POLICE THREATEN AUTISTIC 11-YEAR-OLD WITH CHARGES FOR MISGENDERING BOY WHO WANTS TO BE GIRL ONE DAY, NOT THE NEXT

HAVING a child on the autistic spectrum means some aspects of life need attention. A little help, perhaps. At his school, it seems the opposite is happening. You see, the school has a non-binary pupil. But one who also maybe needs guidance; one day a girl, one day a boy. You can imagine the confusion for the young lad on the autistic spectrum when he is punished for referring to the girl as a boy when, today, the boy wants to be a girl. MARSHALL BROWN tells the story of his son’s plight.

---

WHEN I was 11, just starting out in high school, the most stressful aspect of my day was deciding on either a tuna roll or cheese and onion toastie for lunch.

Fast forward 25 years and, as I drop my child off at school, what awaits behind the doors is an entirely diffident world. 

With everyone tip-toeing around, making sure not to offend anyone by calling them a “she” when it’s a “he”, or a “he” when it’s a “she”, or a “they/them” entity when it’s only a single person, is confusing for most of us, never mind a pre-teen. But fear not, there is a system in place to make sure these kids and my child do not get the pronouns wrong. It is called THE POLICE. Or better still “criminal charges”. 

My child is already confused and finds navigating the world tough due to mental health issues. For someone already very uncomfortable in the school environment with the noise, fear, not being able to focus, overwhelming feelings of being unsafe, it’s just too much. And that is not to mention adding in all the ‘PC police conformities’ that we all have to abide by to make sure we are never offended.

When kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are scared, confused, emotional or frightened, they often kick off.

My kid is far from being an angel, but he is trying so hard to mask during the day and conform to all that is asked by society, that explosive eruptions are common place. Telling the difference between being a little shit and having an overwhelming meltdown is tough for me to work out, never mind the teachers.

Regardless, I’d hope that the teachers would reasonably punish my child for acting up in class, throwing things about the room, shouting abuse at the staff, along with the occasional swear word being hurled around.

But no, they have much bigger issues and a much more important focus - handing out criminal charges. Yes, that’s right, police are handing out criminal charges to school children – all because they have said “he” when they should have said “they” or “she”.

So my child, who gets pulled in by the police after accusations of misgendering, doesn’t get challenged about swearing, fighting or being disrespectful to the staff. My child gets the fear of the judiciary system cast upon him for misgendering because it is seen by the education system as a crime.

Read that again. Misgendering at age 11 is a crime that comes with police charges. 

To add further detail, the misgendering accusations are correct. My child is fairly honest and tells us most things that happen (mainly due to OCD and believing if we don’t get told, then something bad will happen). So he told me this kid is at it all day trying to wind everyone up, but doesn’t take it back so well when others are dishing it out.

My 11 year old has been called names, been screamed at, had harassing messages and calls etc by this non-binary pupil. We have been told that the child frequently asks: “What do you think I am? I'm not a girl today” and “Why do you think I’m a boy?” and “If you think I’m a girl, tell me why?”.

Trying to explain to a child with mental health issues that the other kid dishing out the allegations also seems to have mental health issues is a hard task. But not as hard as explaining that what they’re being told at school about having more than 100 genders is a load of nonsense.

This particular child looks like a girl, is a boy, dresses like a girl with high-heeled boots, long hair, identifies as a boy but wants to be referred to as a they/them.

During the awful lockdown times we were told to “follow the science”, “science is fact”. Well if science is fact then there are only two genders.

The Sexualdiversity.org site names 107 gender identities currently listed for 2023 and they are only the common ones. Common? I’ve never heard of a “Gender Gifted” person and I bet neither have most of the parents at school.

Why is there even a criminal charge for misgendering someone? When I was at school I’d often get called stuff, a nickname or whatever - so what? We go around charging people for this stuff. We are pandering.

So the situation we find ourselves in as a family as we have a child who is neuro diverse and functions very differently from neurotypical children is quite difficult to navigate. My child finds school environment incredibly stressful, challenging and incredibly confusing at the best of times.

My child is on the ASD spectrum, finds it difficult to read people and doesn’t really have the best social cues. Throw into the mix a police officer who is threatening criminal charges and it’s enough to make him never want to step inside school again.  

Let me make something very clear: if a boy wants to dress as a girl I have no problem, if a girl wants to dress a boy I have no problem, if a child wants to have long hair, short hair, pink braids, a skinhead, a skirt, trousers, high heels, whatever. I DO NOT CARE.

What I do care about is other children ramming the fact that they want to be acknowledged as a girl when they dress like a boy, or a boy when they present themselves like a girl and demand you to just guess who they are. All this demanding to be asked their pronouns like it’s a God-given right or some sort of emergency medical information is what I have a problem with.

Now consider this: A man demands to be called a woman, who clearly looks like a man, is a man and was born a man but, in his head, believes he’s a woman and demands I call him a woman. OK, so in my head, I’m married to Angelina Jolie, not 56 year old Anna from Sussex who I’ve known for 10-plus years. Does that mean Angelina Jolie must adhere to what I believe in my head, or do the FBI have to come in and tell me I'm nuts?!

I think you know the answer.

PS. Women menstruate and have babies, men DON’T and CAN’T.