Once they’ve changed gender, they still have autism and when (gender) transition doesn’t solve their problems they think, Oh no, that was the only option I had, what’s the point of life? – Professor Tony Attwood
It’s great to see The Australian’s Bernard Lane continuing to shine a light on Australia’s secretive children’s gender whisperers.
He was again reporting on the issue this week, covering the views of a world renown expert on Asperger’s syndrome.
Professor Tony Attwood has warned that changing gender is not necessarily the answer for children suffering with the condition.
It’s been well known for years that children on the spectrum have disproportionately presented for gender treatments such as puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgery.
And a disproportionate number of these have been girls wanting to become boys.
Lane reports:
In the country’s busiest youth gender clinic, at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, 45 per cent of 383 patients — 275 of them born female with an average age just under 14 — showed mild to severe autism features on a screening test.
Atwood told Lane:
Once they’ve changed gender, they still have autism and when (gender) transition doesn’t solve their problems they think, Oh no, that was the only option I had, what’s the point of life?
One of the characteristics of autism is what we call a one-track mind, and sometimes the issue of gender dysphoria (discomfort with one’s body) and changing gender becomes a special interest with a phenomenal knowledge and determination.
Sky News commentator Peta Credlin continues to follow Lane’s reporting and again interviewed him this week. It is worth watching their seven minute conversation.
The alarming thing about Lane’s reporting is that the gender clinics which are treating children in epidemic numbers following years of “Safe Schools”-style conditioning in the classroom refuse to answer his questions.
Australia’s other large specialist clinic, at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, would not comment on the autism issue, and told a member of the public last year it kept no data on how many biological girls given puberty blocker drugs were autistic.
And they are particularly cagey when asked whether or not they are performing surgery on children.
On Monday, one of Australia’s best known “gender affirming” surgeons and a popular choice on trans social media, Andrew Ives, was set to resume operations at a private hospital in Melbourne as elective procedures ramp up.
He did not reply when asked if under-18 patients were in the queue. A typical cost estimate for “top surgery” or mastectomy is about $10,000. Under-18 trans surgery is thought to be rare in Australia but public data is lacking.
As Lane told Peta Credlin, “Safe Schools”-type material which teaches children their gender is fluid lives on in classrooms around the nation.