Published on 12, July, 2020
So another thread relating to trans rights has been locked under Rule 4 ‘Be Nice’ , but shouldn’t hatred directed at trans people be actually deleted? The thread was going really well with lots of trans, gender fluid and queer people supporting each other, but as usual the cis hets dive in to invalidate us. The mod response is not to target the prejudice but to lock the entire thread! This is wrong. Can we trans and queer and pride people on the spectrum not have a safe space here? I know the mods have a policy of non-deletion but this is wrong, were racist comments being made I’m sure they’d pounce on that pdq, but hate against trans people is unchallenged and left to stand. Apalling of you NAS!
I see online spaces as a bit like pubs. There are lots of different ones, some are bland, some are rough, some appeal to a particular community. Regardless which pub you walk into you are still a person made up of different parts whether that's your neurodiversity, gender identity, sexuality or ethnicity.
Depending what you say or how you behave in the pub and the other clientele, you may get adverse reactions or possibly kicked out by a landord/landlady or bouncer. Should you be able to be yourself in the pub? Yes you should without having to hide or mask parts of who you are. Is it OK for other people to hurt you for who you are? No, it is not. For me some pubs are best avoided if I can't be sure of my safety or allowed to be myself.
It would be good if this community was for everyone made up of all their constituent parts, one of which is autism intertwined with all our other parts. I think it's up to us to make this happen.
Yes, the ‘let’s keep it to autism’ would mean that many of the autistic-adjacent topics (eating disorders, anxiety, physical‘Co-morbidities) would be off the table. Since it’s known that the trans percentage of the autistic population is larger that elsewhere, that’s not something that can be neatly cut off from what can be discussed on here. Not should it be. Also, the forum has no rule that only autism can be discussed. It is a community, and things like the music threads and other miscellaneous topics are part of making us a group of friends and not a symposium of some kind.