Divergent: The emerging research on the connection between trans identities and neurodivergence

3 years ago by alyaza [they/she] to c/neurodivergence

(i'll also crosspost this one in !lgbtq_plus@beehaw.org, since i'm not sure how much overlap our two communities currently have)

MxEli 7 points 3 years ago

I've been thinking about this connection for a long time, and it finally struck me: Autistic people are probably more likely to be trans because we sort of...Idk not overanalyze everything but at least in the way I think, gender just never made sense to me? Like, the idea of body=gender is just so backwards to me, because by and large, societies had multiple genders. It's historically verifiable, and in the modern world, as well.

It's not like "Oh we're super logical", but I feel like we have that higher likelihood because we question things by nature. We sort of go "wait this doesn't make sense" when something's just nonsensical. I don't know how else to describe it because it's always just been a thing for me and a lot of other autistic people I know. Like, yes, we take things literally, but also when something makes zero sense we question it.

I know I'm kinda rambling, but I just feel like because we examine the world in different ways than neurotypicals, that's how we arrive at the conclusion that gender isn't our bodies.

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Kwakigra 5 points 3 years ago

I've learned from my Autistic friends that so many ideas (including ideas people are taking political action on) are vibes-only because they didn't pick up the vibes themselves, investigated it to see why people thought it was true, and found out it made no sense at all and just felt true to the people who believed it. It's made me a lot more likely to investigate ideas which appear to make sense intuitively to me.

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MxEli 2 points 3 years ago

Okay but same though. Granted, I was always the type to just investigate everything (my poor dad had to take me to the library SO MUCH as a kid), but it's definitely more urgent (??) now. It feels like you have to do the research just to be sure that you're not on the wrong side of things.

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Kwakigra 4 points 3 years ago

I feel you. There's a ton of misinformation and bad faith argument out there. My favorite thing I've heard recently that resonated with me is "I don't care about being right, I care about being correct."

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MxEli 1 point 3 years ago

Okay, I'm officially incorporating that phrase into my life. It really resonates with me because that's what I've always tried to do, and it just makes absolute sense to me for some reason.

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circuitsunfish 2 points 3 years ago

@Kwakigra @MxEli Good! That's what we need more of. The less we operate society on 'vibes-only' ideas the more accessible it is for the rest of us.

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samus12345 2 points 3 years ago

Neurodivergents: "y tho?"

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