Home | Evidence Based Autism

Welcome to Evidence Based Autism.

We are a new organisation, advocating for an evidence based approach to the support of autistic children and young people who are identifying away from their sex and adopting a transgender or non-binary identity.

For a long time, it was assumed that girls and women could not be autistic; that it was a condition that only affected boys. It has taken many decades for received understanding to change and recognise that females as well as males can be autistic, and that many generations of autistic girls and women have struggled hugely throughout their lives, without the recognition that their male peers may have received. Both girls and boys share the same struggles navigating a world that our autistic brains aren't designed to process and one of the ways the current generation are manifesting this, is by the adoption of an alternative identity. This is often alongside common co-morbidities such as Body Dysmorphia, Eating Disorders, OCD, Anxiety Disorders and other mental health difficulties. All of these issues risk being overshadowed (and untreated) due to the adoption of a 'transgender' or 'non-binary' identity.

Autistic and Learning Disabled children have historically been subject to eugenics and many are still subjected to a variety of un-evidenced, poorly researched and deeply harmful 'therapies' in the name of treatment and support. Autism isn’t a curable condition; it’s a natural neurological state and these processes, such as chelation and bleach drinks, are rightly recognised as being extremely dangerous and abusive.

We believe the current willingness to medicalise autistic children with a 'trans'/non-binary' identity can be seen within the same context. Despite concern over initiatives such as Spectrum 10K, the sterility and lifelong medical dependency caused by transitioning is unremarked by the wider autistic community. We believe that in years to come, the treatment that autistic children and young people are being subjected to in the name of Gender Identity and ‘inclusivity’, will be widely recognised as poorly evidenced, damaging and regressive. It is, we believe, part of an ongoing and significant paediatric medical scandal.

We are also concerned by the lack of response by the National Autistic Society, and other autism advocacy charities, to this issue. The very organisations who might be expected to express an opinion about a social phenomenon that overwhelmingly affects autistic children and young people, have uncritically accepted the concept of gender identity, while ignoring the increasing evidence of the harms of socially transitioning children and medically transitioning adolescents and young adults.

There are numerous reasons why an autistic child or adolescent may experience discomfort or dysmorphia about their body or come to believe that they have a 'gender identity'. We hope that over time, our website will become a place to house evidence and expert opinion, as well as acting as an information hub for the autistic community, parents and professionals.

We are working collectively to achieve the following aims:

1. To protect autistic children and adolescents from harms resulting from social transition and unnecessary medical treatment.

2. To lobby for a return to uncompromised child safeguarding within schools, the NHS and wider society, and a genuinely child centred approach to education, health and social care for SEND children and young people.

3. To lobby for statutory medical & psychosocial support services for autistic children and young people to be extended until age 25. This will ensure that they are supported through the whole of adolescence, and can maintain continuity of care instead of abruptly moving to adult services at 18, when they may not be emotionally ready for it.

4. To encourage urgent research into the unprecedented rise in transgender and non-binary identities among autistic children, and to address the exceptionally high rise in numbers of autistic girls and young women identifying away from their sex. This should include both the wider social context in which children are growing up, and how issues with identity might fit within areas of autistic functioning, both physical, psychological and social.

6. To lobby for timely and appropriate medical and psychological care and support for de-transitioners, many of whom are autistic young adults.

7. To lobby the National Autistic Society and other advocacy organisations to acknowledge the Cass Report, to report without bias on issues around autism and the contested concept of gender identity and to acknowledge the lack of a robust evidence base for the social and medical treatment of children and young people on that basis.

We also link directly to a report written by Jane Galloway on Autism & Gender Identity for the organisation Transgender Trend, which was quoted in the House of Lords in December 2023 by Baroness Browning. The information is available to read on their website, or can be downloaded from their online shop as a free PDF. The report covers all aspects of autism and gender identity and includes sections on mental health, puberty, schools, the external factors currently influencing girls, as well as covering the various physical and psychosocial reasons why an autistic girl may feel disconnected from her body or adopt a trans identity. It can be found by clicking on the Autism & Gender Identity tab on the menu.

The current trend for treating vulnerable children with social transition and then later with unevidenced and experimental medical treatments is, according to a research review by NICE, based on a very low level of evidence. The Cass Report has highlighted the variety of comorbidities present in trans identified children and urged caution with regard to social transition. Socially, for many people, raising legitimate questions about this very recent social phenomenon is strongly discouraged via accusations of bigotry or unkindness.

For the benefit of current and future generations of autistic children and young people, we believe this needs to change.