Thread by @eatyourtoothpa1

So I have a fantastic autistic kid, and I've noticed an element in this whole sorry transphobia thing that needs to stop hiding in plain sight asap. 1/15 @Hbomberguy @CaseyExplosion #thanksgraham

People like Linehan are all, 'Therapists are manipulating naive autistic children into thinking they're trans!' So because I care about autistic kids and want to support mine if he develops gender dysphoria, here's what I could learn/what I already know: 2/15

There seem to be more trans people amongst the autistic demographic than the neurotypical. One study found that 7.8% of autistic people suffer from gender dysphoria, while neurotypical estimates are c. 0.7%. 3/15

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

Nobody knows why, because nobody knows for sure what causes either autism or gender dysphoria. 4/15

Autistic people who report gender dysphoria are often brushed off. Told, 'This isn't dysphoria, it's just an OBSESSION.' Because it's not like dysphoria might be kind of a preoccupying thing. 5/15

disabilityarts.online/blog-youre-not…

This justifiably pisses autistic trans people off, because it's your basic discrimination on the grounds of disability. Autistic doesn't equal wrong about yourself. 6/15

Calling something an autistic person wants an 'obsession' as a way of dismissing it is a tactic I've seen in action all my son's life.

So is saying someone can't possibly know what they want or who they are because they're autistic and don't understand stuff. 7/15

This strategy is popular with bigots who want an excuse to deny an autistic person something they want or need. Often they're so ignorant they don't even realise that's what they're doing. They just assume that everything an autistic person says is pathology not opinion. 8/15

Autistic kids are young, may have communication difficulties, lack social power, and are heavily stereotyped in the public eye. If you're on a moral panic, it's delightfully easy to project onto them rather than listen to them. 9/15

MYTH: Autistic kids report more gender dysphoria, so it's a symptom of their autism. Because we all know autistic = wrong, neurotypical cis people need to decide their gender for them, right? 10/15

REALITY: Autistic kids report more gender dysphoria for reasons we don't understand. We don't know why, but the gender identity an autistic person feels comfortable with is the right gender identity for them. Support everyone! 11/15

Linehan et al share parent stories of an autistic kids being 'brainwashed' into trans identity, but they're just denials. That whole article is 'It can't be right because it can't be right!' Autism is one extra excuse to discredit the poor kid. 12/15

4thwavenow.com/2018/06/07/why…

Well, I'm also the parent of an autistic kid, and I literally joined Twitter to say this: autistic kids are capable of knowing who they are and how they feel. They're people. 13/15

Autistic kids are fucking awesome whatever their gender and deserve a lot better than being co-opted by bigots as a brush to tar trans kids with.

Anyone who's using 'autistic' as a codeword for 'wrong and incapable' is hurting autistic kids as well as trans ones. 14/15

Get off your white horse, Graham. It's trampling my son. 15/15

@Hbomberguy @CaseyExplosion Really grateful to everyone for their positive response and constructive comments. Thanks, you all are great. :-)