Gonna read "Supporting Transgender Autistic Youth and Adults" by Finn Gratton (the author is both trans and autistic which is good when writing about both those things ha)
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
Author has made the choice not to use the term “autism spectrum” "because it generally refers to a one-dimensional line that extends from point A (those people perceived as furthest from allistic functioning) to point B (those perceived as most like allistic people)."
One of those things in which I agree that it is often used/understood that way even though it wasn't ever intended to be taken that way.
IDK I've been stubborn trying to get folks to understand that ain't what a spectrum is. but maybe it is better to just chuck the term out all together.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
We are talking about the "extreme male brain theory" again.
I just can't help but laugh every time someone has to bring it up.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
"This theory of male traits associated with autism has been promulgated by the “extreme male brain theory of autism” developed by Baron-Cohen (2002), arguing that higher rates of prenatal testosterone among autistic people results in higher “systemizing” and lower “empathizing” scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Since higher systemizing and lower empathizing scores are associated more with men than women, Baron-Cohen proposed that autistic gender identity difference is related to this “extreme male brain” (Baron-Cohen et al. 2001; Baron-Cohen 2002). Yet recent research indicates that autistic males considered themselves “considerably less masculine than typically developing males,” and transgender and gender nonconforming AFAB people were more than three times as likely to identify as non-binary than as men (Cooper, Smith and Russell 2018). Perhaps greater systemizing results in recognition of the illogical nature of the binary gender system or of societal gender roles."
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
"The first study [about autism rates in transgender folks] (de Vries et al. 2010, p.930) found that 7.8% of a cohort of 204 youth with gender dysphoria met criteria for “suspected” autism spectrum, based on the Dutch version of the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders (10th revision) (van Berckelaer- Onnes et al. 2003). De Vries and colleagues (2010) noted that the 7.8% figure was most likely an under-representation: (a) several known autistic gender clinic patients were unable to complete the assessment due to autism-related impairments; (b) for some patients, autistic traits were observed by clinicians but parents seemed to under-report; and (c) assessing clinicians had a high threshold for recognizing autistic traits, thereby leaving out those with autistic traits who did not appear to meet full criteria for diagnoses. Similar studies followed, most of them using screening tools to identify those who were probably autistic among a cohort of youth or adults who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Rates of co-occurrence of suggested autism spectrum diagnoses among study groups of people with gender dysphoria ranged from 5.5% of an adult sample (Pasterski, Gilligan and Curtis 2014) to 23.1% of a youth sample (Shumer et al. 2016). Other co-occurrence rates include 13.6% with assigned male at birth (AMAB) adults and 21.3% with AFAB adults (Jones et al. 2012)"
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
for reference the rate of autism in the general population is usually stated to be 1% (tho its probably higher)
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
"Several studies looked at the co-occurrence of autism and gender dysphoria from the other direction, identifying probable gender dysphoria among people identified with autism. these studies found rates among youth of 5.1% (Janssen, Huang and Duncan 2016) and 5.4% (Strang et al. 2014). For comparison, 0.7% of US youth and 0.6% of US adults identify as transgender (Herman et al. 2017). the high coincidence continues to hold in these early studies, indicating the need to go deeper into this exploration of gender dysphoria among autistic youth and adults. Both of these studies relied on parental reporting of one item on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (ASEBA 1971), question #110: “Wishes to be of the opposite sex.” Many would say this would result in net underreporting, as it leaves out non-binary people, and it does not catch many youth who have not disclosed their gender dysphoria to themselves or their parents at the time of the CBCL completion, though positive responses to this question might also include some individuals who say they want to be the opposite sex for reasons that subside over time. Positive responses might also include children who are gay or lesbian who have not yet sorted out gender identity from sexual orientation."
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
talking about the history of the way these two things have been treated in the mental health field so naturally we are talking about the "feminine boy" project which always is unpleasant to read about.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
which affected of course the treatment of all LGBT people and all autistic people (both ABA and Conversion therapy were essentially born out of this project)
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
"Positioning the mental health provider as gatekeeper presents a real challenge to the development of a strong therapeutic relationship."
you don't say
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
"The gatekeeper role becomes even more fraught when working with trans autistic individuals, as many autistic youth and adults know that mental or medical health providers have historically considered autistic people’s transgender identification, experiences, and decision-making capacities as suspect. If trans autistic people are sharing with others on the Internet, they are often aware of historical denial of medical referrals for autistic people. Because of this knowledge, they may not want to receive an autism diagnosis if they don’t already have one, and will try to present with better executive functioning and with less need of support than they truly have."
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
which yeah bingo. I see no benefit to receiving an autism diagnosis as an adult (for me personally)
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
end of first chapter has a long list of resources and such. I've heard of a few of these but a couple new ones to me.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
beginning of the book has a list "of related interest" anyway a book titled "Gender Identity, Sexuality and Autism: Voices from Across the Spectrum" is getting added to my reading list.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
There is a "cisgender privilege checklist" and a "neurotypical privilege checklist"
http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2011/11/list-of-cisgender-privileges
http://aspergersquare8.blogspot.com/2009/08/checklist-of-neurotypical-privilege-new.html
Guidelines for Creating Autistic Inclusive Environments
https://www.autismcrc.com.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/Guidelines%20for%20Creating%20Autistic%20Inclusive%20Environments%20(002).pdf
Some neurodiveristy websites. I've never heard of neurocosmopolitanism but "thinking person's guide to autism" gets mentioned by lots of folks
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com
http://www.thinkingautismguide.com
http://neuroqueer.blogspot.com
and then I've literally never heard of any of the transgender resources
Transgender Europe: https://tgeu.org
Genderdqueer.me: https://genderqueer.me
Them.: http://www.them.us
Alok: http://alokvmenon.com
Kat Blaque, video blogger with multiple blogs about trans experience: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxFWzKZa74SyAqpJyVlG5Ew
Then a couple reading lists
http://www.pflag.org/resource/transgender-reading-list-adults
https://bookriot.com/2018/07/02/transgender-fiction
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
"In a study of diagnoses received before an autism diagnosis was made (Mandell et al. 2007), Black children were found twice as likely as children of other races to be given a conduct disorder diagnosis prior to being given an autism diagnosis, and non-white children were five times more likely to receive an adjustment disorder diagnosis prior to receiving their autistic diagnoses than were white children."
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
Yeah "conduct disorder" is so fucked.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
Responding to these clues regarding gender and neurological diversity is delicate work. It is difficult to predict how individuals and their families will respond to invitations to consider transgender or nonconforming gender identities or autism. Youth and adults may be upset if a provider does not recognize the clues they are consciously providing, or dismayed that no one had until that moment communicated to them that their issues may be related to autism or gender identity and expression. Alternatively, they may feel disturbed that a provider has perceived them as possibly gender nonconforming or autistic when they feel that they are neurotypical and cisgender.
Waiting for the youth or adult to bring up TGNC or autistic self-identification is also a risky route because of the high levels of suicidality, depression, and anxiety associated with both experiences. By remaining quiet, you may further enable a social or family injunction against speaking of these issues. This stigma, along with societal misunderstanding of the range of autistic and transgender presentation, makes sharing more difficult and causes the client to wait for you to open the door to discuss these vulnerable topics. To make things more complicated, you also do not want to take away individual agency and self-determination. the skillful path between these pitfalls involves the application of judgment-free curiosity and acknowledgement of stigma, along with faith in the individual’s ability to explore their own experience. It also requires provider familiarity with the personal experiences and characteristics of a wide range of trans autistic people.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
ok but like for real, do people actually like the damn unicorn?
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
replacing the unicorn with this thing
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
anyway I'm about to curse y'all with the gender unicorn just in case you have no idea what I'm going on about.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from asterism@ni.hil.ist
@asterism our brain was so extremely male that the integer overflowed and we came out transfem instead :neofox_laugh_tears:
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from elexia@catcatnya.com
@asterism @elexia the extreme levels of brain maleness caused my gender to crash and malfunction and now it’s null most of the time, or incomprehensible gibberish
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from enby_of_the_apocalypse@kolektiva.social
@elexia @asterism (still not male brained enough to not be a trender though)
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from enby_of_the_apocalypse@kolektiva.social
@elexia @asterism
some transmedicalist asshole: “and this is why I am a real trans man, unlike those trender special snowflakes with their blue hair and pronouns over there, because of brain sex™️ “
Me: “hi I am autism”
Him: “no not like that”
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from enby_of_the_apocalypse@kolektiva.social
@elexia @asterism I feel like the intersection of those who believe in “brain sex” transmedicalist pseudoscience, those who believe in “extremely male brain” junk science about autism, and those who fearmonger about the large intersection of trans and autistic people “those poor autistic girls are extremely vulnerable to the social contagion of transtrenderism!” Is probably surprisingly big, considering how incredibly illogical that combination of beliefs is especially when it comes to transmasculine people
(I know that many transmedicalists definitely engage in the last of the three, dunno about extremely male brain theory but it feels like it fits the vibe to me. Might just be a straw man though)
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from enby_of_the_apocalypse@kolektiva.social
@elexia @asterism I guess the contradiction resolves itself when you believe in another similar piece of ableist bullshit, that those people who are autistic and trans (and so transtrenders) are also not really autistic too. Because in those people’s minds self-identification as autistic is another “trend” and “social contagion”, and people who are both are in their minds just weak-minded girls who easily fall for social contagions.
Which is actually incredibly common among transmedicalists, which makes sense because denying people’s transness and their right to self-identify as trans without official diagnosis is incredibly similar to denying people’s autism and their right to self-identify/diagnose as autistic without official diagnosis. And the targets for harassment for both reasons often overlap, because of how comparatively common autistic trans people are, especially among those in either of the two groups who engage in genderfuckery or break social norms a lot in general, we’re easy targets for cringe compilations because of how transphobia and ableism intersect
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from enby_of_the_apocalypse@kolektiva.social
@enby_of_the_apocalypse @asterism yep yep. people love to claim that they would never bully an autistic person when in reality they just will deny that their victims are autistic while showing obvious traits. so this all tracks.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from elexia@catcatnya.com
@elexia @asterism with truscum assholes like Kalvin Garrah I’m not so sure, bullying people online is kind of his entire personality…
But yeah… generally this is so true. I feel like neurotypical people feeling like bulling someone just see a person with autistic traits and immediately identify them as a target without even knowing why. They might not know the person they’re bullying is autistic, but they definitely do notice that the person is, in their eyes, weird and unlikeable (and a whole lot more unpleasant words), and also tends to be vulnerable due to the social isolation that comes with that, and the fact that many other neurotypicals will also find them weird and will be less able and less willing to empathize with them.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from enby_of_the_apocalypse@kolektiva.social This content has been proxied by September (3851b).Proxy Information
text/gemini