concerns seriously as there were so few women in our office, and to me it's very important that people are correctly identified by their sex so that the impacts of these experiences can be taken much more seriously.

I wish they cared that its estimated 9 in 10 autistic girls will experience some sort of sexual assault, and men commit an overwhelming and extreme number of these sexual assaults and that telling young girls that men can be women to access their safe spaces opens them up to so much grooming potential that they ignore any red flags they see as girls are very likely to fawn in the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response tree, as well as their ability to assess risk being much lower than someone who is neurotypical.

I wish someone had noticed, when I was a little girl, and got me on the pathway sooner, and cared about my need for safeguarding all through my life. And because they don't care, that's why I have to care.

@Shamelesslyhidingbehindanamechange I'm so sorry these things have happened to you, sending hugs. 💐

Shamelesslyhidingbehindanamechange · Today 01:24

Well done for standing up against lies and bravely thinking for yourself.

I am sorry your family have second-guessed you, stood in your way, and not supported you.💐✨

Thanks for doing this NeuroPoppins. I’m recently diagnosed as autistic, which has been enough of a shock, but since I started looking around the web for stuff which might help I’ve found so much stuff on autism is full of gender woo. I feel like I've always been very logical, work in science, and I’m boggled by how captured it all is by something so anti-science.

Hi NeuroPoppins - just to let you know that when I did a DuckDuckGo Search for "Neuro Poppins" your Substack (I assume it is yours) was the top result:

https://neuropoppins.substack.com/

Shamelesslyhidingbehindanamechange - "its estimated 9 in 10 autistic girls will experience some sort of sexual assault"

Have you got a reference for that please? At first I thought that seemed very high but then I wondered:

How does that compare with girls not diagnosed as autistic?

Is the figure elevated by the fact that some autistic girls will have a learning disability and girls with a learning disability are more likely to be sexually assaulted?

@Bosky

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/nine-out-of-ten-autistic-women-are-victims-of-sexual-assault/134603/#:~:text=A%20study%20finds%20that%20nine,partner%20violence%20in%20their%20lifetime.

I think it is higher because autistic women are likely to fawn or freeze, or be slower at processing events, or possibly even lack the social abilities to explicitly consent or refuse consent when they feel uncomfortable. I am sure that the comorbidity of learning disabilities will enhance that number too.

I am not a statistician, but if it's true then it's a really scary number and I won't ever stop caring about the safety of our young ones.

Shamelessly has given a source.

How does that compare with girls not diagnosed as autistic?

One in three, so we are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

My heart goes out to you 💐

My mother was only party to the preparatory paperwork at my assessment. If she'd been there in person, she would have likely said I was 'obsessed' about Trans Ideology' (as in, against it). I am not obsessed at all. She said this to my face after I laid out how and why I think it is dangerous (even though she agrees!!).

I say that as a 52 year old late diagnosed Autistic woman who wished I was a boy when I was younger. She also knows that I have to be on the ball as a mother of an Autistic 12 year old girl. I really dont want her getting caught up in all this, so I've had open and factual conversations with her for a couple of years now, and she understands why I'm GC. I dread to think how I could have been caught up with it all of I was a kid in the current climate. My parents likely wouldn't even have noticed...

It highlights to me that my mother is very likely undiagnosed Autistic and also has a lifetime of internalised misogyny. It's difficult to have conversations when someone doesn't actually realise either of those facts about themselves, never mind explore them.

You might like to take a look at this thread OP.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5074170-theythem-pronouns-in-primary-school-workbooks

Someone has been asked to review resources for autistic primary school children.

One resource in question uses they/them pronouns for individuals who are also twins, both of whom have names which are hard to tell as being a boy’s or girl’s name - eg as muddling as it is possible to be. The point seems to be to suggest the twins may be non-binary.

In addition, as it happens, while ‘they’ for someone singular can be perfectly correct grammatically, rather than anything to do with a presumed idea of gender identity,
in this instance it is all very poorly written.

A lot of the thread is about the pros and cons of the grammar, but other parts are about how autistic children are getting caught in this sort of gender drag net cast by adults with some sort of vested interest.

In addition to this, my experience is that anyone with autism is more vulnerable to exploitation, coercion etc. some have specific difficulties with understanding others pov/ motives/ hidden intentions. Have a reduced sense of danger.

(I hate talking in broad strokes like this as everyone is so very different but these are common traits that I have seen being exploited in very negative ways by others.)

My niece is autistic and overly trusting. Cannot lie and cannot conceive that others can lie. Can struggle with expressive communication when stressed. Otherwise doing well academically at college (American system.) she's very naive and not streetwise. Living at home while studying and probably for some time.

Oh, thank you. I don't use Substack as much so my page isn't upto date on there and some of my articles need editing. I'll have a look, thanks x

Yes, it's so hard to search for autism related content that isn't gender ideological. I never came across GC views in the past until I started heavily searching for it once I read Trans by Helen Joyce and had my eyes opened. It's never once come across GC stuff in autism spaces. It's shocking!