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Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

nature.com

71–80 of 358 posts

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#71

There are so many ways to interpret a correlation such as this. For example, one possible obvious mechanism is that people in the trans community may be more likely to encourage autistic people to believe that they “are transgender”. The study uncritically uses the concept “transgender and gender-diverse individuals have elevated rates of autism” without ascribing any operational meaning to “transgender and gender-di…

Your criticism targets the idiosyncrasies of this particular paper but ignores the multi-front of genetic, neuroimaging, and physiological scientific literature investigating this phenomenon. The author's hypothesis did not occur in a vacuum, nor was this study the one that first proposed it.

In the end, the criticism you present seems like troll-baiting the culture wars, making political what scientists are pursuing in good faith with the scientific method using data and hypothesis.

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#72
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to hear your theories if you'd be willing to share them.

Trans people in general were largely ignored by research until the 2010s, so there's very little we do know at this point. But as for unresearched hunches... There's lots of jokes in the trans community about how your stereotypical trans girl is on the autism spectrum, with rainbow-colored hair, and into kink, anime, and programming. I think there's more of a willingness to challenge societal expectations of us in th…

[deleted]

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#73
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Male" and "female" aren't genders.

It would be helpful if you chose to educate by linking to the definitions you are using instead of just chastising for someone not knowing the terminology you are using. The Wikipedia article for gender mentions that the terms sex and gender for biological gender/sex have flip flopped multiple times in the last 30 years. HN is supposed to be a place where people learn, not an anger pit like the rest of the web.

I didn’t see any anger in this thread so far.

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#74
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't one, besides them identifying as genderfluid. Same as any other gender identity (like man or woman). I think this makes the terms slightly less useful but it is very important to some people that they're used this way

It’s not clear to me what this means. I’ve never made any positive choice to be a man. I’ve never told anyone “I’m a man”. But everyone somehow concludes that I’m a man. What does it mean to “identify as” something?

It means you come to a conclusion that you are that something. This may or may not coincide with your outward appearance or anything else.

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#75
post #49
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Same as any other gender identity (like man or woman). I think there are some distinguishing characteristics for someone who is male vs someone who is female.

"Male" and "female" aren't genders.

In the English language they are: The term has been used to distinguish male and female for over 200 years, and increasingly so for the last 50 years. Of course we have proof of this.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_end=2019&year_sta...

Compare also:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_end=2019&year_sta...

Neologisms like "biological male/female" barely register, so I won't include them.

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#76
post #63
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But they mean it in the sense that they should be in an asylum or should not be catered to. I have often heard it in a sense of "should not be catered to but rather given medical help". A fellow student once told me that he considers the current way of treating gender dysphoria irresponsible and that, if we'd treat schizophrenia the way we treat gender dysphoria, we'd all have to aknowledge the voices they hear and…

People making claims like that generally no nothing of the procedure by which mental health issues are diagnosed - which is to say, mental health treatment is about addressing issues which are negatively affecting someone's quality of life, until they are not. This is the same reason you can't just go through the DSM V and ascribe mental health conditions to people on TV or in the media or whatnot - it doesn't work t…

Don’t they have much higher suicide rates? How happy can that be?

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#77

My mother's family is all autistic engineers. I and two of my cousins transitioned as teenagers, so I've had my own theories about this for years.

You shouldn’t be allowed to use transitioned unless there is literal gene replacement happening.

Who would police that, and... why?

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not clear to me what this means. I’ve never made any positive choice to be a man. I’ve never told anyone “I’m a man”. But everyone somehow concludes that I’m a man. What does it mean to “identify as” something?

It means you come to a conclusion that you are that something. This may or may not coincide with your outward appearance or anything else.

[deleted]

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#79
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't one, besides them identifying as genderfluid. Same as any other gender identity (like man or woman). I think this makes the terms slightly less useful but it is very important to some people that they're used this way

It’s not clear to me what this means. I’ve never made any positive choice to be a man. I’ve never told anyone “I’m a man”. But everyone somehow concludes that I’m a man. What does it mean to “identify as” something?

> I’ve never made any positive choice to be a man.

Do you perceive yourself as a man?

Re: Elevated rates of autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

#80
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Male" and "female" aren't genders.

In the English language they are: The term has been used to distinguish male and female for over 200 years, and increasingly so for the last 50 years. Of course we have proof of this. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_end=2019&year_sta... Compare also: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_end=2019&year_sta... Neologisms like "biological male/female" barely register, so I won't include them.

Historically male and female are sexes and masculine, feminine, and neuter are genders.
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