New Social Work Role with Autistic Young Adults and Trans-ideology Really Worrying!

[bigkahunaburger]

So Im a Social Worker, and have a new very cool role working with young adults with autism who have started university. I had to do a lot of extra training for it, and I love it. I am now doing further training to become an autism assessor as well, as I find it so interesting.

However, something that really is worrying me is the vast majority of my young clients believe in trans-ideology. They believe they are trans/non-binary etc, and in my training for the job we were basically told we had to be pro-trans, gender affirm and support, and refer onto clinics, etc. I simply will not do that. In my training to be an autism assessor it is being rammed down our throats again that gender identity issues/trans is a 'co-occurring condition' of autism and to affirm. Its all absolute bollox and I am expected to go along with it. I consider it extremely harmful to these vulnerable young people. I have an employer for the university but when I start doing assessments and counselling though this will be under my private practice so then I can be open about my gender critical views, presumably?

Has anyone been in this position? I don't want to cause more harm by going along with this, but I do feel I may lose my university job if I don't. Anyone been through this, understand where I might stand, and any tips? How should I approach this with my employer?

You're forgetting that we're in a world where flat earthers and science deniers have been given permission to bully and threaten any woman who doesn't immediately comply with the demands that children of any age must be transitioned on demand and that sex isn't binary.
Taking advice about how to mange the bullies and ensure that these young people get informed and thoughtful support is what all good people do.

the training went into specifics such as I am to ask questions gender identity in the first meeting, wear pronoun badge, encourage gender identity discussions etc.

Surely this is not normal. This sounds like something out of Stonewall training.

Taking out the fact that this is a contentious issue, surely no employer cant make these guidelines. It is implies they aren't aware of the Forstater decision. ie that being gender critical has to be given equal value as those who believe in trans ideology.

What happens if you one of the students you are asked to support is in fact gender critical.

Can you imagine the impact of someone that had been led to believe was there to give support, in their first meeting with you, is then told by you to perform as though a trans believer.

Is there any way you can query this, and if necessary put it in terms of not wanting to breach the legal rights of a student who may be gender critical and would be underminded by the approach they say is compulsory.

She won't personally be transitioning them, on demand or otherwise. These are people who have transitioned or who wish to transition irrespective of OP's wishes or beliefs, she does not actually have the power to either start or stop them.

This is not a question of whether you think the organisational policy is correct. The fact is it is that organisation's policy and if you can't enact it or are actively seeking to undermine it, this is clearly not an organisation you should be working for.

The fact is it is that organisation's policy and if you can't enact it or are actively seeking to undermine it, this is clearly not an organisation you should be working for.
Wow! That's pretty chilling. "Don't you dare question. Just obey"

Can you dig into the feelings they have - both their rejection of their existing body and the feelings they assume they will have as the other sex? Can you work with them to accept and respect and appreciate their current physical form and to find ways to achieve in the present the positive feelings they seek from transing.

You could say that the process of transing is slow and the hurdles are many and that it would be great for them to reach some of their emotional, self-acceptance and self-compassion goals independent of the progress of their trans journey, so they are equipped with self-love, self-respect, self-acceptance, social confidence as soon as possible rather than waiting as these are still skills they'll need to practise and learn, so may as well start now. That they deserve to be able to access these feelings right now, and that they do not need to be dependent or tied up with their trans journey.

Can you also encourage them to discuss goals and interests that are independent of transing and to encourage them to engage fully with these goals?

So you are not in any way challenging their trans-beliefs, but dissolving the connection between transing and self-actualisation and happiness.

Might that work?

I have not been in this position so I can't help you much. But as the mother of an autistic young person (now mid twenties) who started to question their gender at university and eventually started taking cross-sex hormones .... thank you.

Initially I questioned DC as gently as possible but it very easily flared up and that wasn't helpful. These days I mostly nod along to my DC who doesn't live at home. I help DC to buy clothes for their preferred gender, partly so they don't go round looking really inappropriate - DC never had any clothes sense and they still don't.

After starting hormones DC saw a private counsellor who helped DC to manage other issues like socialising. I'm not aware that the counsellor either affirmed or challenged DC about gender issues. And that's OK. Just helping DC to manage life is good.

I have over time come to the conclusion that the less headspace and attention we give to pronouns, and to all the rest of gender, the healthier. So I would not refuse to use someone else's pronouns (which is more attention than I want give pronouns since I have to remember when the person isn't in front of me, but life is a compromise) ... but buggered if I'm going to announce my own.

Good luck, and thanks!

Uh yeah that's how workplaces usually work. Don't you have to follow policies in your workplace?

OP isn't a psychologist. Why are you advising her to work wildly outside her remit?

Actually most workplaces that aren't entirely ideologically captured are open to employees questioning policies.

"Ideologically captured" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Does it never just give you the slightest pause that you use such conspiracy-theory laden language to describe the perfectly normal workplace policy of respecting people's identities?

Uh yeah that's how workplaces usually work. Don't you have to follow policies in your workplace?

Not if a policy is actually illegal.

As I said up thread, following the Forstater case an employer can NOT dictate that one set of beliefs has priority over another.

So no they can tell an employee they have to act in a way which could be taken as discriminatory should the student be gender critical.

Therefore in requiring any employee to behave in the way to students, right from the start of their contact, is also putting the employee in the position of being sued for trying to impose beliefs on a student.

Not only is it pretentious rubbish, it is totally unprofessional.

Or is it yet another of those cases that in the summer holidays an intern has been left in charge.

It's not "actually illegal" to have a policy of respecting trans client's identities in any way shape or form and it's absolutely absurd to suggest so. If you really think that's the case you need to give yourself a mumsnet headwobble and take some time away from the misinformation echo chamber this once feminist board has become.

You've also misunderstood the Forstater ruling entirely - OP is entitled to her beliefs but she is still required to follow workplace policies and not enact her beliefs in a manner inappropriate to the workplace. Just as a social worker is entitled to be a Christian but it would be deeply inappropriate for them to suggest to clients that they need to seek Jesus. There is a difference between belief and action and the Forstater judgement made that extremely clear; you may wish to familiarise yourself with some more recent courtcases in which the claimant did not win, because their gender critical beliefs lead them to behaviour which was inappropriate and breached policy.

A very small number of children have concerns about their identity and most of those concerns are resolved as the children mature but unfortunately a very large number of children have been swept into the net of identity hysteria

hi@FreedomDogs I've asked you before
and you didn't reply,
so I'll try again:
What is your opinion on the Cass review
and
What do you think we should
do to safeguard young people with gender distress?

It sounds as if you can’t see that belief in gender identity ideology is a belief system in itself. It isn’t science or fact to suggest we all have a gender identity (we do all have likes, dislikes and personality traits, but not sure how that maps onto “gender”) or that we can actually change sex. It is a belief system that holds that someone’s belief that they are a different sex
I don’t think a counsellor has to agree to pretend to share the religious beliefs of their clients; neither would they denigrate those beliefs, but can politely say they don’t share them if the subject arises.

Sadly happens to many they are totally mantra driven by the end of it not all of them come out as trans though

And yet you're the one telling us we have to shut up and toe the line. Luckily my workplace is not as authoritarian as yours seems to be.

"Ideologically captured" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Does it never just give you the slightest pause that you use such conspiracy-theory laden language to describe the perfectly normal workplace policy of respecting people's identities?

Does it not give you the slightest pause when you hear that organisations instruct their employees to affirm and encourage vulnerable young people in their mistaken belief that 'changing gender' will solve the issues they face which are caused by their autism, other comorbidities, or trauma they have suffered? Your identity is who you actually are, not an alternative reality you create to escape from real life. The former should be respected. The latter is not something that vulnerable young people should be encouraged to place their faith.

You've also misunderstood the Forstater ruling entirely - OP is entitled to her beliefs but she is still required to follow workplace policies and not enact her beliefs in a manner inappropriate to the workplace.

But in this instance the employer is insisting on a single view point, and requiring the employee to publicly espouse it, and worse still impose it on a client / services user.

The employer is required to give equal weight to different opposing beliefs.

Their directive to the employee in this instance is a direct breach of that.

" ... They will need to strike a fair balance between allowing freedom of speech and tolerating opposing beliefs and ensuring employees have a safe environment that is free from discrimination and harassment. ... "

The employer is requiring an employee to act as though there is only one belief, and they have to publicly espouse it.

And in doing that they are curtailing their employee's rights and as an action to be imposed on a user, a breach of their rights.

Universities are NOT the same as a religious organisation. In fact they are exactly the opposite. They are about accepting that people can have a range of beliefs, and they should provide an environment where they are all equally respected.

PS

I referred to Forstater as it is in relation to the actions of an employer to an employee.

I dont know but presumably there are also guidelines that universities as places of education are meant to follow such as not brainwashing students into believing that one set of beliefs takes priority over all others.

Isn't part of going to university to learn how to think and question.

It is just so inappropriate.

Exactly. @FreedomDogs is acting as if this workplace guidance is somehow "neutral" when it is anything but.

Quite. And social transitioning or affirmation of a desire to transition are not neutral actions and can have profound and long-lasting consequences, especially when it's an adult in a position of trust or authority affirming transition of an impressionable and/or vulnerable child or young person.

That's irrelevant as to whether it's a valid workplace policy or whether OP is entitled to just ignore workplace policies she doesn't agree with without there being serious questions about her suitability for the job.

What an interesting role Op. I have an autistic DC about to start at uni and am so glad that some chicken at least have support from people like you.

My son, as is I gather common with ASD, teens, was very unkeen on puberty and has taken the physical changes very badly. I remember being unenthusiastic myself but didn't have the dramatic elements of male puberty (much underrated as a shock change in my view), nor suggestions that somehow one could opt out. It's really painful navigating his hang ups, constantly hoping that he doesn't roll them up into sexual identity issues rather than just general dysmorohia, which is painful enough. He has meandered towards gender unclarity a few times but not yet fully plunged down that avenue. What happens next term at university, with all the organisational and social pressures, I just don't know. Fingers crossed he navigates it. Hopefully he will be able to access support like yours.