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ASAN condemns Georgia Bill SB140 and other attempts to deny gender-affirming health care to autistic people and people with other developmental disabilities and mental health disabilities. ASAN strongly believes that all transgender people should have access to gender-affirming care and is deeply troubled by any use of autism as a justification for transphobic efforts that would create barriers to care. A bill that has passed the Georgia House and Senate and will likely be signed into law, SB140, cites the fact that transgender people are more likely to be autistic or to have other developmental disabilities as a reason to ban gender-affirming care for all minors. In its first section, the bill includes the line “Gender dysphoria is often comorbid with other mental health and developmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder.” This is cited as a justification to prohibit certain types of gender-affirming care for people under age 18. LGBTQ+ advocates have asked anyone living in Georgia to urge Governor Kemp to veto the bill. Georgia Equality has provided an online tool to do so, or Georgians can reach Kemp’s office at 404-656-1776. We see a similar line of thought in a proposed “emergency regulation” in Missouri, which would require providers of gender-affirming care to “ensure that any existing mental health comorbidities of the patient have been treated and resolved” and “ensure that the patient has received a comprehensive screening to determine whether the patient has autism” before providing care. Under this regulation, autistic people and those with mental health disabilities would presumably be barred from receiving gender-affirming care of any kind. Autistic people are more likely to be LGBTQ+ than non autistic people. We do not know why this is, but ASAN embraces our LGBTQ+ community members. All of our community has the right to be who we are, as autistic people and as LGBTQ+ people. We know who we are, and efforts to claim that we do not know ourselves and our identities – and to deny us care based on who others believe we should be – harm us. Transgender people are more likely to have mental health disabilities, just as autistic people are more likely to have mental health disabilities. One reason, that has been shown over and over again, is that experiences of transphobia, ableism, and other forms of discrimination cause trauma. This does not change the fact that the gold standard and most effective treatment for gender dysphoria is gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries. For both autistic and transgender people, society needs to let us people who we are – and ASAN will fight to protect that right. The Georgia bill, and the proposed Missouri regulation, are component parts of an ongoing state-level onslaught against affirming care for transgender and gender non-conforming children. States have taken actions ranging from banning certain types of medical care such as puberty blockers, to mandating that parents who help their children access gender-affirming care can be investigated for “child abuse.” The goal of these policies is to “eradicate” transgender people from public life by making gender-affirming care impossible to access. The overlap between the autistic and transgender communities makes these policies extremely harmful to the autistic community. ASAN stands against all transphobic policies that seek to criminalize gender-affirming care. We will not allow autism to be used as a justification for these policies, whose only goal is to harm transgender children.
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network seeks to advance the principles of the disability rights movement with regard to autism. ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities. We work to empower autistic people across the world to take control of our own lives and the future of our common community, and seek to organize the autistic community to ensure our voices are heard in the national conversation about us. Nothing About Us, Without Us!
Autistic Self Advocacy Network PO Box 66122
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