New study confirms: Gender Diverse show much higher rates of autism

submitted by BEB from spectrumnews.org

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[–]our_team_is_winning 26 insightful - 6 fun26 insightful - 5 fun27 insightful - 6 fun -  (7 children)

I wonder should it say "Autistic people far likelier to fall victim to Gender Woo"? Or "Be exploited by"?

[–]MarkTwainiac 19 insightful - 4 fun19 insightful - 3 fun20 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

I wonder should it say "Autistic people far likelier to fall victim to Gender Woo"? Or "Be exploited by"?

Yes, that would be much more accurate.

Most people through history have been "gender diverse" by the standards of today's gender vendors. What's going on now is that young people are being taught to think that if they deviate in any way from strict Hollywood, porn industry and patriarchal definitions of "masculinity" and "femininity," it means there's something wrong with them. And the gender vendors tell these young people that the way to fix what's wrong with them is by going "trans." This POV is particularly attractive to, and predatory upon, those on the autism spectrum.

[–]anonymale 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

gender vendors

Love it!

[–]BEB[S] 8 insightful - 4 fun8 insightful - 3 fun9 insightful - 4 fun -  (4 children)

This is the actual title:

"Largest study to date confirms overlap between autism and gender diversity"

Does this title not make sense to anyone else?

[–]slushpilot 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Simply calling it "overlap" dismisses all notions of causality and vulnerability.

I think we're beyond wondering whether and why there is an "overlap". The correlation is actually causal, and I think they're being too shy to say so in the title.

[–]BEB[S] 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I don't think it's shy, in my opinion it's either fear or money. If I remember correctly, Lisa Littman's Brown University study on Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria also mentioned that minors sucked into transitioning had higher rates of autism, and there was at least one study before that, but Littman faced really outrageous attacks, so I think that some researchers are self-censoring or being censored on this topic.

Abigail Shrier got a death threat on her Twitter. It didn't seem like it came from an adult, but then how many of them do.

[–]slushpilot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

To give the authors the benefit of the doubt though, they are being good scientists and only presenting the numeric facts in this paper without jumping ahead. Hopefully this provides a platform for more papers to cite this, analyze the findings, and draw the obvious (to us) conclusions & recommendations...

[–]BEB[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for clarifying.

[–]TurtleFuzz 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Nearly 70 percent of autistic gender-diverse adolescents say they need medical gender-related care, according to a small 2018 study, and 32 percent say their gender identity has been questioned because of their autism diagnosis.

“It’s really, really distressing to read sometimes, where you have people who have very strong gender dysphoria and want to transition, and their therapist says, ‘Well, we need to first cure your autism before we transition,’ which is wrong on all levels,” Warrier says. “We want this study to really demonstrate that both of these things can co-occur, and just because these things co-occur does not mean that one should be denied.”

What therapist actually thinks that autism is something you can cure? Do they also think you can catch it, too? This really makes me concerned, does the study investigator (as he is mentioned) know what autism is?

I get he wants to protect autistic children and teens, but allowing them to disregard safety and future health for immediate satisfaction is not the way to help these kids.

[–]BewitchedSam 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I'm guessing this comes from the researchers misinterpretation. I have ASD and no one has ever told me they could cure it. I've always been told I can be taught how to manage symptoms and build social skills. It would make sense for a clinician to try to address other mental health concerns before approving transition. I'd argue its good practice even, but I can't imagine any clinical psychologist suggesting they could cure autism or to be frank any mental health issue. They typically look for ways to treat and manage symptoms. Using the term 'cure' could set up an unrealistic expectation for treatment even with things like anxiety, depression or PTSD.

[–]slushpilot 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Using the term 'cure' could set up an unrealistic expectation

Just like using the term 'transition' and recommending that in the absence of a cure...

[–]BewitchedSam 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree vehemently. Telling someone that transitioning will cure their gender dysphoria which will then cure their depression and anxiety and give them self confidence sets up extremely unrealistic and unhealthy expectations. There are also unrealistic expectations with how transition will turn out. They have expectations they'll become handsome men or beautiful women and they very very rarely do. I feel bad for these people.

[–]TurtleFuzz 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree, any other mental health issues should be addressed, and made sure that the patient has them under control before talking about transitioning. Thanks so much for your reply and sharing your experiences!

[–]anonymale 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What therapist actually thinks that autism is something you can cure?

A bogus one. This struck me as an extremely odd statement from the lead researcher on a paper about autism.

[–]slushpilot 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

and their therapist says, ‘Well, we need to first cure your autism before we transition

The author might be trying to be facetious or hyperbolic in this quote. I think they know that autism can't be "cured"—only managed and understood. But implying that therapists shouldn't first do some gatekeeping before transition is incredibly wrong.

I think it could be argued that the gender confusion is an expression of the autism, or even that these mental inabilities to individuate oneself and others are actually two faces of the same thing. I just don't get how a therapist could treat one and dismiss the other... to then say, well, at least there's transition for the other thing—wow.

[–][deleted] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Being very pre-occupied with a single subject is a common trait for those with autism. I think it may be even one of the diagnostic criteria. So an autistic person could just as easily be obsessed with gender as they could be with trains. None of this surprises me.

[–]anonymale 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it’s very unlikely that any autistic person who’s interested in trains will come to believe they are a kind of train. (I’m autistic). BTW ‘obsessed’ is a pejorative word. Please don’t use it about autistic special interests. We absolutely need to pursue our interests to stay mentally well.

[–]GConly 8 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

On average, gender-diverse people scored higher on measures of autism traits and lower on a measure of empathy than did their cisgender peers.

No surprise there. That's the average TIM all over Me me me, you don't matter.

[–]anonymale 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We’ve talked about this study before.

I mentioned some of its methodological and conceptual deficiencies. Gender-critical people don’t fit into the paradigm of these researchers at all, as far as I can tell. I’m neither cis nor gender-diverse because those categories, [edit: like the concept of gender itself] rely on harmful stereotypes.

[–]hfxB0oyA 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Is anyone surprised?