Due both to their ability to denaturalize social norms and to their neurological differencesOur friends and allies at Randimals have a saying, What makes us different, makes all the difference in the world.Randimals We agree. Randimals are made up of two different animals... More, autisticAutistic ways of being are human neurological variants that can not be understood without the social model of disability.If you are wondering whether you are Autistic, spend time amongst Autistic people, online and offline. If... More individuals can offer novel insights into genderDue both to their ability to denaturalize social norms and to their neurological differences, autistic individuals can offer novel insights into gender as a social process. Examining gender from an... More as a social process. Examining gender from an autistic perspective highlights some elements as socially constructed that may otherwise seem natural and supports an understanding of gender as fluid and multidimensional.
ArtThe arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly,... More: itsyagerg_zero
When you consider our honesty, our preference for truthJustice, equality, fairness, mercy, longsuffering, Work, Passion, knowledge, and above all else, Truth. Those are my primary emotions.Very Grand Emotions: How Autistics and Neurotypicals Experience Emotions Differently Β» NeuroClastic https://youtu.be/uPRa6G2a48E... More and fairnessEquityA commitment to action: the process of redistributing access and opportunity to be fair and just.A way of being: the state of being free of bias, discrimination, and identity-predictable outcomes... More, then gender identity is likely to be more fluid and less binary. Why do we need to fit into a mode of social expectation if we truly donβt believe this is who we are? The non-autistic world is governed by social and traditional expectations, but we may not notice these or fail to see them as important. This frees us up to connect more readily with our true gender.
Given the entwined nature of queerBeing queer means constantly questioning what's considered "normal" and why that norm gets privileged over other ways of being. It means criticizing who sets these norms and recognizing the privilege... More liberation and neurodivergentNeurodivergent, sometimes abbreviated as ND, means having a mind that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of βnormal.βNEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS Neurodivergent is quite... More liberation, I'll take this opportunity to remind you that Gwen Nelson, the original creator of Autistic Pride Day, is a trans woman.#AutisticPride#AutisticPrideDay#AutisticPrideDay2022
Gender nonconformity, dysphoria, and fluidity are oft discussed in neurodiversityNeurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS Neurodiversity is a biological fact. Itβs not a perspective, an approach, a... MorecommunitiesWhat I have always been hoping to accomplish is the creation of community.Community is magic. Community is power. Community is resistance.Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-First-Person-Stories-Twenty-First-ebook/dp/B082ZQBL98/ https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-Adapted-Young-Adults-ebook/dp/B08VFT4R9T/... More. Neurodivergent people are more likely than the general population to be gender non-conforming. Many prominent autistic self-advocates identify as intersex, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, transgender, and genderqueer.
LGBTQI+ people with an Autistic diagnosisSelf diagnosis is not just βvalidβ β it is liberatory. When we define our community ourselves and wrest our right to self-definition back from the systems that painted us as... More have two separate rainbows β and two separate coming out stories. There are times when an autistic will not come out as LGBTQI+, and vice-versa. The challenges for each minority group are great, and being a double-social minority can be especially tough. Education and peer support goes a long way in helping to navigate these challenges, and make for a smoother trip on the social highway.
People who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth are three to six times as likely to be autistic as cisgender people are, according to the largest study yet to examine the connection1. Gender-diverse people are also more likely to report autismAutistic ways of being are human neurological variants that can not be understood without the social model of disability.If you are wondering whether you are Autistic, spend time amongst Autistic people, online and offline. If... More traits and to suspect they have undiagnosed autism.
βAll these findings across differentOur friends and allies at Randimals have a saying, What makes us different, makes all the difference in the world.Randimals We agree. Randimals are made up of two different animals... More datasets tend to tell a similar story,β says study investigator Varun Warrier, research associate at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Autistic people are more likely than neurotypicalThe existence of the word neurotypical makes it possible to have conversations about topics like neurotypical privilege. Neurotypical is a word that allows us to talk about members of the... More people to be gender diverse, several studies show, and gender-diverse people are more likely to have autism than are cisgender people2,3.
We like to think of neurodiversity as a social modelIn the broadest sense, the social model of disability is about nothing more complicated than a clear focus on the economic, environmental and cultural barriers encountered by people who are... More umbrella that, when opened to its broadest, includes Queer people.
Members of the neurodiversity movement adopt a position of diversity that encompasses a kaleidoscope of identities that intersects with the LGBTQIA+ kaleidoscope by recognising neurodivergent traits β including but not limited to ADHDADHD or what I prefer to call Kinetic Cognitive Style (KCS) is another good example. (Nick Walker coined this alternative term.) The name ADHD implies that Kinetics like me have... More, Autism, Dyscalculia, DyslexiaDyslexia is a genetic, brain-based characteristic that results in difficulty connecting the sounds of spoken language to written words. It can result in errors in reading or spelling as well... More, Dyspraxia, Synesthesia, Touretteβs Syndrome β as natural variations of cognition, motivations, and patterns of behaviour within the human species.
βQueer,β in any case, does not designate a class of already objectified pathologies or perversions; rather, it describes a horizon of possibility whose precise extent and heterogeneous scope cannot in principle be delimited in advance.
Here comes the sun
It's shining right through youOn everyone
You came in so hot
You broke the ice up
Feeling so strong
I got to shine on
Through all the black and blue
I got it from you
It hits so hard with all the colors that there areI want to know you
I want to see the soundYou're like a rainbow
But not the same though
I got to shine on
Through all the black and blue
I got it from you
It hits so hard with all the colors that there are
Here comes the sun
It's shining right through you
On everyone
It hits so hard with all the colors that there are
You hit so hard with all the colors that there are
--Rainbow Shiner by Ex Hex
You hit so hard with all the colors that there are.
GenderpunkDue both to their ability to denaturalize social norms and to their neurological differences, autistic individuals can offer novel insights into gender as a social process. Examining gender from an... More: a colloquial term for culture and resistance against gendernormativity; an identity that in and of itself is a resistance against gender norms, homophobia and transphobia, oppression and societal status.
Your gender has nothing to do with your eligibility to be genderpunkGenderpunk: a colloquial term for culture and resistance against gendernormativity; an identity that in and of itself is a resistance against gender norms, homophobia and transphobia, oppression and societal status... More. If you agree with the mindsetThe marketing of mindsets was everywhere this year: βHow to Develop Mindsets for Compassion and Caring in Students.β βBuilding A Tinkering Mindset In Young Students Through Making.β β6 Must-Haves for... More, no matter how you identify, you can be a part of the movement.
Here comes Dick, he's wearing a skirt
Here comes Jane, y'know she's sporting a chain
Same hair, revolution
Same build, evolution
Tomorrow who's gonna fuss?
And they love each other so
Androgynous
Closer than you know, love each other so
Androgynous
Don't get him wrong and don't get him mad
He might be a father, but he sure ain't a dad
And she don't need advice that's sent at her
She's happy with the way she looks, she's happy with her gender
And they love each other so
Androgynous
Closer than you know, love each other so
Androgynous
Mirror image, see no damage
See no evil at all
Kewpie dolls and urine stalls will be laughed at
The way you're laughed at now
Now, something meets Boy, and something meets Girl
They both look the same, they're overjoyed in this world
Same hair, revolution
Unisex, evolution
Tomorrow who's gonna fuss
--Androgynous by The Replacements
Content Note: ableismableΒ·ism /ΛΔbΙΛlizΙm/ nounA system of assigning value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness. These constructed ideas are deeply... More, behaviorismUltimately behaviorism provides a simplistic lens that canβt see beyond itself.Why is the doctrine of behaviorism still being used, at all?How can ABA be the gold-standard for autism when it... More, ABAUltimately behaviorism provides a simplistic lens that canβt see beyond itself.Why is the doctrine of behaviorism still being used, at all?How can ABA be the gold-standard for autism when it... More, conversion therapy, homophobia, transphobia, abuse, dysphoria, suicide
*whispers* You canβt. In many ways, the impulse to repress transgender people from expressing their true identity is rooted in the same impulse that makes people want to stop #ActuallyAutistic people from flapping their hands https://t.co/8TMKxnc7Va
βThe fascinating part to me was to observe persons with eyes and ears, teeth and toenails, walking around yet presenting few of the behaviors that one would call social or human,β he wrote. βNow, I had the chance to build language and other social and intellectual behaviors where none had existed, a good test of how much help a learning-based approach could offer.β He explained to Psychology Today, βYou see, you start pretty much from scratch when you work with an autistic child. You have a person in the physical senseβ they have hair, a nose, and a mouthβ but they are not people in the psychological sense. One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is to see it as a matter of constructing a person. You have the raw materials, but you have to build the person.β
A brief thread about why the fates of LGBTQ+ and #ActuallyAutistic people are intertwined (to say nothing of LGBTQ+ autistic people). This right here is Ole Ivar Lovaas, the father of modern-day Applied Behavioral Analysis.
For the first week of #Pride2022: a brief thread about why the fates of LGBTQ+ and #ActuallyAutistic people are intertwined (to say nothing of LGBTQ+ autistic people). This right here is Ole Ivar Lovaas, the father of modern-day Applied Behavioral Analysis. 1/
Lovaas ran a clinic at UCLA, where autistic children were slapped, administered shock therapy. LIFE Magazine profiled his practices in 1965, showing how one girl was taken to a “shock room” when she made little progress.
When children behaved well, they were given food and affection. Children were initially not given regular meals and only spoonfuls of food at first.
Lovaas had an extremely low opinion of his autistic patients. In a 1974 interviewWhile the autistic individual is interviewing, they will often be acutely self-aware and preoccupied by their own nervousness and internal coaching, and be simultaneously experiencing two conversations at onceβone that is shared... More, he demeaned autistic people stimmingSelf-stimulatory behavior, also known as stimming and self-stimulation, is the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or words, or the repetitive movement of objects Stimming - Wikipedia Autistic adults highlighted the importance of stimming as... More (which we now know is a means of soothing). He also called them “little monsters.”
But Lovaas’s practice did not just end when it came to autistic children. As @stevesilberman wrote in his book #NeuroTribes, he also assisted with UCLA’s Feminine Boy Project, which sought to cure boys of atypical sexuality, including homosexuality.
Lovaas collaborated with a researcher named George Rekers and co-authored four papers on homosexuality and other behaviors. One of their main test subjects was a boy named Kirk Murphy, whom they called “Craig.”
Lovaas and Rekers’ practices bore stunning similarities to Lovaas’s practices on autistic children. Poor Kirk’s parents were instructed to use poker chips. Blue poker chips were used as a reward to get candy while red chips meant he would be spanked.
CW suicide: The red poker chips were given when he displayed feminine behavior. The whippings were so unbearable that Kirk’s brother would hide the red chips. Kirk later joined the US Armed forced before he later died from suicide.
All the while, Rekers and Lovaas’s research was used to show that conversion therapy worked. Rekers would co-found the Family Research Council, which opposes LGBTQ+ rights. More on Kirk’s tragic end here.
Poor Kirk Murphy and Pamela, the girl who was subjected to shock therapy shared a similar fate because the adults in charge of them punished them for who were.
People might wonder why I, a cisgender heterosexual from the suburbs of Southern California, included queer history in a book about autism. THIS is why. The same people who want to stop queer kids from being themselves are the same ones who want to stop me from flapping my hands
Conversely, when I first moved to Washington, the gay communityWhat I have always been hoping to accomplish is the creation of community.Community is magic. Community is power. Community is resistance.Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-First-Person-Stories-Twenty-First-ebook/dp/B082ZQBL98/ https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-Adapted-Young-Adults-ebook/dp/B08VFT4R9T/... More openly embraced me and getting to know gay people helped me shed my own homophobia AND my internalized ableism. It’s why transphobia also bugs me so much.
Learning about the shared DNA of gay conversion therapy and ABA reaffirmed what Martin Luther King wrote in 1963 “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
…plenty of autistic people are LGBTQ and experience a double portion of discrimination. The desire to eliminate the traits that make autistic people unique is rooted in the same impulse to suppress people from affirming their gender identity or sexuality.
#ActuallyAutistic people reject ABA. None of the autistic people in our community support it. Some of us have been harmed by it.
Protecting queer kids protects also neurodivergent kidsβand vice versa. The fight is for inclusion and acceptanceβfor all operating systems, for all of our different ways of being human. Supporting our kids means supporting all of their possibilities and expressions.
Queer and neurodivergent liberation are entwined.
But I don't need a cure for me
I don't need it
No, I don't need a cure for me
I don't need it
No, I don't need a cure for me
I don't need it
I don't need it
Please, no cure for me
Please, no cure for me
--Cure for Me by AURORA
“Cure for Me” is very much inspired by conversion therapy.
I just wanted to make an anthem for people to sing along with that they know they donβt need a cure.
It doesnβt take much before the world tells you that youβre different, and that you should change yourself to be the same as everybody else, which is very sad.
She is our miscreant
She is our detox
She is our dagger in the dark
She is the knot mess
She is the undressed
She is the boy borne in my heart
While you sit on the fence I will burn in hell
I think in the context of gender and being trans, autonomySelf-determination Theory (SDT) is... β a model, a macro theory, of human motivation. Itβs one of several models of human motivation, but itβs one that has been confirmed over and... More is heavily connected to what we do or donβt do with our bodies, because a lot of people donβt want to, or donβt careThe activities that constitute care are crucial for human life. We defined care in this way: Care is "a species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue,... More to, transition medically. Either because theyβre nonbinary and theyβre comfortable with their bodies, or even if they are binary, they donβt have physical dysphoria.
Itβs so different for everybody. Itβs getting to do what we want with our bodies, how we want to do it, at the pace thatβhopefullyβwe get to set without other people putting judgment on that, and still being respected.
People might try to change your gender or sexuality. They might send you to a doctor or therapist to try to change your gender or sexuality. This is called conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy is wrong. Conversion therapy does not work. You have the right to not have to do conversion therapy.
You have the right to be in charge of your own body. You have the right to decide who touches you. You have the right to decide how you want to be touched. You have the right to tell someone to stop touching you.
Research that aimed to preserve autistic perspectives (Kourti & MacLeod, 2019) found that autistic perceptions of gender identity are far more diverse, and put interests, rather than gender identity, at the core of autistic peopleβs identity perception. Furthermore, autistic people often state repeatedly in their accounts how confusing and emotionally taxing βdoing genderβ is for them, explaining why they may explicitly reject being confined to traditional and binary gender norms (Davidson & Tamas, 2016).
Children on the autism spectrum are more than seven times more likely to show signs of gender variance, according to a study led by New York University. The study, published last month in Transgender Health, recruited the parents of 492 autistic children ages six to 18. When the researchers asked these parents whether their children often “wish to be the opposite sex,” a little over five percent of participants said yes, compared to less than one percent of the general population. Bolstering these findings is the fact that a previous study from the Children’s National Medical Center in 2014 found almost the exact same results. The NYU study found that 5.1 percent of children on the autism spectrum showed signs of gender variance. The 2014 study put that number down at 5.4 percent.
Both studies show that counselors working with autistic children should ask about their gender identity. Being both autistic and gender non-conforming, some children face a double-challenge in responding to society’s biases.
Ollieβs parents wondered if his gender nonconformity β behavior that doesnβt match masculine and feminine norms β might have something to do with his autism. Ollie had been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder at age 2: An extreme sensitivity to sounds, light, the texture of some foods or the feel of a particular fabric can send children like Ollie into a meltdownMeltdowns are alarm systems to protect our brains.Without meltdowns, we autistics would have nothing to protect our neurology from the very real damage that it can accumulate.I donβt melt down... More. He also had difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. It would take his parents four more years to find a doctor who recognized the classic symptoms of Asperger syndrome β above-average intelligence combined with social and communication deficits, and restricted interests. (Ollie was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome before the diagnosis was absorbed into the broader category of autism spectrum disorder in 2013.)
Ollieβs parents are not aloneAloneness is a characteristic that many creatives embrace and yearn for. Being alone is anything but lonely. Reading, writing, and creating art all demand a personal space where one can... More in pondering this puzzleβParticipants associated puzzle pieces with imperfection, incompletion, uncertainty, difficulty, the state of being unsolved, and, most poignantly, being missing,β βIf an organizationβs intention for using puzzle-piece imagery is to evoke... More. A handful of studies over the past five years β and a series of case reports going back to 1996 β show a linkage between autism and gender variance. People who feel significant distress because their gender identity differs from their birth sex β a condition known as gender dysphoria βhave higher-than-expected rates of autism. Likewise, people with autism appear to have higher rates of gender dysphoria than the general population. Between 8 and 10 percent of children and adolescents seen at gender clinics around the world meet the diagnostic criteria for autism, according to studies carried out over the past five years, while roughly 20 percent have autism traits such as impaired social and communication skills or intense focus and attention to detail. Some seek treatment for their gender dysphoria already knowing or suspecting they have autism, but the majority of people in these studies had never sought nor received an autism diagnosis. Whatβs more, roughly the same numbers of birth males and females appear to be affected…
Over the past decade, people with gender dysphoria have developed new ways of expressing their sense of self. Whereas many once identified as transsexual or transgender, some now call themselves βgenderqueerβ or βnon-binary.β Rates of autism and autism traits appear to be higher in those identifying as genderqueer. Like Ollie, these people generally say they donβt feel fully masculine or feminine, and explicitly reject the notion of two mutually exclusive genders. The word βtransβ is often used to encompass all of these identities and the phrase βaffirmed genderβ to convey a personβs sense of self.
Inspired by the Dutch study, Strang and his colleagues approached prevalence from another angle. Instead of measuring the incidence of autism among gender-dysphoric children and adolescents, they assessed gender variance β defined as a child βwishing to be the other sexβ β in children with autism. βWe found rates that were 7.5 times higher than expected,β Strang says.
Still, she cautions that sometimes, what looks like autism may actually be untreated gender dysphoria. βSo much of the experience of being trans can look like the spectrum experience,β she says. People who donβt want to socialize in their birth genders may seem to have poor social skills, for example; they may also feel so uncomfortable with their bodies that they neglect their appearance. βThat can sometimes be greatly alleviated if you give that person appropriate gender support,β she says.
Others agree with these insights. A 2015 study by researchers from Boston Childrenβs Hospital reported that 23.1 percent of young people presenting with gender dysphoria at a gender clinic there had possible, likely or very likely Asperger syndrome, as measured by the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale, even though few had an existing diagnosis. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend routine autism screening at gender clinics.
Gender norms should not be imposed on people with autism to make the restWe urgently need a society that's better at letting people get the rest they need.Fergus Murray WIP by Kristina Daniele Iβm in pain. Mental. Physical. The resultβs the same. Retreating... More of the world more comfortable. Why teach girls with autism how to apply makeup, dress in a feminine manner and shop? Therapists, educators and parents only consider these to be important goals because our society imposes strict gender norms.
As a member of the LGBTQ community who is also autistic, I encounter inequalityEquityA commitment to action: the process of redistributing access and opportunity to be fair and just.A way of being: the state of being free of bias, discrimination, and identity-predictable outcomes... More based on my gender identity, my sexual orientation and my disability. Societal barriers in housing, employment, transportation, healthcare and education systematically exclude queer, gender-queer, transgender and disabledThe label "disabled" means so much to me. It means I have community. It means I have rights. It means I can be proud. It means I can affirm myself... More people; outdated and negative attitudes about gender, sexuality and autism affect our social relationships. Queer environments donβt often account for our sensory processing issues or social differences, whereas autism services donβt often recognize that we may identify beyond the gender binary or have queer relationships. Shifting the focus from the tired narrativesWhen we successfully reframe public discourse, we change the way the public sees the world. We change what counts as common sense. Because language activates frames, new language is required... More of delayed diagnosis and sex differences can help the autism community take responsibility for improving our day-to-day quality of life, whatever our age at diagnosis or gender identity.
Nearly a quarter of young persons diagnosed with gender dysphoria, or who are transgender, screened positive for Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, according to a new paper in the academic journal LGBT Health. The study was a small retrospective review of intake files of 39 children at Boston Children’s Hospital. Lead author Dr. Daniel E. Shumer explains, “We found that 23 percent of kids fell into the ‘possible, likely or very likely category’ when using the evaluation tool to screen for Asperger’s.”
“Having autism is a burden; a lot of things in the world change when you have autism,” says Strang. “But adding transgenderism, or maybe some of them aren’t transgender but they are just exploring gender, that is complicated in itself.”
“Knowing how to navigate in a world that is not really friendly with people who are trans can be tricky when you are missing social cues.”
Shumer says it is important that parents and medical providers be aware of the increased possibility for co-occurrence of autism and gender variance. If treating patients for one condition, they should screen for the other and be prepared to treat it. βThere also may be implications for how to provide informed consent for things like hormonal interventions,” he adds.
Lovaasβs crusade to βnormalizeβ deviance was not limited to autistic children. In the 1970s, he lent his expertise to a series of experiments called the Feminine Boy Project, the brainchild of UCLA psychologist Richard Green. After interviewing one hundred men and women who applied for gender reassignment surgery, Green became interested in tracing the roots of sexual identity back to childhood. He teamed up with Lovaas to see if operant conditioning could be employed as an early intervention in cases of gender confusion to prevent the need for reassignment surgery in the future. The projectβs most celebrated success story was Kirk Andrew Murphy, enrolled at UCLA by his parents at age five. Bright and precocious, Kirk would ask for his favorite snacks by their brand names at the supermarket. But after seeing Green interviewed on TV about βsissy-boy syndromeββ his term for early-onset gender dysphoriaβ Kirkβs parents became concerned that he was exhibiting behavior that was inappropriate for a little boy. One day, his father caught him posing in the kitchen in a long T-shirt and saying, βIsnβt my dress pretty?β Children with this syndrome, Green claimed, often grew up to become transsexual or homosexual. Lovaas assigned a young graduate student named George Rekers to become Kirkβs behavioral therapist.
In a case report that would go on to become a classic in undergraduate psychology courses, Rekers and Lovaas wrote that Kirk (called βKraigβ) possessed βa remarkable ability to mimic all the subtle feminine behaviors of an adult woman.β They framedWhen we successfully reframe public discourse, we change the way the public sees the world. We change what counts as common sense. Because language activates frames, new language is required... More his βoffer to βhelp mommyβ by carrying her purseβ as an example of the boyβs devious manipulation of his mother to βsatisfy his feminine interests.β Their descriptions of the little boyβs behavior, compared with the transcripts of Greenβs intake interviewsWhile the autistic individual is interviewing, they will often be acutely self-aware and preoccupied by their own nervousness and internal coaching, and be simultaneously experiencing two conversations at onceβone that is shared... More with Kirkβs parents, were decidedly more extreme, as if the boy were clearly a world-class drag queen in the making at age five. They claimed that he had an elaborate βhistory of cross-dressingβ that included plundering his grandmotherβs makeup kit for cosmetics and βswishing around the home and clinic, fully dressed as a woman with a long dress, wig, nail polish, high screechy voice, [and] slovenly seductive eyes.β (In family photographs, Kirk more resembles a Mouseketeer.)
To nip the little boyβs inappropriate behavior in the bud, they devised a program of total immersion based on Lovaasβs work on autism. This time, instead of hand-flapping, gaze aversion, and echolaliaEcholalia is the repetition of sound, words, phrases. For example: repeating a phrase you've just heard, repeating a line from your favourite film, repeatedly pressing a button on a device... More, the behaviors targeted for extinction included the βlimp wrist,β the submissively yielding βhand clasp,β the notorious βswishy gait,β the girlish βhyperextensionβ of the limbs in moments of exuberance, and prissy declarations like βgoodness graciousβ and βoh, dear me.β At home, Kirkβs βmasculineβ behaviors were rewarded with blue chips that could be redeemed for candy and other treats, while his βfeminineβ behaviors were punished with red chips that were subtracted from the total. In interviews conducted by blogger Jim Burroway, who undertook a thorough investigation of the case in 2011, Kirkβs brother, Mark, recalled their father punishing the boyβ with Rekersβs approvalβ by converting each red chip into a βswat.β Mark broke down sobbing as he confessed to hiding red chips from his brotherβs pile so that Kirk wouldnβt have to endure the abuse.
The intersection of being both autistic and transgender is more common than one might think. While the dialogue around autism and gender identity is expanding, I have a bit of trouble figuring out where I fit into the whole picture. So, I decided to do my own research, and while this subject is a fairly new field of study, I found some pretty astounding statistics: In 2014, a U.S. study of 147 children (ages 6 to 18) diagnosed with ASDAutistic ways of being are human neurological variants that can not be understood without the social model of disability.If you are wondering whether you are Autistic, spend time amongst Autistic people, online and offline. If... More found that autistic participants were 7.59 times more likely to express gender variance than the comparison groups. Another study, conducted in the UK in 2015, involved 166 parents of teenagers with Gender Dysphoria (63% were assigned female-at-birth.) Based on parentsβ report of their children on the Social Responsiveness Scale, the study found that 54% of the teenagers scored in the mild/moderate or severe clinical range for Autism. The relationship has only begun to be explored in research in recent years, but Iβve come to realize that there are a lot of autistic trans people out there in the world. As someone who very much valuesRemind yourself that shared values, rather than shared beliefs, are what matter when it comes to interacting with others, and that there is no replacement for doing the hard work... More human connection and simultaneously struggles with it, I have to say that looking at those figures provided me an amount of comfort. I discovered that there are a lot of people just like me. Being autistic and being transgender certainly each has their own respective challenges, though one that they share is a lack of societal acceptanceAcceptance means training mental health service providers to look at autism and other disabilities as a part of a person's identity, rather than a problem that needs to be fixed. Acceptance... More due to stigma. Many people still believe that who I am as a transmasculine person is inherently invalid, just like many other people still believe autism is some kind of tragedy that is to be cured. In contrast, I feel very strongly that who I am as a person is heavily dependent on both my trans and autistic identities, and that they are beautiful things.
According to Garcia-Spiegel, autistic people often donβt pay attention to the same set of societal norms as everyone else, and with that freedom comes a vision. βWe can see that a lot of the social rules around gender areββhe paused, trying to find a way to put his thoughts delicatelyββbullshitCredulous acceptance of baloney can cost you money; thatβs what P. T. Barnum meant when he said, βThereβs a sucker born every minute.β But it can be much more dangerous... More, basically.β
And research supports the idea that a large swath of genderqueer people are also autistic. In 2014, a survey in the Archives of Sexual Behavior showed that βgender variance was 7.59 times more common in participants with ASD than in a large non-referred comparison group.β Gender variance is defined as βan umbrella term used to describe gender identity, expression, or behavior that falls outside of culturally defined norms associated with a specific gender,β according to Pediatric Annals. Another article published in LGBT Health in 2019 found that children who were diagnosed as autistic were four times more likely to experience gender dysphoria.
βWhen weβre forcibly distanced from social rules anyways, a lot of us kind of look at them and see, βOh, these social rules shouldnβt really have an impact on how I carry myself through the world, and what my relationship to my body is,ββ Garcia-Spiegel said. The large contingent of transgender autistic people is like the large amount of gay autistic people (to say nothing of autistic people who are queer and transgender): discovering oneβs gender identity can offer a road map to understanding oneβs autism. Learning that they are autistic can show people that they are not wrong for living outside prescribed social rules and norms, including ones for gender and sexuality. Once they accept that they are autistic, they realize that a lot of social norms are constrictive and should be questioned
Bobbi, an Autistic nonbinary person in their mid-thirties, says, βI wasnβt raised or βsocializedβ as an Autistic girl. I was raised as a weird"Weird Pride Flag" by Ferrous and Autistamatic Be proud of what you are.Weβre weird, and weβre glad we are.Weird Pride Promo 2021 Autistic Pride is inconceivable without weird pride, and... More kid, and a gender failure.β
MaskedMasking is exhausting. Utterly utterly draining. Iβve had people say to me many times over the years βBut WHY are you so tired? What have you been doing?β and Iβve... More Autism and being a closeted gender minority often go hand in hand, and the experiences share a lot of features. The baffled families of transgender people and adult Autistics alike tend to claim there βwere no signsβ of these identities when the person was young. In actuality, there were often many signs, which the childβs family either did not know to look for, or didnβt wish to see. Signs of nonconformity were likely met with admonishment, βhelpfulβ condescending corrections (βyou look so unhappy, please smile!β), or by freezing the child out until they conformed. Bobbi was sarcastically complimented quite often, not just for their hair, but for how they carried themselves, spoke, thought, and for the comfortable, practical ways that they dressed. As they grew older, they began to figure out what was expected of them, and shifted their gender presentation to be more feminine so they could be seen as fully human.
If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman
My mother once told me she would have named me Laura
I would grow up to be strong and beautiful like her
One day, Iβd find an honest man to make my husband
We would have two children, build our home on the Gulf of Mexico
Our family would spend hot summer days at the beach together
The sun would kiss our skin as we played in the sand and water
We would know we loved each other without having to say it
At night, we would sleep with the windows of our house left open
Letting the cool ocean air soothe the sunburned shoulders of our children
There is an ocean in my soul where the waters do not curve
There is an ocean in my soul where the waters do not curve
There is an ocean in my soul where the waters do not curve
There is an ocean in my soul where the waters do not curve
--The Ocean by Against Me
No one in young Bobbiβs life could see them as they truly were. When your belief system teaches that disability and gender variance are embarrassing and disgusting, itβs hard to look at your child and recognize those traits. βWe have to make society over again from the ground up,β they say. βOur own little neuro-queer microsocieties. Because no one else will think to include us.β
Our Dual Identities Are Not Competing; They Are Complementary
Don’t use this information to “blame” trans identity on autism. Don’t threaten identity or reduce agency.
To blame trans identities on autism is to say that autistic people cannot understand or be aware of their own gender. If an autistic person cannot know they are trans, how can they know they arenβt? How can they know anything about themselves?
When a personβs gender is doubted because they are autistic, this paves the way for removing autistic peopleβs agency in all kinds of other ways. If we canβt know this central aspect of our identity, we surely canβt know how we feel, what we like, or who we are. In short, it implies that we are not truly people, and that our existence, experiences, and identities are for other people to define. This is just another facet of dehumanising autistic people, and gender is certainly not the only area in which this happens.
In itself, the very urge to find a βreasonβ that someone is transgender is a result of believing that being transgender is a problem, and that it would always be better not to be. The fact that clinicians like Zucker are focused on why someone is transgender, instead of focusing on what kind of help they need and how to best provide it, demonstrates clearly the belief that it is fundamentally bad to be transgender. Not only that, but the belief that itβs even theoretically possible for anyone besides the individual in question to know what someoneβs gender is. Thatβs just not how gender works! No-one really understand what gender is, or what it means, or where it comes from. The only thing we know for sure is that itβs internal, subjective, and personal. You canβt prove or test someone elseβs gender any more than you can prove or test their favourite colour. The idea that it can be tested is constantly used to invalidate trans people. Our genders are doubted or disbelieved if we fail to adequately βproveβ ourselves to everyone else β if we express too many or too few gender stereotypes, if we are too old or too young, if we claim to be nonbinary or our description of our identity is too complicated or confusing.
The best option is to allow someone to explore their feelings, support them in gaining self-understanding, and accept their identity whatever it turns out to be. It is not complicated, and itβs only scary if you are still holding onto the belief that being either autistic or transgender β or, perish the thought, both β is a terrible thing to be. Which itβs not. I am, along with countless others like me, living proof of that.
Misperceptions about what it means to be transgender or about autistic peopleβs ability to understand their gender or make decisions about their bodies often prompt service providers or family members to stand in the way of transgender autistic peopleβs attempts to live life with authenticity and dignity. This can include denying transgender autistic people access to transition-related care, subjecting them to βnormalizationβ treatments aimed at suppressing their gender expression, or placing them in guardianship or institutional settings that restrict their decision-making powerThe 20th Century political scientist Karl Deutsch said, βPower is the ability not to have to learn.βI quote this statement often, because I think itβs one of the most important... More. While research suggests a large overlap between transgender and autistic communities, trans autistic people often lack access to services and supports that understand and respect all aspects of their identity.
βToo frequently, autistic people are denied basic rights to make decisions about our own bodies and health care, including when it comes to expressing our gender identity,β said Sam Crane, Legal Policy Director for the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. βWhether weβre transgender or not, autistic peopleβs gender identities are as real as anyone elseβs and should be respected and supported, not dismissed based on baseless stereotypes.β
βA common misconception is the assumption that gender and sexuality are irrelevant to autistic people, or that our sexuality and gender identities are symptoms of our autism,β said Bascom. βThese beliefs are not only inaccurate but also profoundly harmful to autistic people and are often used to prevent autistic LGBT folks from accessing LGBT spaces, authentic relationships, and transition-related health care. The reality is that autistic people can have a beautiful diversity of gender identities and sexualities, and we have the same right to self-determinationSelf-determination Theory (SDT) is... β a model, a macro theory, of human motivation. Itβs one of several models of human motivation, but itβs one that has been confirmed over and... More as anybody else.β
Few people listen to autistic transgender people or ask them their reasons for transitioning. Their dual identities are not competing; they are complementary. The acceptance of each affords transgender autistic people new freedoms they otherwise would not have. A lot of the bias against this population is also rooted in the idea that autistic people cannot understand what is in their own best interests. This pernicious ableism compounded with transphobia implies that autistic people cannot understand their own gender identity. Still, autistic people know what they want and need. They are the ones who know best about their identities and how to ensure that their bodies line up with what is in their minds. The only thing they need from other people is affirmation and support.
Now I am home
I can feel wind on my skin
Feel true love from within battle scars
Now I'm reborn
Can occupy space in my body
Surgery gave me freedom
How long can you put up
With doctors making decisions about your life
My body, my choices
I am so fed up
Of asking for approval and being doubted
Seen as abnormal
Now I am home
I can feel wind on my skin
Feel true love from within battle scars
Now I'm reborn
Can occupy space in my body
Surgery gave me freedom
No more waking up at 3 o' clock
Panic mode, trying to accept this body is yours
Seeing in the window of a crowded street
'I'm still not as flat as the boy next to me'
Your binder in the closet, it gave you too much pain
But mentally this is suffocating too in a way
There's no one here, no one there,
No one that looks like you,
Your life is the joke in a hollywood cartoon
Home
I've been searching for it
Like a snail, lost without it
Home
I've been searching for it
Now I have found my
Home
I can feel wind on my skin
Feel true love from within battle scars
Now I'm reborn
Can occupy space in my body
Surgery gave me freedom
--Reborn by Eyemèr
#Autism#Acceptance: Be aware that some 30% of #actuallyautistic people are LGBTQ. A significant number do not identify as either male or female, but may be non-binary or other preferred terms. Please ensure that autism acceptance & info includes all genders. Many thanks.
The deconstruction has begun
Time for me to fall apart
And if you think that it was rough
I tell you nothing changes
Till you start to break it down
And break apart
I'll break apart
I'll break apart
Right now it's going to start
I'll break apart
The reconstruction will begin
Only when there's nothing left
But little pieces on the floor
They're made of what I was
Before I had to break it down
--The Deconstruction by The Eels
Due both to their ability to denaturalize social norms and to their neurological differences, autistic individuals can offer novel insights into gender as a social process. Examining gender from an autistic perspective highlights some elements as socially constructed that may otherwise seem natural and supports an understanding of gender as fluid and multidimensional.
Confronting and denaturalizing social norms describes the terrain of many autistic lives. Weβre social construct canaries.
The article goes on to propose a gender copia that sounds like our kind of bricolageIn the arts, bricolage (French for "DIY" or "do-it-yourself projects") is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or... More.
The sources considered here imply not a binary model (masculine=feminine) or even a view of gender as a continuum, but something more like a copia, the rhetorical term Erasmus used to describe the practice of selecting ββcertain expressions and mak[ing] as many variations of them as possibleββ (17). Copia provides a strategy of invention, a rhetorical term for the process of generating ideas. To be specific, copia involves proliferation, multiplying possibilities so as to locate the range of persuasive options available to a rhetor. I find the concept of invention fitting to describe the kind of rhetoric in which many autistic individuals engage when they discuss sex and gender, a rhetoric we might consider, following Mary Hawkesworth, a feminist rhetoric, insofar as it seeks to ββcall worlds into being, inscribe new orders of possibility, validate framesWhen we successfully reframe public discourse, we change the way the public sees the world. We change what counts as common sense. Because language activates frames, new language is required... More of reference and forms of explanation, and reconstitute histories serviceable for present and future projectsββ (1988).
Individuals who find themselves engaged in this rhetorical search for terms with which to understand themselves can draw on a wide array of terms or representations, such as genderqueer, transgendered, femme, butch, boi, neutrois, androgyne, bi- or tri-gender, third gender, and even geek.
Autistic people have a reputation for being rigid, but itβs NT society that enforces strict rules, conventions and traditions. Meanwhile, autistic people are recognising and preaching the fluidity and/or flexibility of things like sexuality, gender, time, love, career and more.
— Callum Stephen (He/Him) (@AutisticCallum_) May 24, 2022
I Donβt Feel Like a Gender, I Feel Like Myself
Participants reported not identifying with typical presentations of the female gender for a variety of reasons, linked both to autism and to sociocultural expectations. Participants described childhoods of being a tomboy or wanting to be a boy, having difficulties conforming to gender-based social expectations and powerful identifications with their personal interests.
The discussion looks at how autistic people are sometimes forced to act in certain ways to fit in, and how this can make them feel confused and depressed. The research design was led by the participants and this meant that a group who have rarely been asked their opinion were able to have a say.
Notably, all participants in this discussion felt that they did not relate to the typical presentation and activities of the female gender.
I believed myself to be a boy and was mortified and sick when I start developing as a girl.
Ruth
A number of participants described occasionally enjoying activities that they considered to be typically female as well as activities they considered to be typically male:
I always had a pretty even split of ββgirl toysββ and ββboy toysβββbaby dolls, Ninja Turtles, stuffed animals, Ghostbusters, stickers, dinosaurs, crafty stuff, Lego.
Kate
Most participants reported having a fluid sense of gender, being gender-queer, or feeling male and female and seeing others in the same way. For example, Clare described:
Love & desire have more to do with the personality of the individual than gender does.
Clare
An absence of a sense of gender or being unsure of how their gender should ββfeelββ was another common report:
As a child and even now, I donβt βfeelβ like a gender, I feel like myself and for the most part I am constantly trying to figure out what that means for me.
Betty
Many participants also described feeling agender or not identifying with a gender:
I donβt feel like a particular gender Iβm not even sure what a gender should feel like.
Helen
Only one participant reported themselves as being trans- gender:
I remember the first time I read about gender dysphoria in a psychology book I understood myself and gender. I am a man in a female body, [.] I have been a boy who has grown into a strong, gentle man.
Mike
Participants also noted that some of their experiences reflected prevalent attitudes when they were children. As Sally reflected:
Sometimes I wish I was born during todayβs times. Today is a different age, and so many differences are being acceptedAcceptance means training mental health service providers to look at autism and other disabilities as a part of a person's identity, rather than a problem that needs to be fixed. Acceptance... More and embraced. Maybe thereβs much more hope in the future if things keep going that way.
Sally
Participants also described ββmaskingββ their autistic be- haviors during childhood but tended to view this as some- thing they resisted as adults.
I am even less likely to conform to anything now that Iβm older.
Participants also discussed how discovering their autistic identity has helped them accepting themselves. Sally said:
Finding out that I am an individual with autism has helped me understand myself a lot. It explains why Iβve been so different and why I struggle with male/female roles and identity. It helps me to better accept myself. It doesnβt solve the struggles, but it helps with my own personal acceptance.
Sally
Of particular note is the extent to which interests played a role in defining both gender identity and identity in general. Most participants within this study characterized their sense of identity as ββfluidββ and defined more from their interests:
My sense of identity is fluid, just as my sense of gender is fluid [.] The only constant identity that runs through my life as a thread is βdancer.β This is more important to me than gender, name or any other identifying features. even more important than mother. I wouldnβt admit that in the NT world as when I have, I have been corrected (after all Mother is supposed to be my primary identification, right?!) but I feel that I can admit that here.
Taylor
Mine is Artist. Thank you, Taylor.
Jessie
Participants also discussed ways in which the discovery of their autistic identity had helped them to accept themselves. Sally wrote:
βI donβt want to be male. Yet I donβt share the female interests most women have. I donβt fit either. I wish there was a neutral.
Sally
Here, participants spoke passionately about areas of iden- tification related to personal interests. Autism in this context served as an explanation for their personal outlooks, perceived to be at odds with typical nonautistic perspectives. These were accounts of more fluid identity constructions, less constrained by social expectations.
These accounts, although very different, conveyed a common experience of individuals finding themselves unable to identify with the typical gender expectations within their environments, and their individual struggles to make sense of themselves against these.
Participants in this study provided powerful narratives de- scribing feelings of alienation provoked by the pressure to con- form to ββgender-typicalββ and ββneurotypicalββ expectations of them. Gender identity is traditionally perceived in terms of bi- nary categories, which is not useful for those who do not con- form to them.
Autistic individuals have described feeling pressure to ββmaskββ their autism.14,41,42 They often do that by ββper- formingββ normativeNormal was created, not discovered, by flawed, eccentric, self-interested, racist, ableist, homophobic, sexist humans. Normal is a statistical fiction, nothing less. Knowing this is the first step toward reclaiming your... More gender roles. In doing so, they are often adopting behaviors that are not instinctive to them and pre- tending to be someone they are not. For the participants of this project, this attempt to conform stopped as they grew older, but was a practice many of them adopted at a younger age and may have been part of the reason they were uncertain of their gender identity. This may also provide some expla- nation for the high occurrence of mental health problems in autistic individuals. Participants in this study articulated these challenges and their own efforts to navigate them, de- scribing struggles that persisted over many years.
Davidson and Tamas16 highlight that ββdoingββ gender as socially expected can be incredibly draining for autistic individuals. Dis- covering their autistic identity might help autistic individuals process their gender identity as well.
The connection between participantsβ interests and gender identity was an important and unexpected finding of this re- search. Participantsβ questioning of their gender identity often stemmed from their interests not conforming to those typically associated with femininity.
Participants in this study provided powerful narratives de- scribing feelings of alienation provoked by the pressure to con- form to ββgender-typicalββ and ββneurotypicalββ expectations of them. Gender identity is traditionally perceived in terms of bi- nary categories, which is not useful for those who do not con- form to them.
Autistic women and nonbinary people have sometimes struggled with how society tells them theyβre supposed to act. Some autistic women felt pressured to adopt traditional gender roles (and the burdens that come with them), such as wife, mother, and girlfriend, finding βthis incompatible with how they wanted to live.β
Call me a girl again
Not asking for the hell of it
Call me a girl again
My gender's not your business
Call me a girl again
Not asking for the hell of it
Call me a girl again
Non-binary resistance!
(Woah-oh) They them, they them!
(Woah-oh) They them, they them!
(Woah-oh) Not asking for a friend
(Woah-oh) They them, they them!
(Woah-oh) They them, they them!
(Woah-oh) Not asking for a friend
--They/Them by Dream Nails
If gender is a social construct, then autistic people, who are less aware of social norms, are less likely to develop a typical gender identity. Autistic girls may not envisage themselves becoming wives and mothers when they grow up. If social constructs are made of symbols and representations, then autistic concreteness may lead to a less generalized, and more personal gender identity. Therefore, autism may redefine womanhood in a unique way.