A book on autism which pushes the trans rights agenda

[CatFeet]

I saw a thread on MN asking for book recommendations for autists. I looked up one that sounded good called Unmasking Autism, I’ve included the blurb from the publisher which is very misleading. Thankfully I read the reviews, and I’m deeply disturbed. The book is mainly devoted to promoting the author’s transgender ideology while trying to pass itself off as a helpful resource for autistic people.

Here is one review to give an idea:

’This could be a phenomenally helpful book, but the author has decided to use it as a platform to talk about their transgender agenda. Could have been so helpful, ended up as tremendously dull listening to their soap box.’

And another:

’I was enjoying this book, and I found myself trusting the thoughts, ideas and referencing. However, I am in new territory and so was building my trust in the author. It is my view that this author misrepresents JK Rowling in this book, and pointlessly, without any thorough referencing, and therefore, my trust has been undermined. I wanted to read about unmasking autism, and I was not looking to hear someone's views on the current gender/sex debates. I'll be returning the book.’

What on earth does JK Rowling have to do with Autism?

I was on that thread - I don’t think that book is for me, I’ve tried a few other books on women with autism and not really found any that have been helpful. Got diagnosis a couple of weeks ago. Not even sure I’ll tell many people because it does feel a bit ‘bandwagon-y’ nowadays, even though I’ve thought I was for a while I am older than most (50)

Hmm. Was the deletion for crimes against punctuation?

😬

Yeah I understand that. There is a fair amount of stigma still and judgmental attitudes. I have only told my sister and husband. My sister has ADHD (diagnosed and on meds) so she gets it.

I still don’t know what JK Rowling has to do with Autism. But I suppose I shall never know as I won’t be reading the book 🤷🏻‍♀️

I do worry about the massive overlap between autism and genderism.
It's quite frightening, some autistic people convincing others to self sterilise.Its eugenics by stealth, perpetuated by that very same group.

Don't you know she's the source of all evil with her anti trans (pro women) retoric

Me too, especially as I have a vulnerable asd ds who thankfully an extremely logical atheist and doesn't believe any of it though quite a few of his peers at his special school have fully bought into it much to their parents horror. Up here in Scotland it's absolutely everywhere as it's the new government sponsored religion

The 'identify as' phrase is really interesting I've discovered.

The first time I saw it on a form, relating to disability, I scoffed that I didn't think you could just identify your way out of a disability.

Surprisingly, that is exactly the origin of the phrase. That is, if you have a diagnosed disability - or something diagnosed that many people might consider a disability - like ASD or deafness, do you choose to label yourself as disabled? Many people do not. I understand that the 'not regarding oneself as / identifying as' disabled concept started in the deaf community. A lot of deaf people do not consider themselves disabled.

So the origin of the phrase is the very opposite of the way it used to commonly used now. It's about people with a diagnosis choosing whether they make that part of their identity or not. There was no 'identifying into' something you might or might not actually be or have.

Having been through various different (and some expensive) diagnostic pathways to get the relevant ASD/ADHD diagnoses for my children, I tend to wince and think "did ya, aye" when I hear someone has self identified themselves as ND.

And then I think what on earth do they do when they are asked to produce their diagnostic report.

Northern, by 'your lot stopped it', do you mean that the childhood medical transition route was stopped?

If so, that was because the Cass review showed that there was no solid evidence that it was doing good, to compensate for its known harms.

That some children are bitterly disappointed is unfortunate.

But it's better not to offer unevidenced procedures to children, surely.

Even that’s not good enough for some people who will just say you bought the diagnosis. As opposed to not wanting to wait potentially years via the NHS…

The last thing I want to do is to make you anxious, but my son valued rational thinking, is an atheist, and seems to have fallen for a secular religion. All his scepticism has gone out of the window, and now that the boot is on the other foot I am the one who is an apostate because of my scepticism after initially going along with "be kind".

As one reviewer states ; if it had been called ‘Unmasking Autism in the LGBTQI+Community’ at least readers would have known what they were buying (into) from the start.

I am really fed up with the way the trans issue has hijacked not only LBG rights but neurodiversity.

Popopopipipi · Today 17:02

Having been through various different (and some expensive) diagnostic pathways to get the relevant ASD/ADHD diagnoses for my children, I tend to wince and think "did ya, aye" when I hear someone has self identified themselves as ND.

You can always diagnose that as them having self diagnosed as a tiresome, attention seeking waste of time, of course.

Unfortunately there are plenty of people who seem to think being nd is something they can self identify as, I know multiple adults who have no formal diagnosis yet spend a lot of time talking about being nd, glorifying it even and diagnosing every one they know too. These are not people who have slipped through the net, it's just they like attention and being different. So yes people do self identify and i personally hate it because it makes a mockery of those who have real diagnosis and real problems

I felt the same way until recently (am 55, what’s the point?) I was told by my kids’ clinicians I was very clearly ND and, as a student might find a formal diagnosis helpful, but it wasn’t until a series of life issues (with the aforementioned kids) triggered a period of severe anxiety and depression that I had a session with a very switched on Psychiatric nurse who felt I really needed a diagnosis.

His reasoning was that a ND brain interacts differently to anxiety or anti depressant meds, so a diagnosis can aid getting the right ones earlier. He also picked up on the fact that I said I had zero interest in talking therapy (fed up with getting the 24yr old recent psychology grad who cannot possibly understand bing a menopausal mother of two autie teens, one with ROGD/self-harming etc, consequential marital strains and the recent loss of two best friends also in their fifties… call me patronising, but maybe being AuDHD really is a factor 🤣). However, he pointed out that CBT is a waste of time with NDs with my profile, so having a diagnosis should lead to being allocated more appropriate therapy approaches.

So, finally, I’ve started the process of getting diagnosed to check that I really am AuDHD and not just a bit mad…

When your original NHS diagnosis is a letter of two paragraphs - the first saying they have diagnosed the child, and the second saying they have discharged the child - sometimes you've got to pay for a SLT or OT report to back up the support required, if you can't wait another 3 years to get to the front of the queue again.

I've had one child diagnosed by the NHS by a single HCP in 20 minutes with only my questionnaire; and then later diagnosed privately over 4 sessions with 3 different HCP and a wealth of forms and history and questionnaires from multiple people from different settings. That private diagnosis stands up more than the NHS.

I’m with you on that. I’ve read it on MN enough times that I know some people doubt anything…Lots of bitter people out there.

Agree with this - I have clinical reports accompanying the diagnosis for both my children that total 15 odd pages each. Plus print outs of the QB reports and analysis etc that informed their diagnosis. I naively thought that the NHS offered the same thorough process.

As a result of this thread I’m now kind of grateful that we went private!

@CautiousLurker or you could have just self-identified ... oh wait...

🤣

My dd is on a long waiting list for diagnosis. In the meantime we were offered some group zoom lessons/webinar type sessions. We were directed to other resources. I looked some up and found some of them pushing gender ideology and it's not obvious from the blurb. I think it's a definite targeting of vulnerable children and families, there is so little advice and support we rely on books and websites podcasts etc recommended by others. But to see CHAMS directing parents to websites pushing this stuff makes me very uncomfortable. One website the facilitator spent a full 5 minutes raving about was all about nuroqueer and had as the opening page a man making the peace sign cocking his head with a coy/alluring/sexual smile.

How has this shit got anything to do with supporting my autistic children who are being denied education because of lack of appropriate schools? Minimal advice about that but buckets of individual stories or leading you to gender ideologies framed as advice.

It's not just the resources either. Took my son to visit an alternative provision. They had a rule no shoes inside and provided trans flag crocs for the children, trans posters on the walls and a toilet sign saying gender neutral (was one cubical it only had to say toilet!).

I thank god for mumsnet. I'd not come across overt gender ideology. I'd assumed when it says gender on a form it meant sex just phrased in a less crass way. I used the word gender myself. My eyes were opened when I started online dating as a woman seeking a woman. But without mumsnet I would not know if the drive to indoctrinate our children particularly our most vulnerable, nor would I know about the risk/loss of woman's rights. Now I check everything my kids are exposed to amd the provisions offered and its staggering how insidious and widespread this is

Many (most) charities and organisations for autistic people are driven by fear of being cancelled/set upon by those controlling the dominant social media discourse about autism. There is no way of knowing how representative this discourse is of the total autistic population. What's interesting is that they have, more recently, been rallying against people saying that the dominant social media discourse is not representative of the non speaking and learning disabled autistic population. Here, the argument is that they, more than anyone (including parents who have cared for their children all their lives) know what this group need and want because only autistic people can know what is best for autistic people and no one else has the right to to comment.

The dominant discourse is that of autism being a super power that society refuses to value. Society is organised in a way that disables autistic people, and society needs to change so that autistic difference is accommodated and valued. Personally, I agree with a lot of this messaging, except for the 'super power' bit. I agree with viewing autistic difference as difference in some contexts, but also recognise it as disability in other contexts. I think it's great when people embrace their autism and say they wouldn't want to be NT. I also accept, and don't pathologise people who would rather not be autistic.

I think, as with TRA groups, autism advocacy groups are full to the brim with people with personality disorders who incorrectly misattribute their difference/distress/issues to being autistic and/or trans. Many are angry that they were denied a diagnosis (when a diagnosis has been sought), often accompanied by 'we shouldn't be subjected to NT professionals with their NT diagnostic criteria policing who can and can't be accepted as autistic'.

Most charities and organisation are appeasing advocates by saying they only use the term disability as it's necessary for accessing funding and support. In reality, those who work in statutory services and primary care are drowning under the weight of needs that would not be addressed by what the 'super power' and 'radical social model of disability' crew are selling.

I skim read the book - the first part was ok though I wouldn’t agree with calling yourself disabled and telling the world ( though author is not British so disabled might be seen differently there) but the examples of people owning their autism whom she describes were, I think, all trans.