Trans people who have ASD

[proximalhumerous]

I've read that the trans demographic contains a significant proportion of people who are autistic. I understand - although I may be mistaken - that this phenomenon can arise when people with ASD interpret their general experience of not fitting in (for want of a better expression) as being "born in the wrong body".

Surely then what you end up with is a set of people who are no less neuro-divergent (with its attendant difficulties) who have now added not truly belonging to either sex to compound the social challenges they were previously facing.

Just one of the many reasons why people should not be encouraged to transition until other options have been exhausted, as there's no guarantee that it will improve a person's situation.

Yes, I think 60%+ of the children registered at the Tavistock had an ASD diagnosis or ASD traits. A significant over-representation given their numbers in wider society. And yes, absolutely, this is the autistic not-fitting-in redefined. I would add it’s also autistic black and white thinking sped along by the fact that there is zero help and support for autistic kids but lots of wonderful new friends hailing them as the popular kid if they call themselves trans. It’s appalling.

It's a huge issue among late diagnosed and self diagnosed autistics as well. It's a huge reason I avoid the community as an autistic

I don’t think it’s about feeling not fitting in with their own gender per se. But autistic people (for transparency I am autistic myself) generally don’t feel the same pressure to conform to traditional societal norms including gender. Which is why you get a lot more gender neutral, trans, gay, bi etc autistic people than perhaps you do in non-autistic people.

It is a genuinely huge issue.

Thanks for confirming what I suspected @Igmum. It is indeed appalling, and what I can't get my head round regarding the Tavistock is that pretty much the entire raison d'être of psychotherapists is to think carefully and deeply about a range of issues and all the implications of what their patients bring to sessions, yet they seem to have turned into automatons putting autistic children on the trans conveyor belt almost as a matter of course.

For many young autistic people, everyone around them has been lying to them for as long as they can remember. The damage that will have done can never be reversed.

Let's not forget that "transing" was presented as a "cure" for autism by orgs such as Mermaids and (the oxymoronically named) Gendered Intelligence.

I'm Autistic too and completely see how the validation and admiration from "coming out" (initially at least) could actually be the first time such a child has had attention and admiration. For someone used to being ignored and written off it must be very comforting and I've seen it with a couple of kids and a young man too. That is until the realities hit home possibly years down the track. There must be healthier ways of loving Autistic and vulnerable young people than social delusion and fucked up bodies. A degree of attention and appreciation is healthy and the trans path is the wrong solution.

Add to that the fact that many in the trans community promote the idea that any kind of assessment, or suggestion of, is conversion therapy, and therefore terrible, trans phobic, makes the person unsafe so literal violence. So young people confused about their gender are dissuaded from investigating other reasons for their distress. It’s a toxic tangle.
im just hopeful that this SC ruling, when it settles, puts in place some bounty that many people with ASD find reassuring.

Thanks for everyone's responses.

As a parent of an autistic teen this is one of the things I watch most closely. We've navigated discussions around gender ideology and biological sex carefully. DC is same-sex attracted and given L's proximity to T in some instances and resources, it's been important to pre-emptively unpick the issues.

Every single trans person I know is autistic. Despite it supposedly being rare to be trans, and me being autistic not the most sociable of people, I know a heck of a lot of trans people.

and I get it, I really do. Never fitted in myself, wanted to be a boy for most of my childhood. If this had been around then then I would have gone that way - a way to fit into a group and have positive things said about me, be told how brave I am etc. Who wouldn’t want then when they’ve had a lifetime of being told they’re weird?

I just feel so sorry for all these people who have been lied to. They can’t change sex.

I think that for autistic people who often struggle to fit in, being able to join a ready-made, accepting community is really appealing when making friends is usually such a struggle.

Additionally, since it’s often far less exhausting to socialise with other neurodivergent people and this group is over-represented in trans circles, it makes absolute sense that autistic people would be drawn to that community as like attracts like and it’s just more comfortable.

Also, in terms of the whole ‘born in the wrong body’ gender woo, autistic people have typically lived their whole lives having to conform to illogical social rules that everyone else is blindly following even though they seem nonsensical and pointless, so I feel like autistic people are especially primed to accept gender woo as just another one of those weird social constructs that doesn’t really make sense if you think about it for too long, but you just have to go along with it in order to successfully socialise.

I'm an HE lecturer. All the students I have ever known who are trans or non binary are autistic. Not a single one was/is not.

This is in part why i have such an issue with gender reassignment. The two are linked and its a known link.

I can say with some confidence, I think if i was a teen today i'd have have likely been identifying as trans. Undiagnosed autistic until adulthood. Struggled significantly with fitting in but also puberty in general. It was a change I could not cope with, bras, deodrant, a female body I didnt recognise. Made harder by not fitting in with my female peers who were excited by these changes and developments. Was I trans? Nope not at all, not even a tiny bit. Am I a man? No. Was I a confused, teenager in need of support and understanding? Yes totally. Thankfully I didnt even know what trans was in my teens. So it didnt come up. Now a happily married straight woman with children. But could easily have been a totally different story.

Yes my son and his friend are both experiencing this issue and are both autistic. We are just letting ds experiment with his personal style without any encouragement down the trans route. Just praying he doesn't take it further. His friend is living as a male but was born female. It is very tricky. Dr Az Hakeem has written some good books on the subject especially regarding autistic people and gender dysphoria.

I have ADHD, and I suspect also ASD. I was a tomboy as a child, and now in my 40s I definitely don’t “feel” female, nor do I dress or behave according to female stereotype. But it’s still blindingly obvious to anyone who meets me that I’m a woman! Until my late-in-life diagnosis, I felt I was probably an alien, as I just couldn’t fathom these strange human creatures all around me. Now that I understand it, the feeling of not fitting in is so much easier to live with. Had this gender nonsense been a thing in the 80s/90s, I’m fairly certain I’d have been transed, and I don’t think I’d still be alive to tell the tale. I don’t have kids, but I feel instinctively protective of ND children, because I know how difficult and confusing it is to be one. I feel really devastated for all the children and their families affected by this. How, as a society, are we accepting the mutilation and sterilisation of vulnerable autistic children? It’s simply horrifying.

@LonginesPrime Illogical social rules are the bane of my existence 😂
Why do humans have to make basic interaction so confusing?!

Parent to autistic teenagers here…I could see how easily my daughter was going to be lured in by trans ideology the moment puberty hit & she didn’t feel the same as the other girls. Managed to limit her exposure off by blocking Reddit & Pinterest (of all benign things!) & fortunately she’s too socially anxious to cope with social media. Lots of vetting of autistic literature (a gifted copy of Abigail Balfe’s ‘A Different Sort of Normal’ went straight in the bin) & much discussion about biology & the transing away of gayness over the last few years has hopefully helped but I still worry about it, especially as there are a number of autistic ‘boys’ at her girls school.

As a GC mother It’s such a fine line to tread…if I’m
too vocal I risk a defiant backlash.
I did have a lovely conversation yesterday with her older brother about the damage done to the lesbian community over the past decade, when I also explained that he’d be considered transphobic if he rejected the advances of a self identified trans girl. Framed from that perspective he finally got it!

Well, praying isn't going to do very much.

This is a predatory cult. If your son is already heading down this path, protect him actively. Vet the media and monitor the online content he's consuming. No devices when alone in bedroom. In-person activities and clubs to build social skills. He's being influenced from somewhere - his TIF friend? Remind him no one can change sex. Keep tabs on his school - are they encouraging social transition behind parents' backs?

You're probably doing this already but I cannot emphasise enough the amount of love-bombing propaganda autistic kids face and how important it is to keep them safe, esp when online.