From the article:
In documents seen about the incident, the girl admits asking a player she describes as having “a beard”, “Are you a man?” She also admits asking the referee for guidance about the player’s eligibility to participate in women’s football “given my concern for my safety after already suffering a number of overly physical challenges”.
But she has denied doing so constituted transphobia or that she made any comments that could be construed as such, while it is understood the referee also heard nothing he deemed to be discriminatory.
…
In a written statement submitted in her defence, the girl said she had become “confused” about the participation of the trans player during the match in question due to the latter “wearing jewellery and sunglasses” and not being in opposition kit.
She added: “The moment the player clarified they were transgender [which I previously hadn’t considered], I respected their answer fully, dropped the situation and immediately shifted my focus back to the game before seeking guidance from the referee. At no point was my question meant to be hurtful or malicious, as I only intended to seek clarity in an unfamiliar situation. Knowing now that the player was transgender, I understand that there were better ways to approach this question.”
My take on it:
Not immediately recognising that the person with a beard and male physique is identifying as a woman is an easy mistake to make. And not something deserving of such excessive or harsh consequences and serious accusations of transphobia.
As for autism. I have worked with many children who have autism and I have family members with autism. It is a spectrum disorder but it does not manifest in a million different ways. There is a diagnostic criteria because there are traits that are consistent among everyone who has autism. Struggling with social cues is one of those traits. Struggling or completely missing nuances of nonverbal communication, sarcasm or implied meanings is another trait. Which would make it difficult to recognise all the different shades of gender as opposed to the clear difference between two biological sexes. Being literal or direct another trait. Having a very high expectation of justice and fairness is another common trait.
And from all my experience with people who have autism, I can absolutely recognise some of those traits in the way she communicated. And I recognise the effort she is putting in to overcome her challenges and to try to handle this social situation (which would be hard for anyone btw) as best as she can.
By punishing her and accusing her of repeated transphobia and not in anyway taking her suspected autism into account, constitutes disability discrimination.
While it may be a side issue, I have been seeing an increase in discrimination and ignorance towards people with various disabilities. It’s not ok. Why is a perceived discrimination against a trans woman very wrong but somehow justifies discrimination against someone else’s disability.
Policing people’s words does not work because not everyone is able to communicate in the same way or the “correct way.”