Transgender and Autism with Elliot

"Elliot is a trans, multiple-disabled and autistic artist, recent college graduate, summer camp counselor, and disability/autism and LGBTQ+ advocate. He is passionate about ensuring better outcomes for disabled, autistic, trans, and gender-expansive young people. His past work has included speaking at a support group for parents of autistic and trans kids, developing a workshop for the Philadelphia Autism Project’s self advocacy series, starting an LGBTQ+ student group at his college, and working with faculty and administrators at his college to better support queer students and meet the needs of the  neurodiverse student body.” Elliot and I talk about the language we use, misconceptions of the transgender journey (no, they’re not putting children on hormones), the importance of kids exploration, how autism affected his journey, the common developmental stages in which people want to explore or define gender, mental health, advice for parents and teens, and the importance of affirmation for postive mental health and suicide prevention.